Brown Sugar perseveres

As Ashlee mentioned previously, I got to know Brown Sugar this summer. She is the 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera that belongs to my father-in-law, but was graciously lent to me for my internship.

Being 20 years old, I was taking a bit of a chance in driving her over 800 miles to New Mexico. I got down to Albuquerque just fine, but in June I did have some problems. I was at the bottom of the Sandia Peak Tram when Brown Sugar broke down. After being towed into the dealership, they couldn't find anything that was clearly the problem. I went and retrieved it (with the help of my gracious landlord), only to find that it was running fine again. The shop didn't do any work to it, so I still didn't know what was wrong with it, or when it would break down again.

July came and went, as did the car, to and from work, the grocery store, the National Atomic Museum, etc.

August came, bringing Ashlee to Albuquerque for a quick visit before our trip up to Wyoming. Wanted to show her a good time, I took Ashlee to dinner, and then we made our way up to the tram so we could catch a beautiful view of the city from the peak. As you may have guessed by now, Brown Sugar coughed, weezed, and passed out once again, at the tram, no more than 50 feet from where she had her earlier break down in June. I let her coast down the inclined parking lot a bit, then tried to get her started. It was a rough, uneven idle, but she was running again. Happy just to have something resembling life in Brown Sugar, we retreated from the tram, hoping we would make it back home. About a half hour later, we pulled into our parking spot at the house, without having any more problems. She was even running normally.

The next day (Friday) we drove about 400 miles to Denver, and another 400 to Sheridan on Saturday. Brown Sugar purred all the way home, giving us nothing but a smooth ride and conditioned air.

Brown Sugar's Diagnosis: Air intake issues related to the elevation of the tram parking lot (even at the bottom) which is at 6,559 feet. However, the elevation along I25 in Colorado Springs is over 7,000 feet is places.