The first indication we had of this was when Katelyn and I were on our way to her bus stop one cold, winter morning and the sliding door slid open while we were driving! Katelyn freaked out (as I too would have if I was sitting in the back seat!)! My school bag flew out onto the side of the road, which is what Katelyn was most worried about. Turns out all was fine, we collected all the items – only a few were in the street, mostly just some broken pens.
I’m not sure why the door was opening! It only happened 2 more times over the course of the winter. There was no rhyme nor reason that we could figure out as to why it happened except that Sandy does not like winter (just like her owners!!). We even locked the door and it still came open. Needless to say, we were very careful as to what we put on the floor – mostly everything was up on the seat!
About a month after my oil change, I noticed spots in the garage that looked like oil. Sandy was also hesitating sometimes when I gave her gas. So, I took her in to get checked and found out she had quite the problems. I had to get the thermostat replaced which cured the hesitation problem and also gave me more heat! She actually got nice and warm in the cold weather. The transmission problem had to do with some seal. Of course that seal cost me about $900 to fix!!
Our final mishap of the winter time was again on the way to the bus stop with Katelyn! I was getting ready to make a turn and BAM! – a girl turned right into my front and side bumper! She claimed the sun was in her eyes! Great. Sandy was still drivable and is actually getting fixed this week. Her insurance is covering it all.
We decided that while she is at the body shop, we’d also get the sliding door touched up and painted. She should look good when all is said and done.
