I just love my Jeep.

We were coming home from a performance last night, and it was mighty cold.  Our area had seen some off-and-on snoew throughout the day on Saturday, and the roads were a sheet of ice.  But by Sunday, the roads weer better.  It was just cold and windy.

The heater in the Jeep was blowing first sort of warm air, then cold air.  And then the engine temperature gauge went nuts.

Our trip home last night consisted of I-don’t-know-how-many pullovers to allow the engine to cool down while BJ and I sat in the cold.  Today, we took it to our mechanic.

Kevin changed the thermostat, flushed the system, checked all the hoses for leaks, inspected the radiator — and probably did a lot more stuff I missed.  In all, he and his helper Joe worked on the Jeep for about three and a half hours.  The gunk they flushed out looked like really strong coffee with not enough creme.  Or maybe baby poop.  Or a digital image of a lung full of mesothelioma.  It was really disgusting, and it spayed out everywhere.

When Joe took the Jeep out for a test drive after the brownish-orange goo was replaced with something more the color of antifreeze, the temperature gauge shot up on him after less than a mile.  Despite a new thermostat, a flush and fill, about four gallons of antifreeze, and a good seven hours labor between them, Kevin wouldn’t let me pay him for anything.  He was afraid the head was cracked.  So BJ and I decided to drive it home, overheated or no.

We hadn’t gone half a mile when the idiot light went out, the temperature gauge returned to normal, and the heat was on.  Maybe the little baby fixed itself. Or maybe it just wanted to scare us.  Either way,  I’ll find out tomorrow when I start it up again.