A rare venting

[Papa_Complex]

Last week, while driving home in Toronto's horrendous traffic, I had my power steering go out. Fortunately this happened at about 20 MPH, or it could have been much worse, as steering effort went up about 10X. If it had happened on a ramp or during a lane change......

I managed to drive most of the way home and shut the car off at a stop light. When I started it back up the power steering was back up and running, so the last few miles home were no issue.

I did a quick internet search and found that there were a lot of people reporting that their Mazda 5 also had experienced a power steering failure, usually in heavy traffic or high temperatures. Checking the online vehicle recall database, however, showed no recalls for this safety-related failure.

So I called my dealership. Sure enough "some" Mazda 5 units are experiencing an overheat of the power steering pump, which they're replacing. I took the day off from work yesterday so that I could drop off my car and pick it up later in the day. Well once I'm ready to get a lift home from the dealership I'm told they'll be giving me a rental car, because the parts are back-ordered, and it could be TWO WEEKS before I get my car back.

Well I can't drive my car in that condition (constantly wondering if my steering will fail again), so I'm stuck. I wait around for the in-house rental person to show up and they give me a fairly new Camry to use. This morning I head out to the car, to drop the shock that I have to return because it won't fit my bike (another long story), only to find that the trunk is locked and they gave me a VALET KEY! The rear seats are locked in place too, so I can't get into the trunk PERIOD. Well I'm not going to leave a $800.00 shock in plain view in the parking lot at work all day, so it stayed at home. I'll have to get it tonight and then head off to UPS from there, instead of just dropping it off on the way home. Bugger.

End rant.