Today, my faithful GA16DNE died. It had been sputtering and consuming oil. A sign of an old engine. But it seemed it has also had been leaking coolant. I can only guess that this resulted in an overheat, which resulted in oil thickening and not circulating, which resulted in its head gasket breaking, which eventually resulted in its untimely demise. When I looked at the oil, it was the color of milk chocolate. Pretty much a death sentence.

In it’s over 10 years life, it has run over 125,000 kilometers. It had taken me through my daily commute. It had taken me to the occasional dives, surfs, and other out of towns. It had gone as far south as Batangas and as far north as Pagudpud. It had even kept up with a B16A (albeit driven by a nice girl driver). It definitely had served me pretty well. Too bad it had to die.

Last Saturday, I was just at NLEX on the way to Zambales when I noticed the air con working intermittently. From my limited previous experience, it can be two things: air con system problem or engine cooling system problem. I checked the temperature gauge and I saw to my alarm that it’s above normal. So at a Shell station, I topped up the reservoir with water. It was fine for a while but eventually the air conditioning was still intermittent and the temperature above normal.

When I reached San Fernando, I decided to get the air conditioning checked at a roadside air con shop. They didn’t find anything wrong with it but found out that the radiator has dried up. Apparently, the water from the reservoir was not going into the system because of the high pressure. They released the pressure, cooled down the system by splashing water, and put water into the radiator and reservoir. Voila! Everything works. Or so I thought. At the Subic Tollway, the air conditioning died again.

The next day, I had it checked at another roadside air con shop and they couldn’t find anything wrong. So I instructed them to direct link the compressor clutch to the battery so that the compressor will be engaged all the time. It is a major gas waste and causes more wear and tear on the compressor but at that time, it sure seemed like a good idea. It sure beats driving in the heat.

Everything was well all the way until SCTEx on the way back to Manila. While running at higher RPMs, the compressor overheated. Normally, the compressor automatically disengages at high RPMs. But I had it direct linked and engaged all the time! I had to pull over to the shoulder and splashed water on the compressor. I also disconnected the direct link between the compressor clutch and the battery. I drove without air con the rest of the way.

Today, I had it checked at the friendly neighborhood air con shop and they found out it was just the air con fuse. Sheesh.