I got in the Banana this morning to run an errand and meet a friend for lunch. I started it up and immediately pulled out of the garage, as my mother-in-law is staying in the apartment above it and she complains that the engine makes it shake.

I went to drop the top (as it wasn’t raining) and the screen popped up the with the “close the trunk partition” error.

I hate it when I forget to close it because, as an “old”, getting into and out of the car gracefully can be a challenge. When I went to open the trunk it wouldn’t open.

Strange.

I thought it might be because the car was running, so I turned it off and tried again. No love. I finally used the key to open the trunk and found out that the partition was exactly where it should be.

I futzed around with it for a bit and then had to leave in order to meet my buddy. I did stop by Staples to drop off some Amazon returns and when I came back out I noticed the door was unlocked (I was certain I had pressed the lock button). I played around with it and it turns out that the locks weren’t working either.

After lunch I did some research and narrowed it down to a 25 cent 20A fuse or a $1000 vacuum pump.

The fuse for the pump is located under a panel in the storage box behind the passenger seat. My garage is pretty tight at the moment so I tried to “Cirque du Soleil” my way into the back but ended up giving up and I pulled the car out of the garage. You have to move two little tabs and then really pull to get the panel to come off, but then you’ll see the fuses.

One article suggested that the fuse in question was the fourth one from the left, and since that was the only 20A (yellow) fuse I pulled it out to test it. Visually it looked fine, but just to be sure I put a meter on it, which verified that it wasn’t the fuse.

(sigh)

Well, thinking I would just add this to my long list of things to fix when I take the car in this fall, I replaced the fuse and panel, and backed it into the garage. Just for kicks I tested the top again.

It worked just fine.

So here’s hoping that the fuse somehow jiggled loose, but I’m guessing the pump will eventually need to be replaced. Just hope the top is up when it finally dies.