A few weeks ago I found myself watching a sunset from the interior of a 1994 Dodge Grand Caravan. As the van raced towards central Tennessee my tranquility was broken by a phone call. I wondered who would be calling me so late in the day; it turned out to be a police officer. Uh oh.
The officer on the other line asked me if I’m a person named Mercedes Streeter. After confirming that I am, the officer asks me if I own the two yellow Smart Fortwos parked in my apartment’s parking lot. After a brief pause to wonder how they got yellow from two very blue cars I answer that both cars are blue and yes, they are mine. But the police already know that, as they pulled my plates and found that both vehicles are registered to me.
Confused as to why this even needed to be a call, I ask what was going on. The officer on the other end of the line says that a neighbor anonymously called in to say that my Smarts had been abandoned for several months. They didn’t elaborate further, but my fiancée and I got spooked enough to cancel our road trip and head home.
[Editor’s Note: Why are people so weird about long-sitting cars? -DT]
Why would such a call spook us? Back in late 2020, a neighbor took offense to a rusty van that I’d parked at home, and they decided to make up reasons to have them removed. The company in charge of managing the apartment complex properly obliged, with an employee writing up absurd (yet still not breaking the bylaws) reasons for the tows. I later sued and won, but not before that very van got stolen alog with all of my tools; someone also later tried and failed to steal my Audi TT, and there were all kinds of threats and vandalism.
The neighbor, as I’ve sadly experienced, has openly voiced their displeasure with the color of my skin and the relationship that I’m in. That would be bad enough, but they’ve also reported me to police for crimes that I didn’t commit. Understandably, we thought that 2020 was back. Thankfully, I got home to my Smarts being intact and untouched. But, I felt that keeping them around is a bad idea. Either the neighbor shenanigans are back, or someone is snooping around.
The confusion was only amplified when another officer contradicted the one who’d called me, saying that the cops were actually called to investigate stolen vehicles. Apparently, that anonymous caller had accused me of stealing my own Smarts. Sure, OK. Either way, things just didn’t feel right.
Making Moves
Moving the first Smart was easy. It’s my 2008 Smart Fortwo, a car that runs and drives great. In fact, I’d driven it just a couple of days before. Getting it to safety took no time at all. But the second was a little harder.
My 2012 Fortwo was in a weird spot. It hadn’t driven in over two years because of a cascading set of failures. First, it got sidelined by a seized alternator that was caked with mud from off-roading.
Replacing an alternator in a Smart usually requires lowering the rear subframe, a job that was beyond my wrenching comfort zone at the time. I initially hired a mobile mechanic, but rusty bolts got the best of them and they gave up. Undeterred, I tried myself and found many of the bolts to be formidable opponents. I resigned myself to getting the job done or finding a mechanic eventually. But as sometimes happens, days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months ballooned into over a year. Through that time, I moved the car around, albeit not under its own power.
Things finally changed in March of this year. As the calendar date grew closer to my 10-year anniversary with the car I decided to do the right thing and revive it. I love this car; the Mercedes that you know and love today was effectively born in this car. In fact, I chose the name Mercedes while driving it. The Smart has always served me well, even if I didn’t reciprocate. I had to change that. Thankfully, this time I was better equipped as I not only had the knowhow to fix it, but I knew of a mobile mechanic who loved the challenge of working on new things. I called up JET Mobile Auto Service and scheduled a repair.
My mechanic did a wonderful job, blazing through what the previous mechanic and myself couldn’t do, and doing it in just a few hours. He replaced the alternator, engine mounts, starter, belt tensioner, and belts like they were nothing.
In a move that astonished us both, the car still didn’t start. We found out that the engine was stuck, and it took over an hour to free it up. Then we found the axles to be stiff, and were able to loosen them up. And while the new starter bench tested fine, all it did was click when I turned the key.
Check out this torn engine mount:
And this very crusty alternator!
This is where the mechanic and I parted ways, thinking we’d finish on a different day. But I found myself sleepless, thinking about what the issue could be. In a desperate attempt to find answers, I began tracing the car’s wiring. Maybe there was a bad connection somewhere? I found the grounds attached and clean. And the fuses looked great. But there was one that had me curious.
Smarts have a 200A fuse wired in-line with the starter. I initially ignored it because it looked fine. But I tested it, anyway, by clamping the negative ends of a jumper cable to the fuse’s posts.
And like that, it ran for the first time in over two years! The engine didn’t sound happy at all and there were all kinds of warning lights, but the sound of that inline three was music to my ears.
Why I Use A Crowbar To Get The Car Into Gear
And given the sketchy situation, I worked to get it driving, too. Doing that involved another interesting problem-solving session. The car ran and would even indicate that it was in a gear, but the rear wheels wouldn’t move at all. That was because the transmission was stuck in Park, no matter what the computers tried to do.
Smarts are mostly shift-by-wire. The shift knob just tells the computer what to do with the car’s automated-manual transmission. If the computer says Neutral then it should be in Neutral. But I found the one situation where that wouldn’t be true.
There is a transmission design change specific to North American second-generation Fortwos: Where Europeans park their Fortwos in Reverse or Neutral then pull a parking brake, North American Smarts try to mimic traditional automatics using a physical park pawl.
And this device is actuated with a cable coming out of the shift knob to the transmission. I had accidentally broken this connection when I found the gear knob stuck one day. The computer assumes that if the knob isn’t in the Park position then the car is free. It has no way of knowing if the park pawl is actually disengaged.
My fix? I stuck a crowbar into the engine bay then disengaged the park pawl by levering the crowbar against the pawl’s lever.
Next, I wanted to make sure that the transmission was going to be able to row through its gears.
The folks of Autel sent me a MaxiPRO MP808BT diagnostic tool, and it came in handy. The little Smart had racked up a ton of errors from sitting, ranging from a misfire detected on all three cylinders to communications lost from the shift knob and an airbag light triggered by the driver seat sensor losing connection. I used the Autel to have the transmission run itself through its shifting procedures. Thankfully, it was a success. And while you would normally have to go to the Mercedes dealer to extinguish an airbag light, this tool did it in a jiff.
Now with the engine running and the transmission ready there was just one thing left to do, pimp my ride by way of some shiny wheels. I removed the Genius Darwins (TSWs) that were already on the car and fitted some sweet Lorinsers that I got with one of my other Smarts.
Then I took the car for its first drive in over two years.
It didn’t drive well, at first. The engine stumbled on two-year-old fuel and sounded a little bottom end knock-y. I gave it an oil change before sending the tach to the red a few times. Now, the noise is gone and drives just as I remember. Even my two-year-old new brakes cleaned up perfectly. And the car itself is now somewhere safe after getting its first car wash in at least three years.
I did pull a FOIA request on my city to see what was going on. I was able to confirm that someone was trying to get me charged with something, but the city refused to say who. And it’s funny to think that the catalyst to finally finishing this project was someone allegedly accusing me of a couple of felonies.
U rock, Mercedes!
We have permitted street parking- due to them replacing sidewalks and streets I have had to park in different areas, one street I have been ticketed repeatedly for an abandoned vehicle, it has to be there for 72 hours unmoved, one week I got tagged 4 times, I pointed out to the bylaw person that it was pretty much impossible for this to be true as the tickets had photos showing the car on subsequent days in different places. This is driven by complaints and I know where the complainer lives and wish I had something louder than a straight piped 850R to annoy him
Goddam nosy neighbors, I have to fly all the way to tx because one such nosy A$$, they called the city because I have a non running. car in my driveway, and it is now a public nuisance. I really want to know who reported it, I have some ideas, but nothing confirmed yet.
Other than confronting you personally, how did you find out who was the snitch?
Thank you
Hey, Mercedes is here, welcome! When I saw your name, it took me a double take to realize I was not on the orange site 🙂
Mercedes… you should setup a gofundme to collect the funds to hire a private investigator to do the legwork to find the AssChasmFillDirt (ACFD for short) that is doing this to you. Once you have that information, there are approximately 37.4 million ways to make their life a living hell without them ever catching wind of your antics to force karma to do its thing to said ACFD. No, you won’t break any laws, and no you won’t need to go to the police for this (said high IQ filter feeder might attempt to FOIA your calls to the po-po). The fact that you are the object of some rando’s scorn just serves to show that society is fucked and people are evil. Who cares what color your skin is, what you believe, who you love or how you love – all that doesn’t matter when one human refuses to treat another fellow human with a distinct lack of dignity. You might have only been an Autopian for a few days now, but the internet will not let OUR FAVORITE GEARHEAD MERCEDES (sorry DT and JT, we love you too, but this is a rallying cry for our good friend and ‘pian family member here) be subject to this crap. If you don’t make it painful (on a psychic level, not necessarily physcial – as we all abhor violence) for this person to continue, they will continue to keep doing what they are doing because they are insecure and these atrocities only serve to make them feel better. Do not let them win.
????️????
Jeeees! What idiot neighbors…… Great to hear that a car you love, has a beating heart again! Now I have a
question for you. With your love of smart cars being the impetus for the question. How can I get one of these smarts in the US? Or am I forever to admire them from across an ocean?
/Users/gregorypizzini/Desktop/Smart Nice FR.JPG
/Users/gregorypizzini/Desktop/Smart Nice FR.JPG
Damn. I can’t post pics.
I too have been accused of a felony based solely on my car. A friend of a friend’s daughter got approached and nearly kidnapped by someone who was driving a red 90’s hatchback-ish car. At the time I drove a red 98 VW GTI. I live in a small town, so naturally I got a visit from the local and county PD. Thankfully, I was able to convince them of my innocence, but still a scary ordeal……and there is nothing worse than getting accused of being a pedophile. Also, if you have the means, you may want to move to an area where having numerous cars in various states of operation is more friendly (i.e. not an apartment complex).
Welcome to The Autopian Mercedes! I’m truly sorry that you’ve been harassed by feeble minded racists and have to deal with those headaches. I have to say that seeing everything you do with your Smart cars really makes me want to get one and lift it for a fun runabout. I already have a rusty 93 Del Sol (for autocross) 1though, and my wife would not be happy to have another “toy” car. Perhaps a Smart for my son who is turning 16 soon…
Wait a minute….your name ISNT Mercedes Streeter??
And all this time I thought it was the automotive gods smiling upon your good fortune!
It’s AWSOME TO HAVE YOU HERE!!
It is.
She just used “chose” in a much grander sense than an online username.
Her name wasn’t Mercedes. I believe it has been legally changed to Mercedes.
Joining in the rest of them to say “glad you landed here” as well as wherever else you are getting stuff published. Cheers!
It’s so nice to see you here! Please indulge me while I ask one socially relevant question. Any chance of seeing a ChangLi-SmartCar death match? A friend owned a SmartCar. She was able to get a SMART vanity plate. I begged her to get a license plate frame that said E PANTS. We’re still friends!
I’m so glad to see many of my favorite writers from that one other place coming over here. I usually lurk; I haven’t posted over *there* since the Lovely Murlee Martin was doing Project Car Hell – but my thorough appreciation for just how nice this site has become has become too much to bear. Bare? One of those.
With every writer leaving the other site it continues to fester and toxify; not the fault of the remaining writers so much as the comments section seemingly filled with the Usual Internet People eager to spread negativity first and attempt comprehension second.
The tone of Autopian has been positive, intelligent and engaged – and I think there’s a strong effort from the writers to keep it that way. Other articles have had heavy [editor’s notes] that seem designed to defuse sourness and Mercedes’ addition to the Autoptian, uh – staff seems like the wrong word. The Autopian Authorial Menagerie is definitely going to bring up the level of positive enthusiast energy of the site.
Thumbs up for “Autopian Authorial Menagerie”
So pleased to see you here, Mercedes!
Absolutely!
There’s a lot I appreciate about you and your writing, and I’m glad that you’re able to share these stories and passions with us.
Just also…with the world heading where it is right now, from one trans person to another, stay safe, okay? There’s not that many of us in the car world–you matter a lot, more than any vehicle you own or write about. I know you’re not the kind to let dipshits like your neighbor stop you, and nor should you, but if push comes to shove, make sure you’ve got people and places. Those cops know what they’re doing.
Solidarity and appreciation for who you are and what you do.
Also we need an edit button. Luckily my landlord went to bat for me, hes on the HOA board. Told me just make sure you keep the tag current, they cant say its junk/abanodoned/inop that way
Glad to see Mercedes writing here!!!
Thing is if the cars have current tags and she isnt using more spaces than she is allotted, the person raising hell can go take a long walk off a short pier. They have nothing to stand on.
I had a similar issue, live in a condo complex but we all have our own private driveways.
Had my landlord tell me somebody complained about my junky 1993 Toyota truck. Granted it was VERY UGLY but ran great and had current tags. Told him it has a current tag and I do drive it a few thousand miles a year(or let friends borrow it) It might not move for a few weeks at a time in the summer because its black, broken a/c made it a miserable oven.
STREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, your neighbors are truly awful. I recall one of my neighbors getting the cops called on him about an “abandoned” Geo Metro he had stored behind his house, which was adjacent to the railroad tracks. In other words, no one could even see that car besides my neighbor and myself, but the town does have an inflated-and-plated ordinance for the cops to enforce that’s only initiated by outside complaint. We wondered who was doing the complaining until an asshat from a nearby trailer court showed up a couple days later, offering to give my neighbor the princely sum of $50 for the car he somehow knew was out back. I ended up helping him get it running and he got the plates renewed, so when the cop showed up at the end of the two week notice, all was well. It is cool you got that little blue beast going again though!
Neighbors can be a joy or a nightmare.
I have a neighbor with a broken box truck in their driveway, a rusty van in the street and no grass on their front lawn from parking on it to deflect attention. Nobody blinked when I had my truck on jack stands for a month plus no HOA. After all the stories, I never want an HOA and I really want at least 10 acres and a large shop or barn.