...engine compartment!!
I was driving my son to soccer tryouts yesterday on a highly curvy section of freeway at about 60MPH when I suddenly lost my power steering. I could still turn the wheel, so I figured that the power steering unit had failed, but I decided to try wrestle the steering wheel and make it to the next exit.
Next a warning light came on, informing me that the battery was not charging. So apparently I had lost a belt running to both the alternator and the power steering unit, but I should still be able to make it to the exit.
Then another warning flashed that informed me that the car was overheating. I glanced at the temperature guage, and it was in the red rapidly rising until it was pegged on high. So the belt went to the water pump as well. Time to pull over.
I found a spot with as much room as possible to get away from the trucks flying by, and opened the hood.
I jumped back, startled, as I found a medium-sized rabbit sitting on top of the valve cover, looking back at me. Apparently he had climbed up in the engine compartment to get warm the night before, then later while I was driving, somehow knocked the belt off that ran many of the engine accessories. I started laughing hysterically, closed the hood, and ran back to the car to get my son so I could show him the cause of the engine failure.
We had a good laugh, and the rabbit ran off (having transported himself to far greener pastures than the snowy elevation where he climbed aboard).
We were able to limp the van toa Chevy dealer ship by repeating the process of allowing it to cool down and driving it until it overheated. For or five cycles like that and one new and much less furry belt later, we were back on our way to soccer.
Amazingly the rabbit seemed to be fine. Clearly he was very, very lucky. Perhaps having four rabbits feet gave him some luck after all?
