Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Cute but kind of strange

^ That's what my Happy Bunny calendar page for today says. So "me," isn't it?

Anyway, this is going to start off kind of random...


Had the following phone conversation with Tony...

Tony: So what do we have going on tonight?

Me: Um... nothing? Well, I need to go to the store.

Tony: What for?

Me: To get more of that Crystal Light energy drink mix stuff.

Tony: Well, I already took care of that for you.

Me: You did? Really? *melts*

Tony: Yeah.

Me: You're awesome.

Tony: Yup.

I love him muchly.


So who wants to hear about my car? Everyone? Awesome. Well, if you follow me on Twitter (and if you don't, you should, and if you're not on Twitter at all, hello, get with it), you already know a little bit. Tony took my car in to the shop yesterday--had a fancy appointment and everything. My car has been leaking oil for a long time, and lately, it's gotten worse. (For the record, it's a 98 Sentra with over 238,000 miles on it.) So, with us getting our tax return and having a little extra cushion of cash, we decided to get that leak fixed once and for all. We'd been told that the oil leak was an issue with the crank seal by the last shop who worked on my car (who we won't be going back to ever again, since they overcharged us for a starter... and for another reason I'll get to in a second).

(Oh, and by the way... I know nothing about cars, which, if it isn't obvious yet, will be, so try not to laugh too hard, kthx.)

Anyway, Tony gets the car there yesterday.... but barely. It started dying spectacularly on his way there, and he had to stop and refill the oil and ended up practically limping into the shop. (Yeh, imagine if I'd been driving it to work yesterday... isn't our timing great?) The first thing they told him was that they'd have to degrease (?) the car (or the engine? I don't know.). Then they pointed out that the last place to work on our car had put in the wrong oil filter. So I guess we're lucky it even lasted THIS long. They started spouting off prices, adding that the front axles needed to be replaced to the tune of $450 each. I forget what went down from there, but Tony ended up leaving and taking the car to a friend's dad's shop. (Should have gone there in the first place, I guess, but oh well.) But not before this place changed the oil filter... and went and changed all the oil too (no clue why, since you don't have to do a full oil change to change a filter) and charged an obscene amount of money.

Anyway, Tony made it (uneventfully) to the friend's dad's garage, where friend's dad quickly figured out that the oil leak was in fact a small leak, not a big one--and not an issue with the crank seal at all. He said it was probably nothing worse than the type of leak that's unavoidable in an old car, and the reason for all the leaking recently was probably because of having the wrong oil filter. He agreed about the front axles needing to be fixed, but said he could easily find the parts for about $100 each. (Yeh, apparently there are 2 axles on the front... who knew?) So my car has another appointment on Thursday to get those axles fixed.

So my day yesterday started off with me thinking that my car was done for, for good, and ended with the happy news that my precious little car still has some life left in it. So after Thursday, it should be as good as new (or, as good as it ever was).

3 comments:

Mary said...

Boy, your car has gone through several near death experiences. It must be a cat, nine (or twenty) lives included :)

You are cute but kinda strange ;) I think Josh would say the same about me :)

Moz + Pam said...

Good news about your car!

dave + jess said...

i would venture to say that you probably have a new car ("new" used loosely!) by now with everything that has been replaced on it!