{"id":267,"date":"2006-01-08T16:16:20","date_gmt":"2006-01-08T21:16:20","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2006-01-08T16:16:20","modified_gmt":"2006-01-08T21:16:20","slug":"episode-8-smokey-and-the-engine-cover-bandit-in-the-never-ending-saga-of-the-most-beat-up-22-month-old-car-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/?p=267","title":{"rendered":"Episode 8: “Smokey and the Engine Cover Bandit” in the Never ending Saga of the Most Beat up 22 Month Old Car in the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hit 35,000 miles this week, so it was time for another trip to EZ-Lube<\/a>. After getting ripped for $130 for an oil change and power steering flush (my baby only gets the good synthetic stuff now) I was on my way to West Covina to eat some spaghetti at Amy’s house. As I’m lazily driving down Citrus Street I see what is either dust blowing over my hood or smoke coming out of the hood. When I got to her house I opened up the hood and saw- yep – that’s smoke alright. They’d spilled the oil on the lower engine bay and it was burning off (and not exactly smelling like roses either). To my surprise I noticed something else. My engine cover was gone. I immediately called EZ Lube. After being told for fifteen minutes by someone that “nah – that car doesn’t have an engine cover, Boss, never seen a Mazda with an engine cover, Boss” (this is tantamount to working at Target<\/a> and not knowing what the “bullseye logo” is) I got out my receipt and asked to talk to the actual employee that changed the oil. He told me that he remembered that when he opened the hood there wasn’t an engine cover. So this means one of three things has happened:<\/p>\n

#1 (most likely) when Star Mazda<\/a> removed the engine cover to pop the drive belt back on after this incident<\/a> they forgot to put it back on<\/p>\n

#2 EZ Lube took it off to aid in the cleanup of their oil spill on my car and forgot to put it back on, but didn’t want to admit it.<\/p>\n

#3 Black – market Mazda engine cover bandits broke into my garage in the middle of the night and absconded with my cover.<\/p>\n

So, now I have to call Star Mazda on Monday and prepare to hear “huh, we don’t know what you’re talking about – but if you want to buy a new cover we can get it for you and install it for about $100”<\/p>\n

So now my question to you all is – do I need an engine cover? Is it a necessity – or is it just cosmetic? I’d rather not have to get another freaking rental car and leave my car at the dealer for another day just to get this engine cover if it isn’t really necessary for the normal operation of the car.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hit 35,000 miles this week, so it was time for another trip to EZ-Lube. After getting ripped for $130 for an oil change and power steering flush (my baby only gets the good synthetic stuff now) I was on my way to West Covina to eat some spaghetti at Amy’s house. As I’m lazily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}