I wanted very badly to pour myself a stiff drink when I got home from work yesterday.
When I parked the car at work yesterday morning, the steering wheel made a little cracking noise. It had done this before, and become, in my language, a little 'tilty', but nothing major had happened in terms of maneuverability or control.
Allow me to tell you right now, in the strongest language possible, that if your steering wheel does this, drive your car directly to a service station and provide whatever you must to get it fixed.
I got on the highway with this thing after work, and it seemed a little more 'tilty', but not undriveable. Big, big mistake. The next twenty minutes were spent driving my car down a five-minute drive, at the speed that those timeframes imply, white-knuckling the wheel. As soon as I got on the highway, I noticed that the wheel was sitting at a different angle than it normally does for "straight ahead".
It occurred to me that there was a way for the wheel to turn without making the vehicle move in that direction, and I was, honestly, scared to death. I drove as slow as I figured I could manage, because driving too slow has gotten me pulled over a few rare times in the past. (Getting pulled over would be just above death in this case, because most of my car is disintegrating. "Sir, please open your driver's side window." "I can't." "Just open the door then." "I can't open it from the inside." "Why is your steering wheel at a 30 degree angle from where it should be?" I don't see anything positive happening after the wheel issue is noticed.)
I got home, and I even got the car into the driveway where it shall stay until it gets fixed, but getting into the driveway, every little turn between the highway and the house, etc., all of it just scared me. I could feel blood draining from my face.
Let's just say that if the steering wheel were the head of the car, then the car's neck would be broken. The wheel's not on the floor, but it's definately dangling.
