our mechanical overseers

our vehicles really take care of us…

…take quinn, nik’s x1, for example.

last friday she had her low coolant light come on. she didn’t tell me at the time – she got some distilled water out of the house, topped off the reserve tank, and moved on. when it happened again the next day, she told me about it. but, when we chatted, it turned out she had added the water when it was warm, which kinda gives you a “false positive” as to the level, and so, since she was on her way to a charity thing at a local brewery, she just let it sit there a couple hours and i popped by and checked it. the level was definitely low, so we added some more and she drove home without issue. sunday the light came back on when she was coming home from wal-mart, so i gave it an hour and popped the hood. you could see coolant everywhere now (there had been none at the celis brewery the day before) and a cursory glance showed the radiator hose connecting the thermostat to the cylinder head had torn itself from the latter. amazon delivered another one the next day, and all was well. but quinn waited till she got home to force the issue, making sure nik was safe.

likewise, m took care of me. when i got her i noticed a noise on the left front tire when you took off. further investigation had me determining it was the wheel bearing. said bearing was got, along with new turn signals and brake pads (if you have to take it apart, might as well do all that’s needed around there at the same time, i reckon) but i was gonna wait till late october, early november, to do it. as i put it, when we started to get less “fuck you temperatures”.

last week it seemed the issue was going to be forced as i started getting more noise and vibration at highway speed. it seemed like it had reached it’s melting point when i came home from the tuesday route and i told nik i’d have to deal with it the next morning as i was off and free…but only for the morning. and by the time i had looked up all i needed to do and see to get the job started i had less than two hours till i had to leave to run david for groceries, so i just took quinn and let m rest. the next day, however, i had to take her in to work as nik needed hers, so i went in, but on the outskirts of town, all of a sudden, the road noise that was heading towards deafening stopped, and the silence was almost overwhelming. (un)fortunately it was soon interrupted by the chime that accompanied the low tire light. the final tire she came with (a non run flat nitto) had finally died.

i hit the nearest used tire spot and to my surprise, they had not one, but two tires in the proper size (also non run flat, unfortunately) and while the first one was damaged and couldn’t be mounted (not from a lack of trying, though the word “calamity” is a better word for what i witnessed than “installation”) and ninety dollars later i was back on the road and things are now rolling smooth enough that i feel that repair CAN be put off till november now…

…but there’s still plenty to do on the others, as black betty also “took care of me” by letting me get her safely home after her belt shredded on a road test.