Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Parts are Parts

Ever had your car serviced and find out something interesting?

Today after I dropped my son off at school, I stopped for some gas and coffee. As I was exiting the station I noticed my brakes felt funny. Funny how? Funny as in it made me laugh? No...funny as in I wasn't stopping! I had no brakes, none, nada, zilch. Lucky for me there wasn't anyone coming and I wasn't too far from home. Emergency brakes are a life saver if used correctly in times of emergency. I checked the brake fluid and while it was a tad bit low it shouldn't have caused the brakes to fail. In fact, while applying the brakes the brakes resisted any movement. Not consistent with being low on brake fluid.

I was able to drive to the mechanic without much difficulty although the brakes were touchy. Upon inspection of the brakes, nothing could be found that caused my brake failure. They inspected, cleaned and adjusted the entire braking system so I'm confident its not mechanical related. Maybe its computer related...cars these days are chocked full of electronic gadgets that makes my head spin. What happened to the days when a simple person could work on their vehicle. I remember my '68 Mustang and rebuilding everything excpet the engine. Simple and with allot of hard work anything on that car could be replaced.

Anyway...what I found out interesting? I found out that my rear suspension springs are both broke. And here I thought all this time I needed new struts. The back springs snapped at the base and its been that way for quite awhile, so I'm told. I inspected them and yes they're broke. Cost to repair? Outside my budget at this time but the car has performed for how ever long with broken springs. Whats a few more months?

And here I was joyous of getting my heater repaired just in time for the cold snap.

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