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so we just got back from Boston. Here's what happened on our trip!
Friday we packed up and hit the road. Shain starts a new contract in a week and wanted to get some vacation time in beforehand, and we hadn't seen our pals in Boston for a while, so that became our goal. Traffic on the QEW was lousy so we detoured, but eventually got to Queenston/Lewiston and crossed into the US with normal pre-covid clearances. We got on the NY Thruway I-90, stopped once for gas, and it was around Herkimer that our battery light came on.
We've had the car 15 years and this is the first time this has happened - even when I've had batteries die on me, that light has stayed off. Otherwise things seemed normal so we kept on going. We stopped for gas again 111 miles later at a Love's just this side of the Massachusetts border - I figured it was a good place to stop in case it didn't start again, a truck stop would have someone who knew of local garages. It cranked back up again, battery light shining brightly. So, throwing caution to the wind, off we went.
90 miles later is when the car died. The radio went, the lights dimmed, the car lost power. Yup, it's the alternator. I hit the hazards and we pulled over to the side of I-90. We were still weighing our options when a Mass. State Patrol cruiser pulled up behind us, put out a flare, and called Interstate Towing.
Interstate towed us to a Firestone in Auburn, the nearest garage that does electrical work. Shain texted Prairie and Mike, who drove out from Boston to pick us up, we dropped off the key in the lock box at the Firestone, and we rode into Boston chastened by our automotive failure. This was the first time that car has EVER been towed anywhere, in 15 years of driving.
So we got a late dinner at Doublechin, got to bed super late. Got up Saturday and phoned the Firestone; they're gonna do what they need to do and they'll call us when it's ready. Neil and Carol came over and we did some driving around, some Outer Limits comic shopping in Waltham, some thrifting, some video gaming, and we were in Marblehead when the Firestone called at 6 to say the car was ready, can we be there in 15 minutes? No, no we cannot, see you tomorrow. We got a late Italian dinner in Winthrop and Neil took us back to Mike and Prairie's.
Sunday we got up and Prairie drove us back out to Auburn to pick up the car. A new battery and alternator and $$$ monies later, it cranked right up. We made a little caravan around Worcester for brunch, a visit to comic shop/toy store "That's Entertainment", and then we were off to Cambridge to meet my pal Josephine whom I hadn't seen in like 25 years. So when we cranked the car up to go to Cambridge, we noticed the battery light very faintly trying to come back on. WHAT THE HELL.
So we made it to Cambridge with no issues. We made it to Kowloon's in Saugus with no issues. That little light kept on keeping dimly on. We made it to Arlington with no issues, and we made it back to Mike and Prairie's with no issues.
Monday it was time to go home. We said goodbye to our long-suffering hosts and the still amazing drivers of Boston and headed back out on I-90, back to Auburn and that Firestone to find out what was wrong and why that dang light was still dimly shining. We got to Auburn and saw some more Interstate Towing trucks handling a big jacknifed tractor trailer accident. Keep up the good work, boys.
Firestone did a little Toyota service bulletin research, did see that there is sometimes a dim battery light after an alternator change, and we walked around the mall, visited Big Lots, and got some Dunkin' until we figured the car was ready. We walked back over just as they were pulling it out of the lot.
They checked the alternator, they checked the battery, everything is putting out the correct volts and amps and doing what it needs to do. It might be some sort of wiring fault somewhere down in the electrical system, it might be that the Yaris feels there's something not quite right about aftermarket alternators, who knows. Their advice was that the car was going to operate normally and to have it checked out by people who know more about Toyota electrical systems when we get home. So we headed out on I-90 again, and the car was fine, that battery light dimly shining.
We stopped in Little Falls NY to stretch our legs and look at the antique center in the scenic valley of the Mohawk River, where some kind of abandoned structure looms on the cliffs. I've always wanted to take pictures of this so we got as close as we could, which meant driving three feet from the river on a road full of fallen rocks and potholes.
We stopped again at one of the service centers on I-90, by 8:30 we were across the border into Canada, and by 9:30 we were having dinner in a Kelsey's in Hamilton watching the Leafs beat Tampa Bay. The car got us 500 miles home with no problems at all.
Absolutely we are thinking about getting another car. We've gotten a lot of trips out of the Yaris, but getting stranded on the side of the interstate once is all the warning I need.
Friday we packed up and hit the road. Shain starts a new contract in a week and wanted to get some vacation time in beforehand, and we hadn't seen our pals in Boston for a while, so that became our goal. Traffic on the QEW was lousy so we detoured, but eventually got to Queenston/Lewiston and crossed into the US with normal pre-covid clearances. We got on the NY Thruway I-90, stopped once for gas, and it was around Herkimer that our battery light came on.
We've had the car 15 years and this is the first time this has happened - even when I've had batteries die on me, that light has stayed off. Otherwise things seemed normal so we kept on going. We stopped for gas again 111 miles later at a Love's just this side of the Massachusetts border - I figured it was a good place to stop in case it didn't start again, a truck stop would have someone who knew of local garages. It cranked back up again, battery light shining brightly. So, throwing caution to the wind, off we went.
90 miles later is when the car died. The radio went, the lights dimmed, the car lost power. Yup, it's the alternator. I hit the hazards and we pulled over to the side of I-90. We were still weighing our options when a Mass. State Patrol cruiser pulled up behind us, put out a flare, and called Interstate Towing.
Interstate towed us to a Firestone in Auburn, the nearest garage that does electrical work. Shain texted Prairie and Mike, who drove out from Boston to pick us up, we dropped off the key in the lock box at the Firestone, and we rode into Boston chastened by our automotive failure. This was the first time that car has EVER been towed anywhere, in 15 years of driving.
So we got a late dinner at Doublechin, got to bed super late. Got up Saturday and phoned the Firestone; they're gonna do what they need to do and they'll call us when it's ready. Neil and Carol came over and we did some driving around, some Outer Limits comic shopping in Waltham, some thrifting, some video gaming, and we were in Marblehead when the Firestone called at 6 to say the car was ready, can we be there in 15 minutes? No, no we cannot, see you tomorrow. We got a late Italian dinner in Winthrop and Neil took us back to Mike and Prairie's.
Sunday we got up and Prairie drove us back out to Auburn to pick up the car. A new battery and alternator and $$$ monies later, it cranked right up. We made a little caravan around Worcester for brunch, a visit to comic shop/toy store "That's Entertainment", and then we were off to Cambridge to meet my pal Josephine whom I hadn't seen in like 25 years. So when we cranked the car up to go to Cambridge, we noticed the battery light very faintly trying to come back on. WHAT THE HELL.
So we made it to Cambridge with no issues. We made it to Kowloon's in Saugus with no issues. That little light kept on keeping dimly on. We made it to Arlington with no issues, and we made it back to Mike and Prairie's with no issues.
Monday it was time to go home. We said goodbye to our long-suffering hosts and the still amazing drivers of Boston and headed back out on I-90, back to Auburn and that Firestone to find out what was wrong and why that dang light was still dimly shining. We got to Auburn and saw some more Interstate Towing trucks handling a big jacknifed tractor trailer accident. Keep up the good work, boys.
Firestone did a little Toyota service bulletin research, did see that there is sometimes a dim battery light after an alternator change, and we walked around the mall, visited Big Lots, and got some Dunkin' until we figured the car was ready. We walked back over just as they were pulling it out of the lot.
They checked the alternator, they checked the battery, everything is putting out the correct volts and amps and doing what it needs to do. It might be some sort of wiring fault somewhere down in the electrical system, it might be that the Yaris feels there's something not quite right about aftermarket alternators, who knows. Their advice was that the car was going to operate normally and to have it checked out by people who know more about Toyota electrical systems when we get home. So we headed out on I-90 again, and the car was fine, that battery light dimly shining.
We stopped in Little Falls NY to stretch our legs and look at the antique center in the scenic valley of the Mohawk River, where some kind of abandoned structure looms on the cliffs. I've always wanted to take pictures of this so we got as close as we could, which meant driving three feet from the river on a road full of fallen rocks and potholes.
We stopped again at one of the service centers on I-90, by 8:30 we were across the border into Canada, and by 9:30 we were having dinner in a Kelsey's in Hamilton watching the Leafs beat Tampa Bay. The car got us 500 miles home with no problems at all.
Absolutely we are thinking about getting another car. We've gotten a lot of trips out of the Yaris, but getting stranded on the side of the interstate once is all the warning I need.
