I need some help with this one guy and gals...
 

For those of you who don't know Im in Tulsa goin to school. I've been working at Wal-Mart in the shop changing oil and tires. tulsa is a crazy place and every day just when you think you've seen it all, somebody else comes along and blows your mind.

So anyway, five days ago now, this 19 year ol kid with Florida plates on his car appears at our store. I was off for a couple of days, so i didn't know anything about it til Monday but he cut his car off in the parking lot, went in the store, came back out, car wouldn't start. Apparently he ended up killing the battery trying to start it. He's been panhandling in the parking lot, doesn't have a dime to his name. Somebody gave him $100 the other day and he has spent all that on spark plugs and wires, fuel filter and food to survive. He was walkin around with a guy in the store the other day who got caught shoplifting and kinda got dragged into that. Since Monday, me and some other guys have been trying to help him get his car goin unsuccessfully. Sometime Tuesday, he lost the keys to his car, so one of the guys at work was nice enough to let him use his AAA and we sat up there with him til 10:30 last night tryin to see if his car would run with new plugs and wires. Been working on the car all day today and still in the same position. The fuel pump is working, its got fire, compression, air all the major things an engine needs to run. We were trying to tell him yesterday to ditch the car and get a bus ticket as he's trying to get back home to Florida. His parents won't help him or can't help him. He says he was here in Tulsa visiting family but hes not allowed to go back there, so for five days and five nights now he's been living in his car in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Its not that i don't want to help the kid, I keep loaning him my phone, working on his car for free, risking my job because I'm outside :edit: around with that instead of doin what I'm supposed to be doin at work. Me and everybody else feel really bad for the guy, one of the guys even let him stay at his apartment last night which I guess was a good thing to do, but I dont think Im gonna put myself in that situation. So I guess what I'm asking is is there any kind of government or non profit people that could maybe help this kid get his car fixed and get home or does anybody know anything else i could do to help him out and get him on his way. I mean, if I was in that situation i hope somebody would help me out as much as they could, and I think we have all gone above and beyond but right now there is no end in sight. I can't really help him if he's not willing to ditch the car and just get home. I would've been gone by now but IDK. The car is 1995 Plymouth Acclaim if anybody has any ideas on how to make it run. It will start but not for long and running very low RPMs for just a second or two. If you touch the throttle at all it dies. Any help with all of this would be appreciated and sorry for the long post. Just another day in Tulsa

Maybe this will help or give you a better idea... I would find out how much train and or bus tickets are to get him home. Depending on how much the ticket is possibly spot him the money, or put him to work one or two days to earn the money. Get his car out of the wal-mart parking lot before it gets towed (maybe store it at a buddies house or where ever). Tell him you'll hold the car until he can arrange to get it back to Florida and possibly set a time limit on how long he has. I know from my own research shipping a non running vehicle from Kansas to Maryland runs between 400-600 depending on the carrier; so Oklahoma to Florida should be about the same cost. If he doesn't get the car out of storage in the allotted time scrap the car or dispose of it however you please.

But lastly and most importantly make sure, as in use your own eyes see it for yourself; make sure that the car does not have anything illegal stored inside of it, or have anything that might be trouble for you if you continue to help this guy out. No point in loosing your job when you were just trying to be nice.

But if hell bent on fixing the car, you said it has compression, how did you come to that conclusion did you do an actual compression test? Maybe check the engine grounds and other wires looking for loose connections.

still sounds like weak fuel to me

sounds like its possibly outof time. might try timing it. :U:

is the check engine light on? maybe you should put a scanner on it and scan it for codes to see if anything shows up. also watch out cause like you said its not worth losin your job over trying to be nice to someone you really dont know. He cant go back to his family he was visiting for a reason apparently?

Hate to be the skeptic here but it sounds like this kid is dumb as a box a rocks and not willing to help himself here. That car isn't worth what he already spent on it as far as value and it sounds like he's had ample opportunity to get home. I've been in that situation, I pulled the plates and left the truck on the side of the highway and got myself home. It was a no brainer decision, the truck wasn't worth the cost to tow and fix it and what money I had got me home, I wasn't gonna waste it on a lost cause.

I have to wonder if there may not be some merit to what Stolk said, I gotta wonder what's in that car that he's not willing to leave it behind.

Ya just can't help somebody that's not willing to be helped, no matter how bad you feel for them.

Thats right but a kid is a kid - you only learn from experience and by living life. That being said, some kids by nature are more worldly than others. Maybe you need to sit down with him Jason and help him figure this out?

crank position sensor

Couldn't agree more here. The problem is that he's gonna sit there until either the charity or the money runs out before he decides he has to do somethin. So best case scenario here they get his car runnin with no more money spent on parts. Your still talkin another couple hundred bucks to finish the trip drivin and that's assumin the car don't fall over dead again at the next exit. He could leave the car and get a bus ticket and when he gets home spend that same couple hundred dollars and buy a car better then the one he left behind.

Yeah, I hear ya...

I agree with ya'll 100%. Like I said, F that car i would've been home already. Thats what i wa sayin, his story keeps changin litlle by little, IDK where he had been or why he is here, but he said he was visiting family in Tulsa, but he cant go back there, as far as I know hasnt even called them. It is definitely a weird situation but at the same time, Im not they type just to leave the boy hangin or have him arrested like some others are talkin about doin. I have not done a compression test on the car but we popped the fuel line off tonight and its shootin fuel out of it. Its been a while since I've had to mess with a computer controlled anything, much less a gasser but I dont have the money to sink into any tools or parts for the boy. Hopefully he will get tired of livn in the parking lot and take my advice about the bus ticket but who knows

here's my problem... he was visting family.. but is not welcome back?????

what did he do to make family not want him?

i think maybe if you and your co workers came to some sort of agreement to split the cost of a ticket for the dude... and he declines it...juss say " dude we are all risking our jobs to help you.. this is the last thing we can do... sorry"

and it will be over

but honestly if he declines the ticket...hes probly doing something illegally... or... plum stupid

Lots of good suggestions and advice on here already. Only thing I'd suggest is get the phone numbers to some churches, give him a few quarters, and let them help. A lot of churches have programs to help people out, let the (sort of) professionals take over. I'm sure there are car-guys who go to church, too, that can also help him out with the car.
If he really wants help, he'll take the help available. No sense risking your job or anything to help more. Plus if he has a home to go to in Florida, a church will probably get in contact and make arrangements.

I agree with ya'll 100%. Im gonna try to get some more details out of this guy about what his story is and look into the churches to see if somebody can help him out. My grandfather was a preacher and if he was still alive this boy would've already been home. Hopefully there is some more people as good hearted as him around here. I'm also gonna suggest the bus ticket again and my dad even said he will help out paying for that but I've got to convince the boy to ditch the car. I do believe that the boy is really in need of help and not trying to con us out of anything, I just don't know what else to do for him. I was thinkin of callin the police dept to see if they could maybe help him out without arresting him or atleast point him in the right direction to get some help. Thanks everybody for your input, I'll keep this updated.

Good Luck to ya:U: Your a good Man:c:

x2.

I completely agree with Uncle Bubba here. No offense to you Jasonfriedlin, but the kid sounds like a complete idiot.
I grew up raised by a single mother, I had no money, I didn't even buy a car until I was in my 20's. He got himself in that situation in the first place, it's not your or anyone else's responsibility to bail him out. What's he doing there in the first place? Can't go home? Why? If he can't afford a car that runs he shouldn't have one. I had $1500 for a car when I was 18 but inusurance would have been $3000/yr. Simple math told me it was a poor decision, also with saving up for university that year. Can't have both. One of my good teachers in high school told me you're only allowed one 'C' after high school but you can't have both. A Car or College. For most of us that's how it is. I didn't have parents who paid for my ass to do everything, I had to do it on my own. You tried to help the kid, so did other people, he has to figure this out on his own, it sounds like he's making it way more complicated than it should be. Ditch the car, sell it, take a bus, get a job, and go to school. That's what I'd tell him. And that advice is free. I hate to sound like a jackass, but I don't see why it shouldn't be as simple as that.

Yeah I hear ya and agree. I met his grandmother or whoever he had come up here to see today and things are starting to make a little more sense to me now. Basically it sounds as if the whole family is extremely poor and barely getting by and she told me that the reason he cant take the bus is that the car doubles as his home. Apparently his parents are recently homeless too so even if he makes it to Florida, where is he gonna go which made me understand why he's not willing to ditch the car and get the hell outta here. I asked why he couldnt stay with her and she said she just has no room and has only met the kid 4 times his whole life. She is trying to look out for him as best she can but she said she is on social security disability and has no money either, probably living in one of these one room apartments here in Tulsa. She has been riding by and checking on him several times a day and bringing food and was gonna let him come take a shower so thats good but it really seems like she could find a spot on the floor for him to sleep. Thanks again everybody for all the great advice and opinions :c:

if he is so poor, why did he drive half way across the country? i can under stand his grand mother is there, but if u aint got the money why? i hope i aint sounding like an asshole, but if ur living out of a car in florida, then u wouldnt have anough to travel that far and back imo. maybe its just my thinking.

:ph::argh: Yet again I'm proven wrong...That does make more sense. Sounds like a terrible situation, but there's always a way out, especially at that age. An education can really help out.

Pull the catalytic converter off i will bet it is plugged solid, been through a lot of them K cars!! also change the fuel filter if you have not done so yet.

Any updates?

All I know at this point is that the kid is gone and somebody said his car was over at the church across the street but IDK for sure if thats true or where the kid is at. There was a member of that church who is a mechanic was supposed to look at the car for him. Other than that, thats all I know at this point havent seen hide nor hair of him since Thursday. DezelDoc, I didn't think about the catalytic converter but we did change the fuel filter for him. Thanks everybody