Thanks for the welcome and the offers of help, as I figure it I'm just about a tank of gas from being broke till the next paycheck, so the next repair definitely gets done true dsm style, maybe with some funding from the change in my mom's car .

chris- thanks for the advice, I'll check out asap. Looking at the 2 week forecast, I think wet-weather starting ability is a priority if I don't want to just leave the car idling outside of places or test the limits of my AAA flatbed privileges.