Why Does My Car Sound Like a Lawn Mower?

NOT the sound you long to hear from you cars engine as you are making your way home across the desert alone. Well almost alone.....I must have had a preminition that something was going to happen because I made it my only goal in life to find someone to road possy with back to Utah from AZ once I found out that my travel partner had to bail on me. I have never been like that before.....that is .....dead set on getting someone to drive with in case something happened. Dana Harrison from Utah was the one to take me up on the offer as he was driving back at the same time I was. Little did he know what he was in for. Well he actually wasn't in for much because THE MOMENT I caught up to him on the road (and I mean THE MOMENT I caught up to him) my VW TDI Wagon died (2.5 years old, 84,000 miles. We travel a lot you could say). So there I was just outside Flagstaff starting to make my way toward Page, AZ and boom, my car suddenly has no power and sounded like a lawn mower. Great. Now what?

I got the car was towed to a killer shop called Ascot Moters out of Flagstaff which we knew nothing about except that they were recommended by some locals. I knew I would be taken care of and felt immediately at home when I walked in and saw all the cycling pictures/frames/card holders and was then given the tour of bikes that were hanging on the wall in the shop. Sah-weet!!

And I was taken care of. Those nice guys got my car in, looked at, fixed and out the door by 5pm that day. Unbelievable. A hose clamp that attaches to the intake manifold had come loose and it was an easy fix. Thank heavens because the nearest VW dealer was back in Phoenix where I had just come from! Had it been a VW part I would have been "stranded" in Flag for a while.

I decided to just call it a day once the car was fixed and took up an offer for a spot on a friends couch for the night. I needed the rest after quite the stressful day plus training in Flag the next day didn't sound THAT terrible!!! :)