The A6 wouldn’t start Friday morning. It’s the first time the car has ever stranded me. Luckily, it stranded me at home. I suspect it’s the fuel pump or maybe just the fuel pump relay. I tried to check the relay, but I couldn’t seem to pull my lower dash off all of the way and I don’t have a Bentley manual to tell me how to do it without breaking something expensive. I did manage to squeeze my hand behind the dash and pull my Servotronic relay, which is something I have been meaning to do since I have owned the car. The Servotronic relay overboosts the power steering, so that the car can be steered with a pinky finger. This seriously diminishes any sporty feel the car has. The removal of the relay keeps the power steering at a more reasonable assistance level. I did the same modification on my UrS4 and liked the result.
I called Clinton at the dealership and after I described the symptoms, he agreed that it was the fuel pump. I had Ken order a new pump, which we will install during our normal Wednesday work night.
Anyway, I took Friday off and decided to start addressing some of the other problems that have accumulated on my car. A couple of weeks ago, on the way to see Miami Vice with Kim and some friends, a piece of plywood got kicked-up by the car in front of me and smacked my right headlight. It broke a piece of trim and left a small scrape on the fender, which can probably just be buffed-out. The impact also dislodged the orange side reflector, which was left rattling around inside the light housing. Fortunately, the removal of that reflector is actually something that I wanted in order to improve the aesthetics of the car. In fact, we had looked into removing it before, but the procedure seemed difficult (we even practiced on a housing Ken got from a junkyard), so we gave-up on the idea. Now I had to get it done, because the reflector was rattling around inside the housing, blocking part of my headlight, and worse, potentially scratching the reflective coating on the inside of the housing, which would ruin it.
While I was removing my headlights, Les Marshall, my neighbor from across the street walked-up and asked what I was doing. I explained, throwing-in a few disparaging words about the A6 for good measure. Then he told me I should see his new car. I looked across the street and could see the new, gleaming white Lexus. I congratulated him and he told me how quiet the car was.
“Oh, I guess you were driving the Miata?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I didn’t see it parked at his house and my heart sank. I had always thought that I would take a look at it, if they were ever to sell it, but now I was thinking that perhaps they had traded-in the car.
“Do you still have it?” I asked.
“For the time being. We just put it on craigslist.”
My mind raced. I knew better than to get too excited, so I stayed cool and said something offhand about having friends who might be interested. As soon as Les walked back home, I ran inside and looked-up the ad. I sent the link to Mrs. Pribble and waited.
  A photo from the craigslist ad. I can see my house!
As if there weren’t already several miracles already in play, Kimberly called me back and said that she agreed that the Miata might be a good idea. Whaaaat? So, here is what we have: the Marshalls put their Miata on Craig’s list at a very, very good price, but Les has eye surgery, so he has to stay home on Friday and he can’t show the car, even though their email and vmail is flooded with interested parties. The A6 won’t start Friday morning, so I decide to stay home and work on the car. Les sees me working on the car, walks over, tells me about the Miata which I otherwise wouldn’t have known about, I tell Kim, and within a couple of hours we ask if they will let us jump ahead in line and buy their car, even though we can’t pay them until next week. They agree. By my count, that’s about eleventy-five miracles. And that is how I came to buy a girl’s car.
Because they actually need to use the car temporarily, I won’t take delivery until later this week, probably Friday. A full initial report will follow, though a thread has already been prematurely started on the local Audi forum here:
J I M M Y
