A series of unfortunate assumptions...
A couple of days ago the brake warning light on the dashboard of my car came on and hasn't gone out since. Also, I went to use my brakes on the way to work one day and hear this loud "pop" and since then whenever I brake I hear this loud grinding sound and it takes my car like 6+ feet to actually stop when my foot is to the floor. Therefore, I had the sneaking suspicion that I might need maintenence.
I read the manual, which should be entitled "Chrysler Cirrus: Lies about your car." And it says that when the brake light comes on, it means one of three things...
1.) Your car is low on brake fluid, and needs to be replenished.
2.) Your parking brake may still on, and needs to be taken off.
3.) It may be time to change the break pads.
So, having walked up to the mechanic to get an estimate on price/time frame, This was my (erroneous) conclusion:
"I know, I'll take it in, get them to either fix up or replace the brakes, $80.00 and 3 hours later, done, back on the road."
Well, not quite.
So, I go into the mechanic's place, at the gas station across the street from my house. There are two mechanics working there. One is an older Korean man who appears to be a mechanic of at least 10th level. The other is an younger Arabic guy named Jeff who's like his apprentice, perhaps a dual class 3rd level mechanic/4th level gas station attendant. So, I tell Jeff all of this and he elevates the car and begins removing the wheels.
Bad sign #1: When a mechanic removes the back right wheel, and his jaw drops.
He quickly starts waving his hand and going "Wow! Mr. Yoo! Mr. Yoo! Come check this out!" The old Korean man puts down his ratchet and ambles over to see what Jeff is talking about..
Bad sign #2: When the mechanic who's been called over looks at your car, looks at you, and then bursts out laughing.
Mr. Yoo says, "Show him! Show him!" So, I go over to see what all the fuss is about, but I know jack about cars. So all I see is a bare wheel that's not quite round covered in a thick layer of oil, and I say, "So.. is that bad?" He looks at me as if I'd just asked, "Am I hurt bad?" when I was just a head.
Bad sign #3: When the mechanic says, "Dude, you need ALL KINDS of shit done to your car!"
From what I could tell this is the deal:
My brakes had gone to that big auto parts store in the sky long ago. But not willing to admit this, they began biting into my wheels to stop the car, deep. Also, that entire area should be try, but was soaking wet with oil, which means that my car has internal bleedind as well. So, to keep score..
What I thought:3 hours.
Reality :4 days (that's when I get paid next)
What I thought: $80.00
Reality :$420.00
I only paid $1,700.00 for the car. That's almost a third right there. So I'm faced with 2 options.
1.)Grit my teeth and shell out the cash to get the car fixed, or
2.)Have it scrapped, get the cash, cut my losses and get a new car, which is likely to have 70,000 less miles on it and would actually stay together.
I almost feel kinda guilty, because there was this pretty silver VW winking shyly at me for sale on the lot. My car couldn't see, because it had its back turned and was elevated, but I was checkin' out the Passat for some time. It was $2,300.00, but it was really good looking, and MD inspected, unlike the car that's giving me trouble now.
In other news I was riding with my friend Jesse to her house to work on a painting she wants me to do (for some reason she thinks I'm all artistic and whatnot, ) And we got on the subject of nicknames. I told how I have a friend that we used to nickname "Probe" because he was so anal about everything. She said "Well, I've never had one," to which I replied "That's because you've never been abducted from a trailer park." She burst out laughing and it suddenly occurred to me that she was talking about never having a nickname... NOT an anal probe! I just seem to be a bit off the mark about all my assumptions lately!
I read the manual, which should be entitled "Chrysler Cirrus: Lies about your car." And it says that when the brake light comes on, it means one of three things...
1.) Your car is low on brake fluid, and needs to be replenished.
2.) Your parking brake may still on, and needs to be taken off.
3.) It may be time to change the break pads.
So, having walked up to the mechanic to get an estimate on price/time frame, This was my (erroneous) conclusion:
"I know, I'll take it in, get them to either fix up or replace the brakes, $80.00 and 3 hours later, done, back on the road."
Well, not quite.
So, I go into the mechanic's place, at the gas station across the street from my house. There are two mechanics working there. One is an older Korean man who appears to be a mechanic of at least 10th level. The other is an younger Arabic guy named Jeff who's like his apprentice, perhaps a dual class 3rd level mechanic/4th level gas station attendant. So, I tell Jeff all of this and he elevates the car and begins removing the wheels.
Bad sign #1: When a mechanic removes the back right wheel, and his jaw drops.
He quickly starts waving his hand and going "Wow! Mr. Yoo! Mr. Yoo! Come check this out!" The old Korean man puts down his ratchet and ambles over to see what Jeff is talking about..
Bad sign #2: When the mechanic who's been called over looks at your car, looks at you, and then bursts out laughing.
Mr. Yoo says, "Show him! Show him!" So, I go over to see what all the fuss is about, but I know jack about cars. So all I see is a bare wheel that's not quite round covered in a thick layer of oil, and I say, "So.. is that bad?" He looks at me as if I'd just asked, "Am I hurt bad?" when I was just a head.
Bad sign #3: When the mechanic says, "Dude, you need ALL KINDS of shit done to your car!"
From what I could tell this is the deal:
My brakes had gone to that big auto parts store in the sky long ago. But not willing to admit this, they began biting into my wheels to stop the car, deep. Also, that entire area should be try, but was soaking wet with oil, which means that my car has internal bleedind as well. So, to keep score..
What I thought:3 hours.
Reality :4 days (that's when I get paid next)
What I thought: $80.00
Reality :$420.00
I only paid $1,700.00 for the car. That's almost a third right there. So I'm faced with 2 options.
1.)Grit my teeth and shell out the cash to get the car fixed, or
2.)Have it scrapped, get the cash, cut my losses and get a new car, which is likely to have 70,000 less miles on it and would actually stay together.
I almost feel kinda guilty, because there was this pretty silver VW winking shyly at me for sale on the lot. My car couldn't see, because it had its back turned and was elevated, but I was checkin' out the Passat for some time. It was $2,300.00, but it was really good looking, and MD inspected, unlike the car that's giving me trouble now.
In other news I was riding with my friend Jesse to her house to work on a painting she wants me to do (for some reason she thinks I'm all artistic and whatnot, ) And we got on the subject of nicknames. I told how I have a friend that we used to nickname "Probe" because he was so anal about everything. She said "Well, I've never had one," to which I replied "That's because you've never been abducted from a trailer park." She burst out laughing and it suddenly occurred to me that she was talking about never having a nickname... NOT an anal probe! I just seem to be a bit off the mark about all my assumptions lately!