Two Spark Plug Sightseeing |
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When it comes to this weekend I should be talking about discovering a beautiful beach at Rusalka in Bulgaria, or revisiting the ancient city of Kalyakra, or about the "Cozonac" cocktail I was introduced to in Vama Veche, or the Class 1 Romanian Power Boat Grand Prix.
Instead, as fate will have it, I will have to talk about my car breaking down. As I was moving base camp from Vama Veche to my home in Constanta a little light came up on the dashboard letting me know I was having engine problems. I recognized the symptoms and realized one of three spark plugs in my Fabia's little 1.2 engine wasn't working anymore. It was Sunday. What followed was a lot of effort trying to put together the necessary tools to change a spark plug... on a Sunday evening.
Early Monday morning I changed the spark plug only to realize it was not the spark plug but probably something in the electronics connected to it. Thus, half of Monday went by with me trying to get a spot for my car in the Skoda service que in Constanta... to no avail. I then decided I would drive the 320 km from Constanta to Comarnic with 2/3 of the engine working in order to take it to its usual garage. The car was practically working like a Trabant. Bogdan and Costin who assisted me throughout the entire process kept making jokes about removing another spark plug so that it would work like a "drujba" (EN: chainsaw).
I got home after about 9 hours, including two very long breaks. Most of the time I drove at about 80 kph keeping the engine at 2500 rpm. The top speed the car was still able to develop was about 110 kph. Essentially the only problem was that accelerating from 0 to 100 took about 1 minute. Overtaking was rarely an option.
Driving slowly and calmly did give me the opportunity to admire the scenery. I've driven down that road hundreds of times but never as calmly.
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