chasing geese

I now dedicate December as National Mechanical Failure Month, or, perhaps, National Bad Luck Month, or even National Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch Month. Definitely making it (if it isn't already) Empty Your Bank Accounts Month.

So, here's the story:

Andrea's dad offers us an early xmas present - he said he'll cover to cost of labor to get the radiator replaced. So I call up the place that gave me the best estimate, which involved buying a radiator from a radiator salvage place and then taking it up the street to a service shop to have it installed. They quoted me 3.8 hours (like the other places did) and an hour after I dropped it off, 20 minutes into the hour bus ride BACK to Minneapolis (both of these places are over in old St. Paul, on Rice Street) for work (late, by the way) I get a call from the shop. "Uh, there's an asterisk on the deal. Turns off this is a six hour job cuz that bumper has got to come off." Just like the first place I took the car to said. "Well, forget it then. I'll be back this afternoon to pick it up." Grrrrr. Even though the labor portion was being gifted to us, I'm not going to bump up the gift cost by hundreds of dollars. So I already bought the radiator ($75). I call another shop and ask them why this 3.8 hour job would suddenly turn into a 6 hour job? They say, "Doesn't make sense to us. None of our guys can remember ever having to take a bumper off to install a radiator." So I of course hit the library again, this time checking out the Haynes manual for my car and looking at the AllData database again (which one of the shops quoted me as having the alleged asterisk, which I could not find) for the service instructions. The Haynes manual mentions removing the bumper cover. The AllData instructions don't mention the bumper or bumper cover at all. So I scour the web, again, and this time I come across the Taurus Car Club which has tons of info in the forums. Lots of people saying that you don't need to remove the bumper, that the radiator comes out the bottom. Hrm.
Sigh. Ok, I have the part, and Andrea's dad had volunteered his garage and tools before he offered to pay for the service, so I decided I'd be taking him up on that (I'm going over today to try to do this repair...you can bet there will be an entry about how that goes) offer instead.

So, yesterday (Saturday), we're going about our semi-regular weekend schedule, which includes doing adult people laundry (instead of the baby people laundry I do at least every other day). I had started the laundry Friday night and dried half of our laundry over night. Saturday morning I was drying the first load of darks (always heavier due to the jeans, etc) and I thought I smelled burning rubber. Oh Great. Yeah, the drive wheel or belt or whatever on the dryer is slipping and won't turn the dryer drum if more than maybe a handful of socks are in there. Well, this thing has been on its last legs since we bought the house, and in the past month is has gotten louder and louder (screechy and scraping), the door latch broke so I'm holding the door closed with a 2x4 with angled ends (works pretty well, actually). Well, with cloth diapers we can't really afford to have the dryer out of commission for more than about a day. Luckily, all of our appliances are covered by our home warranty, so we pay $55 deductible and someone comes and looks at the dryer and at worst fixes it and at best, replaces it. I'm going to try to get this thing replaced if at all possible. Talk about a silver lining on this past dogshit week. But I'm not really expecting that. But who knows...maybe the time it takes to fix the dryer will be more than the cost to just replace it...I'm not looking for a nice stainless steel industrial grade dryer (though that would be nice), just your basic front loader that was made before 1980. Our current dryer is a Monkey Wards brand dryer, if that tells you anything about how old it is. So, the guy from the appliance place hasn't called me yet (supposed to get a call within 12 hours? Riiiiight) to set up the appointment. I expect they will call me on Monday when they check their messages. Which means I'll probably be taking a half day sometime this week to deal with that...

And now, after continuing to drive the car with not much trouble at all (heat works after awhile, car is not over heating, but still see fluid leaking) I'm starting to worry that the leak might not be in the radiator at all, but could be a hose or the reserve tank. But the first service shop, the ones who actually DID diagnostics, a pressure test, etc, said that it was the radiator and thus delivered the quote for 6 hours work, $600. AND THEN EXTRA TO FLUSH. That's what gets me. Shouldn't a cooling system flush be fucking included in this type of service???? That's one of the reasons I may not go back to that place. So far the only thing they have going is that they are close to where we live.

Ok...enough for right now. Perhaps my next entry will be when I am glowing with the satisfaction of DIY done good and having saved $$$.

And of course, to further put worry bees in my bonnet, my dad asks me, "Did you ask a Ford dealer what they would charge for the service?" No, of course not, I assumed they would cost more than anyone else. "Bad assumption..." he says. Well, whatever their quote, I'm past the point of no-return. Right now my biggest concern is what am I going to do at Andrea's dad's house for 3 hours while we wait for the engine to cool...