Chasing my tail

Hubby and I decided to head downtown this morning to watch the Changing of the Guard and then hopefully catch a tour bus for a quick trip around the city. Unfortunately our truck had other plans. As we exited the Queensway (and slowed down) our temperature gauge went crazy, by the time we found a place to pull over, smack dab in the middle of downtown, the temp was through the roof and the rad was completely empty. Yes, the rad that hubby installed the other day. Luckily we were stopped outside a convenience store so hubby quickly acquired 6 litres of water. Unfortunately they poured immediately onto the street, out the side of the engine block.

After a bit of cussing and crawling under the truck hubby found the culprit - the block heater had blown out the side of the engine, leaving a hole for all the rad fluid to leak out (for those of you in warmer climes - a block heater is similar to the element in an electric kettle - when it's - too many degrees to count you plug your vehicle in to make sure it's slightly warm and able to start in the morning.

Luckily my brother was home and was able to find a Canadian Tire with an in stock part for a 17 year old truck, and ferried it down to us. He stuck around while hubby changed it, ran home for some sockets and 5 gallons of water when it didn't seat properly the first time and all the fluid leaked out again, and then followed us back to his place to make sure we didn't encounter any more problems. Thank goodness for family!

The truck is currently on a time out while it thinks about what it has done this past week, but we may be getting that new vehicle sooner than planned. We'll be taking the car downtown to try again tomorrow morning.