On Friday night as I was driving from the gym to the art store (I needed to pick up transfer paper so I can do away with the inefficient “grid” method I’ve been doing) I heard a faint gurgling bubbling noise. When I was only a few blocks from home my car flashed the dash and died. The engine temperature gauge just before that had shot through the roof.
I started up the car (this was in the middle of traffic on sherman way) and got it home. While cleaning my kitchen for three hours (parents are coming in a few weeks) I debated taking the car to Tri-Point Mazda on Monday or just driving to Galpin in the morning. I called Galpin in the morning and was told that they were “extremely busy” but if I came out they would make sure my car got into the shop even though I might have to “wait 4-6 hours.” I ended up waiting nearly the full 5 before the shop foreman took a look at my car.
Unlike other dealerships that cite “insurance concerns” and won’t let you into the shop – they brought me back to investigate with him. At first he couldn’t figure out what had happened. Then, with a nifty flashlight he saw coolant resting on some parts deep inside the engine bay. After removing the battery we found coolant all over (the transmission enclosure??). The culprit could immediately be seen with the battery removed, a coolant tube to the engine had snapped clean off.
The shop manager Bill Snow, an apparent long lost twin of Tom from Office Space informed me that my car would be ready at some point on Monday – and the bill with parts and labor would top out just shy of $1,000. Some of you know that my financial situation has been hampered by an ongoing problem lately involving money owed to me but not paid. This amount has now stretched into the thousands and I’m likely going to have to go to civil court to get it resolved. I’m currently paying bills from emergency savings – and so another $1,000 out the door (thank goodness Galpin takes American Express) wasn’t exactly the Christmas Gift I was hoping for.
Tom/Bill:
Seems excessive for a plastic tee but I suppose no one else has them except a mazda dealer. Did they just do the tee or does a large assembly come as one piece & replace all the hoses? I know when I went to replace the headlight assembly on the probe the price was out of sight “but we don’t stock them anyway”.
Toyota wants $300 for a “winter prep”–don’t think I will be going there.
Apparently the large assembly came as one piece and went down below the engine next to the firewall so they had to take it out. “Luckily” they had all the parts there.
My fog lights haven’t been working for about three years – but you have to remove everything but the engine to get to them – so I have never replaced those.
Just so ya know you are not alone—went out to the garage this morning to go the doc’s and found the stick pruner on the floor. A quick inspection and I found two scratches on the Rav where the pruner hopped off the rack and slammed into the rear left side door. Normally the Rav would have a cover on it but after your mother’s doc visit I decided to leave off the cover to “save time” because I knew I would be going out today and it would be raining. “kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit, KILL DA WABBIT!!!”
I’d much rather imagine you have snakes in the garage again, so much more exciting. The first scratch on a new car always hurts the worst, so…. be thankful it’ll be easier from here?