Having the mechanical failure was a serious downer. First, we heard a ding-ding from the car alerting me to a problem, which a glance at my guages said was overheating. Looking under the hood, I saw that indeed it looked like the coolant was leaking out and whatnot, but I didn't see anything else amiss. We were close to town so I waited a minute and tried to drive on. In 100+ degree weather, the concept of "letting the engine cool down" doesn't have as much meaning. When I drove again, the engine overheated again, so I looked under the hood again, and this time noticed that the top-center pulley was loose. If I had correctly identified that as the water pump, I might not have made the unwise decision to try yet again. It was then that David, a nice peer-age local stopped and offered to pull my trailer into town with his pickup, which would reduce the engine strain, so I drove on again.
So this third time I pulled over, the pulley was very clearly broken, and fluid was sprayed around the compartment. At this point I showed the good judgment to get a two into town, thankful that I have AAA Plus. David drove Ashleigh and the trailer into town and stashed it in a safe place. David really helped out, and later so did many other Carlsbad locals. The tow truck came and towed the Jeep to the local Jeep dealership. Then David drove Ashleigh and I into town and dropped us off at the only car rental in Carlsbad: Enterprise. That day being Sunday, however, Enterprise was closed, which meant we were stranded on a street corner in scorching heat with no car and no place to go.
We walked, sweaty and beaten, to a hotel. Actually we walked most of the way to a hotel, which was a couple miles, but we couldn't find it. The locals kept telling us it was a few more blocks away. Finally a kind local, who we asked when we walked into a pizza restaurant, took pity on us and just drove us to the Holiday Inn, bless his soul. The hotel had exactly four rooms left, so we eagerly took one of them and settled in. I left a message with the Jeep dealership, which was also closed on Sunday.
I was genuinely worried about the Jeep and the schedule of the trip. At first when I thought the camshaft might be broken, I knew that would be very expensive and the parts could be a week away or more. When I realized it was the water pump, I knew the part would be available if only the service shop could fit me in.
Today my worries were assuaged, as Ross Hyden Jeep's service department agreed to look at it today, inserting me at the front of their long wait list. By noon they were looking at it, and told me it was definitely the water pump. They showed me the bad pump: the plastic disc at the center of the rotor was completely ripped up, which would have screwed up the pulley mechanism, and limited or eliminated the flow of coolant out of the pump: thus, there was nothing cooling the engine, thus the engine overheated. They said it would be done by this afternoon, and it was, although we haven't picked it up yet because we are settled for the night.
This will be an expensive pit stop, but we made the best of it. I will describe our stay in Carlsbad soon. Cheers.
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