on Cars..
as some of you may know.... and some may not...
After we filed for bankruptcy we turned in our lovely wonderful and sadly expensive Prius. i still mourn for that car
however, the fact remained that we need a car because even if i quit doing any type of craft fairs at all, neither wayne nor myself are able to get to our doctors' appointments without a car.
Mom found a lady at her retirement community selling her car. It was a 99 Subaru Legacy wagon. and while i felt it was a tad expensive for the age and model, it wasn't entirely my decision.. and my parents bought it for me.
(thank you)
we had some minor intermittent issues with it.. nothing major until sort of kind of recently
so...
the first major issue was coming back from ICON SF convention.
driving on a highway in Brooklyn, on our way home... the car began having major electrical issues and i JUST got it off the ramp into a parking spot before it died.
AAA and a DEAR friend who is a fairly good mechanic later.. (and two days staying stranded in their house) we found out some unpleasant facts:
AAA charges you for bridge tolls, even with a platinum membership.. and tow truck bridge tolls in NJ are $$$$
for 2-3 years, and ONLY for those years, the Subaru Legacy wagon used a unique form of "fusible link" where instead of plug and play fuses, the fuse is a wire... connecting two spots... that melts to keep the engine from being damaged by excess power.
the 99 was the last year that used this
no one has this part in stock
it can only be special ordered, and ONLY from a dealership, and they usually have no idea what you are talking about... the only way we got a part number was by finding the old guy in parts who worked there forever and remembered them.
my good friend Mike spliced the bad one so i could get home.
ok... annoying, but... ah well
fast forward a bit...
a while back we noticed the car starting to have what looked like alignment issues. since we live in Philadelphia, where potholes and ice DO that to cars it wasn't a bit deal.
almost two months ago we got a flat, couldn't fill the tire, took it to Pep Boys, and found out that tire was an EX tire... it had gone to the great tire graveyard.. it swam with the fishes, etc
and two of the remaining three tires had nearly no tread,
ok... so we had to come up with the money to replace all FOUR tires
we went to the nearest place (pep boys) ad got four spiffy new tires
(thanks again mom and dad)
the cars handling improved immensely.
but we noticed a pulling more and more to one side. not constant... and some odd noises (mostly when we turned) and we figured this would need to be looked into.
also it idled a bit rough
then a bit over a week ago, the car wouldnt start.
(of course on a hot muggy day)
so we got it jump started and went to Pep boys...
"can you check the battery and alternator please"
some $$$ later they tell us "your battery is fine, your alternator is fine... we do not know what the problem was but it seems ok now...we can charge you (gawdawful) for a full electrical check...
uh, no thanks
oh...your fuel injectors are really gunked up... you can pay for a cleaning but you may be able to make do with some of this pour in treatment
we put in some treatment and the rough idling improved immediately.
we had no further issues with the start, so we figured.. water in the gas line? maybe the fuel injectors? more likely a wire slipped lose on the battery and we "fixed" it when we got the jump start?
pulling continues, as did some odd handling.
so we are going to take it in .. when it once again wont start
this time stranding Wayne and Bella at the dog park in very hot weather.
OOOOoooooooooookay then
back to Pep Boys... kind of annoyed
"electrical diagnostic is 50 mumble for the first 30 minutes and if we need more time its (gawdawfyl) for each hour...
ok, i see a sign that says free brake inspection for club members (we are) as long as you gotta have it up, can you check the brakes ?
(inspection coming up.. why not check before hand)
we get food...
and the guy comes in looking very very unhappy
1st, your battery failed the load test... we cannot diagnose anything without getting a new battery first
new batteries are (minor heart attack)
so.... let me get this straight.. i need to pay (minor heart attack) so you can find out how much MORE than that it will be to fix it?
yup
OY!
but wait, it gets worse
???
your brakes... they are REALLY awful
???
havent you noticed any handling issues?
yeah
your spindle has too much play and its cutting into your calipers and techno babble of the whoosit is going to BLUE MEENEY!
uh...ok, its bad.. how $$$$ bad is it?
well we have to special order the spindle.. we dont keep those in stock...
how bad
all total? for the brakes...1400 bucks.
did you just say 1 thousand and 400 dollars?
yes
for the brakes?
yes
and we still would need to get a BRAND NEW (heart attack) battery... so we can FIND OUT how much it would cost to fix the "some days it wont start" issue?
right
uh....
mom, dad, i love you but NO! do NOT throw this kind of money at a car that is this old with this much mileage....
which is why i limped the car up to a dealer to look at trade in and new (to us) cars.
mom and dad had a coronary over the used car prices... and then insisted we shop at a dealer anyway because they DID NOT want to be getting any more calls from the side of a road going "mom.. i need $$$ to fix the car"
we are looking at a "Town and Country" van
any opinions?
ps... please for the love of all that is SCAdian and craft fair... help publish my etsy shop!
http://etsy.com/shop/fabricdragon
ore to be listed RSN
After we filed for bankruptcy we turned in our lovely wonderful and sadly expensive Prius. i still mourn for that car
however, the fact remained that we need a car because even if i quit doing any type of craft fairs at all, neither wayne nor myself are able to get to our doctors' appointments without a car.
Mom found a lady at her retirement community selling her car. It was a 99 Subaru Legacy wagon. and while i felt it was a tad expensive for the age and model, it wasn't entirely my decision.. and my parents bought it for me.
(thank you)
we had some minor intermittent issues with it.. nothing major until sort of kind of recently
so...
the first major issue was coming back from ICON SF convention.
driving on a highway in Brooklyn, on our way home... the car began having major electrical issues and i JUST got it off the ramp into a parking spot before it died.
AAA and a DEAR friend who is a fairly good mechanic later.. (and two days staying stranded in their house) we found out some unpleasant facts:
AAA charges you for bridge tolls, even with a platinum membership.. and tow truck bridge tolls in NJ are $$$$
for 2-3 years, and ONLY for those years, the Subaru Legacy wagon used a unique form of "fusible link" where instead of plug and play fuses, the fuse is a wire... connecting two spots... that melts to keep the engine from being damaged by excess power.
the 99 was the last year that used this
no one has this part in stock
it can only be special ordered, and ONLY from a dealership, and they usually have no idea what you are talking about... the only way we got a part number was by finding the old guy in parts who worked there forever and remembered them.
my good friend Mike spliced the bad one so i could get home.
ok... annoying, but... ah well
fast forward a bit...
a while back we noticed the car starting to have what looked like alignment issues. since we live in Philadelphia, where potholes and ice DO that to cars it wasn't a bit deal.
almost two months ago we got a flat, couldn't fill the tire, took it to Pep Boys, and found out that tire was an EX tire... it had gone to the great tire graveyard.. it swam with the fishes, etc
and two of the remaining three tires had nearly no tread,
ok... so we had to come up with the money to replace all FOUR tires
we went to the nearest place (pep boys) ad got four spiffy new tires
(thanks again mom and dad)
the cars handling improved immensely.
but we noticed a pulling more and more to one side. not constant... and some odd noises (mostly when we turned) and we figured this would need to be looked into.
also it idled a bit rough
then a bit over a week ago, the car wouldnt start.
(of course on a hot muggy day)
so we got it jump started and went to Pep boys...
"can you check the battery and alternator please"
some $$$ later they tell us "your battery is fine, your alternator is fine... we do not know what the problem was but it seems ok now...we can charge you (gawdawful) for a full electrical check...
uh, no thanks
oh...your fuel injectors are really gunked up... you can pay for a cleaning but you may be able to make do with some of this pour in treatment
we put in some treatment and the rough idling improved immediately.
we had no further issues with the start, so we figured.. water in the gas line? maybe the fuel injectors? more likely a wire slipped lose on the battery and we "fixed" it when we got the jump start?
pulling continues, as did some odd handling.
so we are going to take it in .. when it once again wont start
this time stranding Wayne and Bella at the dog park in very hot weather.
OOOOoooooooooookay then
back to Pep Boys... kind of annoyed
"electrical diagnostic is 50 mumble for the first 30 minutes and if we need more time its (gawdawfyl) for each hour...
ok, i see a sign that says free brake inspection for club members (we are) as long as you gotta have it up, can you check the brakes ?
(inspection coming up.. why not check before hand)
we get food...
and the guy comes in looking very very unhappy
1st, your battery failed the load test... we cannot diagnose anything without getting a new battery first
new batteries are (minor heart attack)
so.... let me get this straight.. i need to pay (minor heart attack) so you can find out how much MORE than that it will be to fix it?
yup
OY!
but wait, it gets worse
???
your brakes... they are REALLY awful
???
havent you noticed any handling issues?
yeah
your spindle has too much play and its cutting into your calipers and techno babble of the whoosit is going to BLUE MEENEY!
uh...ok, its bad.. how $$$$ bad is it?
well we have to special order the spindle.. we dont keep those in stock...
how bad
all total? for the brakes...1400 bucks.
did you just say 1 thousand and 400 dollars?
yes
for the brakes?
yes
and we still would need to get a BRAND NEW (heart attack) battery... so we can FIND OUT how much it would cost to fix the "some days it wont start" issue?
right
uh....
mom, dad, i love you but NO! do NOT throw this kind of money at a car that is this old with this much mileage....
which is why i limped the car up to a dealer to look at trade in and new (to us) cars.
mom and dad had a coronary over the used car prices... and then insisted we shop at a dealer anyway because they DID NOT want to be getting any more calls from the side of a road going "mom.. i need $$$ to fix the car"
we are looking at a "Town and Country" van
any opinions?
ps... please for the love of all that is SCAdian and craft fair... help publish my etsy shop!
http://etsy.com/shop/fabricdragon
ore to be listed RSN