Anybody ever wonder...

[Angee]

If you have an angel sitting on your shoulder with a broken halo?

My car broke down today...it's front wheel drive and we think it may be the CV or half-shaft...I'm leaning toward the half-shaft myself. It started on the 25 mile drive to work. The front end was making grinding noises upon accelerating. I pulled over to check for ice buildup inside the wheel, but nothing was there. I carefully drove the rest of the way to work (babying it on accelerating) after calling Rob, and looked at it again to see if I could see anything. Nothing. I asked Rob to come drive it around the lot at work and see what he thought, so he met me after work. It didn't make it back into the parking spot, we had to push it.

It's been occasionally making a brief clacking noise like a u-joint going out, but I thought it was from the struts being back at the proper height and settling. Now I think back and it was probably a warning sign. The drivers side CV is new, so we're thinking it may be the short axel. There are NO gears when you shift. no clutching required to go from 1st to 5th and reverse. It's a front-wheel drive 5 speed manual 94 Mazda MX6 with 181,000 miles on it, so I figure it's time for something to break (again), so no point in freaking out. Our friend is going to let AAA (thanks to Rob's mom for the membership for Christmas!) tow it to his house so we can work on it in his heated garage. Won't know exactly what happened till we drop the front, but please keep your fingers crossed for me that it IS something simple, and not the tranny shot to shit. I can NOT afford a new car right now, so I have to keep this thing running.

So much for shopping for Christmas Friday...