Monday, February 05, 2007

Car Woes

Ginger took the kids to school today, because, and I'm not making this up, she doesn't trust me taking them in my car (a.k.a. "the death trap") since it failed inspection. So I took the car in to get it fixed this morning. I wish I could have taken a bit longer to get the tires (like ordering them online or something so they would be cheaper), but seeing as how I may have to travel later in the week and the area I'm heading to may be covered in snow, it seemed like a good idea to get it all fixed sooner rather than later. After getting two tires replaced, the alignment done and replacing the power steering belt it ended a bit over $500. And lucky me, they found even more things wrong and said at some point in the future I needed to replace one of the axles because the car boot had cracked and the grease in it was leaking out (I have no idea what all that means, but it sounds to me like the axle of evil is rearing it's ugly head). They said it wasn't urgent, but when the car starts making a clicking sound when turning I should get it repaired soon after that.

And for those that don't remember, Monday is Catherine's ballet day. Ginger had an information session to attend up at the school tonight where they went over extended day program, so I had the kids tonight for dinner and bedtime. And Quinn once again provided some really interesting comments tonight. Tonight Quinn informed us that he loved Anna, a girl in his class at school. Anna however loves Marcus, but also loves Quinn (guess she's playing the field at this point). It all seemed very surreal to hear him talking about this type of stuff.

7 comments:

Scott said...

having a cracked boot is not usually that big of a deal and shouldn't mean getting the axle replaced. If the boot hasn't been cracked long, you just have to clean the axle, re-grease it, put a new boot on and you're good to go. I would check and get a second opinion.

Scott said...

By the way, the clicking sound you hear is the torn rubber whacking against the stuff around it as you turn and it gets all bunched up.

You can verify this by looking at the boot against the transmission block near your engine. (When the car is stopped, preferably.)

Curt Sawyer said...

So she is fine with you in the death trap, but just not the kids...? Now much is your life insurance policy worth?

The Dogfather said...

Dude, I mean... seriously... you could see the steel belting through the non-existant tread. The only thing balder than your old tires is Telly Savalas.

Who loves ya, baby!?

JamesF said...

the dogfather: Dude, I mean... seriously... you could see the steel belting through the non-existant tread.

I didn't complain about the fact that I needed to replace them, I admitted the other day that the guy made the right call in failing it. I was just wishing I had longer to get it fixed so I could have gotten the tires cheaper rather than having to pay the ripoff price offered for those people that need it right now.

The Dogfather said...

Have you actually gone out and done a price comparison against what you paid? How much was the cost difference (S&H!) and how much would they charge to put on tires from somewhere else (assming they would)?

I'm just curious about the actual amount of differential so I know if it's worth it for me when I gotta change tires.
Thanks!
*grin*

Anonymous said...

www.tirerack.com is the bomb.

I did a fairly extensive shop survey in this area about 15 years ago, and discovered that prices to mount tires bought elsewhere varied widely. NTW (now NTB) and Merchant's were pretty pricey, and Craven was the cheapest.

In my case, the tires I wanted (Yokohama AVS Intermediate) weren't sold anywhere locally, and whichever store sold Yokohama brand quoted me a price (including tax) which was significantly (i.e. 15-20%) more than the tirerack price (including S&H).