You drink, you drive, I lose? revisted

It took 19 months, but our case finally settled and we have received our deductible back from our insurance company. What a nightmare that was. Three court visits and countless months all to get the money we were owed...

Tire pressure

Do any of you know what the actual tire pressure in your tires should be? I bet most folks don't. I also bet most folks expect that their tire pressure is properly checked when their car is in for service (oil change, tire rotation, etc.). I certainly expect that my oil change place would do this for me and they do. However, I am not certain that everyone knows that tires require different pressures.

Most automobile tires that I have come in contact with require about 35 psi of air pressure for a proper ride and long life. I recently cleaned out my car and found my automotive tire pump and air pressure gauge (thanks to Joe H's father) and checked my tire pressure. My tires were low and read about 30 psi. Normally, this is not a big deal and tires tend to heat up when rotating on the road with that friction and all.

However, after reading the sidewall of my tires, I realized that my tires require 44 psi! Yeah, I was 14 pounds low. That's a big deal. For a while, I thought that I needed a front-end alignment as the car would drift to the right at lower speeds. That has all gone away with properly-inflated tires.

That said, check your manufacture's suggest tire pressure, buy a gauge and get checking! And if you expect your services to do it for you, make sure they know what it should be.

Ford or Lexus?

My guess is that this has never happened in the auto industry, but I could be wrong. Who has ever found themselves deciding between a Lexus and a Ford? Anyone? Anyone? Well, I found just such a person last Sunday in the Home Depot parking lot.

Let me take a step back and confess that I am a firm believer in the American automobile. I feel that I should support our industry no matter how financially strained it is at the moment (Big 3 payouts to unions and CEOs, etc.) or how supposedly inferior their quality may be. I feel that the only way we, as Americans, are going to keep up with the world is to believe in our own products and buy them. I currently drive a 2005 Ford Freestyle. Before that I drove a 1994 Mercury Sable (still have it). And before that, I drove a 1985 Dodge Caravan...with wood paneling.

Back to my story in the parking lot. As Katie, Amanda and I were making our way to our typical parking space at our local big box retailer, I noticed an older gentleman attempting to cram some 4x4 wood sheets into the tail end of his Lexus RX330.



It's an extremely popular automobile and quite possibly the best-selling SUV on the market. I can't exactly say it revolutionized the segment, but it did make its presence known and I see them everywhere. The thing is, it's soft. It's not meant to go to a hardware store and bring home lumber. It's supposed to LOOK like one would bring home lumber with it (or 4x4 wood panels), but no one really DOES it! Well, I found the first guy who does do it and he was in the Home Depot parking lot on Sunday.

As I was rounding the corner and eyeing a spot next to him, I said to Katie, "I'm gonna ask this guy if he would like to swap vehicles so he can get those sheets of wood home in one piece." I mean, the guy was practically destroying the roof liner right in front of me.

I park the car and walk up to him (make a quick judgement call if he was going to snap at my conjecture) and say, "Would you like to swap veicles? I'm sure that would fit into my car..." He replies, "Ha. Ha. Good idea. Is that a Freestlye? I was seruously looking at that vehicle and bought this one instead. I should have bought the Freestyle, I don't like this one."

My mouth dropped. Did he really say that he was trying to choose between one of the world's best luxury brands and a little ol' home-grown Ford? Yep, that's what he said. It's kinda neat. I love my Freestyle.

Bait and switch

This one is on me. For months now, my hooptie 1994 Mercury Sable has been making a groaning noise in the rear suspension. I've hesitated to have it looked at because it's 14 yeras old and has 136K miles on it. The only reason the car is still in my posession is because it was my father's company car years ago and I have personalized plates that I don't want to loose. I won't go into the details of why either is important to me at this time.

I spoke to some friends and decided I would get some estimates on what it would cost to replace the rear struts. I got a few estimages and decided to bring it into Sears Auto Center. I've heard good things and Sears isn't going anywhere anytime soon...

Here is the sequence of events.
-I arrived, said I think I need my rear struts replaced.
-Sears said they would do a front-end evaluation, look at the rear as well and call me when the tech has an estimate.
-I also asked if they could investigate the belt squeek under the hood.
-They said they would investigate that as well.
-Katie, Amanda and I went out to lunch.
-Sears called me back 30 minutes later and said that the driver's side front spring was broken and that the rear struts looked fine. They also said that the serpentine belt was possibly too small for my car.
-I could not believe that the front end has any issues, so I came in to have a look on my own.
-Sure enough, one was broken and it was only a matter of time before the other side caved under the extra load.
-The cost to replace the front struts and possibly the front sway bar and alignment would cost me $820.
-Ouch. I said for them to only investigate the squeeky belt and get back to me with an estimate on that.
-Katie and I went shopping in the mall; bought nothing.
-Sears called me while shopping and fixed the squeek. The squeeky belt was due to a bad pully on the power steering pump. The total: $320 - much easier to swallow.

To sum things up: I came in thinking my rear end suspension was shot. It turns out that it was fine, but it was the front that needed replacement. Instead of doing that, I had my power steering pump (which was working fine) replaced to stop the squawking that eminated from under my hood. What a day.

Car is ready part 2

Car is back in the garage and looks good as new. Biggie ups to Bob's Bodycraft.

Car is ready

Yeah, the smashlab car is ready to be picked up. I can visit Sams Club once again to fill 'er up... Oh, and it's 2 degrees again.