we’re on the road to nowhere
so…what would be the best way to start off the holiday buying season? Well, I’ll tell you that it isn’t getting $400 worth of repairs done on my jeep!
This past Saturday I noticed a noise coming from my heating vent/left-side dash. It kinda sounded like a static or the sound of two pieces of hard plastic vibrating together. When I got where I was going (always smart to drive an additional 10 miles) I popped the hood and it seemed that everything checked out fine…no burning smells, nothing really out of place…
and then my hood wouldn’t close! I figured that the release handle was stuck, but it didn’t look like it was out. Maybe it was stuck, and pulling on the handle would fix it? Well, the handle came right out in my hand!!
So, there I am, 40 miles from home, having to tie my hood down. The only way for me to get home was on I-495, and I was forced to drive 45 mph.
I take the jeep in this morning, and of course they find more than just the hood latch: I needed my serpentine belt replaced, the U-joints replaced, and the pinion seals done. At least the last two items were covered by my extended warranty.
Doesn’t it seem odd that the hood latch wouldn’t be covered? I mean without that my hood would fly off.
It’s a “serviceable” item, which means that it I were getting a 60K mile service they would check for that, and the warranty doesn’t cover servicing. Go figure.
So, a $800 trip to the shop was at least cut down to $400 — damned $100 deductables.
At least they were nice enough to give me a ride home. But, I wasn’t smart enough to remember to take my house keys back from them, so I had to get all Cirque du Soleil and break into a second story window.
I love mondays!
November 22nd, 2004 at 12:57 pm
Unless you have a front wheel drive car don’t pay to have the serpentine belt replaced. You can do it yourself in about 10 mins. and it only requires a ratchet.
November 22nd, 2004 at 3:03 pm
Dude, your window’s like kinda HIGH. I would have paid money to watch you do that. And without a net, too. That’s impressive.
November 22nd, 2004 at 5:46 pm
yeah M@, I know. If it wasn’t Thanksgiving week, and we weren’t knee deep in remodeling the master bedroom I would’ve done it, but I just don’t know when I would have the time in the next couple of weeks to get the part and install it.
I was just having visions of driving down the 495 or 93 and snapping the belt. That happened to my father a couple of years ago on a trip from NC to MA — I had to go and pick him up an hour away from our house after he had already made it through 12 hours of the trip.
November 22nd, 2004 at 5:49 pm
Wendy, I figure the window is about 13 feet high. It wasn’t so much the height as it was the sloping driveway, hence sloping ladder, and that the dresser was blocking half of the window.
The whole time I’m grappling in Walker is just staring at me like “you woke me up. feed me.”
November 22nd, 2004 at 6:39 pm
Don’t believe M@, it took me HOURS to get the one off my Monte, damn tensioner was shot.
Why do I miss that car again?
November 23rd, 2004 at 9:36 pm
[…] ’ll show me…
so…I screwed up my shoulder yesterday when I was breaking in to our house. I woke up this morning with a weird ache inside my right collar bone. It […]