Surviving the Big Freeze in Texas (The Finale)

With our new batteries and a new inverter/charger installed we finally had a some successful moments. Now all we needed was to receive and have the ECM installed. Freightliner found a new ECM in Arlington Texas and it was to arrive by Friday. Well Friday passed and later that day we were told if it arrived Saturday they would still come out to replace it for us even though they would be normally closed.

When I saw I had a call from Freightliner Saturday I was happy to answer it only to discover the part didn’t come in on Saturday but they were hopeful it would on Monday. We were again assured they could replace it early and we could still leave on time.

Saturday afternoon Sharon and I decided to take a break from all the stress by driving over to the Laguna Boardwalk for a little stroll to do some birding and take a few photos. That was a great idea until our 2011 Honda CRV decided not to start. Crap, what else can go wrong??? Thinking the battery might be bad I looked at it and everything looked great but I knew the battery was only fourteen months old.  Luckily we found a fellow in the park who offered to check the fuel pump out and to determine if we had spark to eliminate some things.

Everything seemed to check out but he suggested that before we dig in any further he was going to throw 50 amps at the battery and have me try again. After sputtering a bit it indeed started. We were so relieved… I drove it over to Walmart to have them check the Everstart battery. They said it was good, but I was not convinced. I told them I had problems with their batteries before and that they should consider renaming them Never-starts. After the initial failure to start we have thankfully had no further problems with the CRV

Of course the call from Freightliner on Monday was that the part still hadn’t come in. On Tuesday they called to say the tracking on the ECM was wrong and they had no idea where it was but to not worry as it should arrive soon. Again Sharon and I thought it would be wise to book yet another week if it was available just in case it was going to be a while before the new ECM found its way down to south Texas.

Late Tuesday afternoon we got a call to say the part had been found and they would came out in the evening to replace it. Finally the part was here… Our mechanic came out and installed the new ECM only to find out our engine displayed the same No Eng code and wouldn’t start. Sigh…Well he checked  several other things and discovered that the ignition relay had apparently failed as well and once it was replaced we were able to start the engine. It was joyous to see all was back to normal…. Finally!

Our trials and tribulations are finally behind us (we hope). We cancelled the extended week despite the fifty dollar penalty as we really need to get back on the road and closer to the airport to send Sharon to NC for the birth of our new granddaughter…

NOTE:  Today’s photos are from some salt flats on South Padre Island’s bayside. We are currently in South Padre Island in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas until March 8th…