My van is the proud owner of brand-spankin new belts. Two of them, at double the price. The mechanic also flushed the transmission. I must confess I'm not too sure what that means, but can only guess it has a lot in common with another kind of flush. The toilet kind. I'm an expert at that.
The mechanic told me the color of my transmission fluid was bad. Well, to be honest, he used other technical sounding words, but that is what I got from the conversation. I then thought, Hmm, when the color of the fluid in my toilet is bad, I flush it. Several times just to be safe.
The mechanic also hinted, as politely as he could, that my van is not as young as it used to be, and it's transmission had never been flushed. This made me shudder and promptly agree to the proposed flushing. It may be because I was mentally comparing it to the toilet, and the thought of never having flushed it was really nasty. I refer you to past post, Three Apple Cores Down Under. It could also be because, for some strange reason, I trusted this guy. After all, he said everything else looked good to a girl who doesn't know squat about cars. And, no, I didn't share with him that I knew where to put the gas. I didn't think he'd be impressed.
Anywho, it's done, my purse is much lighter, and I came home and flushed all the toilets a few times just to clear the mental picture the mechanic unknowingly planted in my head. I also sent a sincere thank you Heavenward because I know I wasn't the one who put the idea to get my belts checked into my head.
What kind of car experiences have you had? Good and bad. Leave a comment and share the horror. Or you can share the . . . what is the opposite of horror? Well, share the non-horror storries, too.
6 comments:
I like moments like that, where you figure it out before you absolutely have to. Your wallet may be lighter, but not nearly as light as if you'd waited.
My biggest horror story is when my hood flew half off in the middle of Nevada while going 80, two small kids in the car, and we were in the middle of nowheresville. Finally got to a town where the mechanic had gone fishing for the day, so I bought duct tape, rope and bungee cords and stuck it back together and then drove another 400 miles home. Oh yeah, and this was in the middle of the hottest part of summer and driving over brush on the side of the rode, I knocked out the AC. I felt especially bad for the kiddos since they had to sweat it out in their carseats.
I remember that. I don't know how you made it home with your head still attached. I think I would have taken mine off and left it on the mechanic's door.
I told you my most expensive one in the last post. There was also the time when our struts (similar to shocks, I think) needed to be replaced and hubby and my dad decided they could do it themselves when we visited my parents down in Tucson. Tucson is 12–14 hours from where we live, just so you know. And hubby and dad spent not the few hours planned but three days sweating in the driveway underneath our car. Oops. Could have been worse, but we definitely learned that some DIY projects aren't worth the time. Often a lighter purse is the more efficient route!
Nikki, three days? That sounds more than painful. I'll take my lighter purse. :)
Mechanics have it rough. Imagine having to work on every kind and every year of car and truck ever built. Even if you only worked on Chrysler products, there are still over 40 different engine designs built into hundreds of different engine compartments.
Imagine increasing complexities of computers on every make and model of vehicle. The new Dodge Caravan has no less than 18 computer boards that can fail.
Imagine never getting to eat dinner in peace because every night a different acquintance do-it-yourselfer who really can't do-it-themselves calls during dinner to ask an automotive question.
Then to top it all off, people "can't live" without their cars. Even for a few hours. They assume that theirs is the only car in the shop and that the repair shop should have every part for every car for every year they built that car.
Then imagine that everyone assumes you are "out to get them". Most mechanics do their best and charge a fair price to pay for a honest lifestyle.
Sincerely,
The son of a mechanic
Blake, they do have it rough. I didn't mean to disparage them in any way. Like I said, I trust this guy, and he did an awesome job. As far as I'm concerned, mechanics are wizards with wrenches instead of wands. :)
Post a Comment