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 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.

 

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...