I needed to get away. Even if everything had been fine before Thursday, March 19th, I would have needed a vacation by that evening. It started out crappy and got worse with every hour.I might have stayed out a bit too late Wednesday night, especially considering that I had to have my car to Kia at 8:00 in the morning Thursday. There was nothing important wrong with my car (at least I didn't think there was) but my passenger-door lock wasn't behaving. Since my car is still under warranty, I decided to have that fixed before Dalby and I headed out.
In the meantime, I had a routine doctor's appointment and I was going to inquire about the rattling cough that I'd had for a few weeks. The doctor said that my left lung was full of fluid and sent me for blood tests and x-rays. After a few more minutes of waiting, the x-rays were done. I had pneumonia. Lovely.
Walking home, I gave Kia a call to check on my car. It was ready to go, yay! No, not yay. Apparently, I needed new tires. Not only were they worn below the wear-bar, but they were cracked. He told me I'd be okay in town, but if I planned to make any long drives (um, do you consider 2,000 miles long??) then I better replace them first. Sigh.
Alright, off to Les Schwab. They've been great to me, so I decided to buy my tires there. After 4 new tires and a front AND rear alignment (apparently I was off by a few degrees) my car was ready 2 minutes before closing...oh, except that he didn't suggest I drive it very far, because I needed new brakes. What?!? New brakes? Thanks for telling me that right before you close on the day before I leave for a gimungous road trip. He offered to look up other Schwabbies between here and Nevada. I thanked him, but told him I was taking my car to Firestone, if it was still open.
I called Firestone, who said they were going to inspect them first to make sure that LS wasn't feeding me a line of Free Beef. Turns out, they weren't. Not only were the brakes metal to metal, but my rotors were so worn that they were beyond turning. They said that they'd stay open to fix it for me that night and get me on my way. Two hours later, I had my car back, just in time to get to the pharmacy and pick up my antibiotics before they closed. Now, I had a whole 2 hours to get my supplies and load my car before I went to bed. I had to leave for a road trip in the morning!
2 comments:
Is that cloud flipping me off for reals?
Sounds like your brakes were as bad as mine were, at least on one side. The pad was completely worn through, and the rivets had worn groves into the rotor. I was able to do the pads myself, but had to go to a shop to have the rotor swapped since the bearings would also need re-packing, and I didn't have the tools necessary for that.
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