Attack of the Car Demon, Part Deux

[cathyr19355]

It turns out that jmaynard was right--the only thing wrong with the car turned out to be a bad battery. If only the battery had crapped out two days sooner, while the car was still in the shop undergoing annual state inspection, it would have saved me some time and stress if not money. Ed, my mechanic, tells me that most car batteries today have a 5-year warranty, and he put my last one in 5 years ago. Figures. :-(

In any event, I got the car back for a measly $140 ($89 for the new battery, the rest for labor). So things could have been a lot worse.

On the other hand, the new motor in my *car's* A/C system, the new motor Ed put in when I had the car inspected because the old one was whining annoyingly, has suddenly decided to work only when I have the fan set at the highest possible setting. Why, oh why can't anything I've gotten fixed lately *stay* fixed?

Comments

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

That failure is probably not the blower motor if, as I suspect from your description, it doesn't turn at all unless you set the fan to high. There's a resistor pack that's used to drop the voltage going to the blower motor for lower speeds, and that has probably failed. When the fan control is set to high, that resistor pack is out of the circuit.

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

You're probably right, Jay, but except to the extent the difference has an effect on my ultimate repair bill, I don't care about the cause. What is frustrating to me is that this is the third time this year I sought to have something repaired, only to find that, for whatever reason, the item still needed repairing shortly after I got it back.

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I understand *that* one all too well; it's a major reason I will give the Ford Motor Company no more of my money...

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

I've never had a Ford, but I feel much the same way about Chrysler--the folk who made the Dodge Aries that was my first car. :-(

I've become a great believer in using Consumer Reports to suss out good used cars. That's how I selected the last two cars I bought, and they've both done pretty well.

[mirell.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way in everything I own falling apart...

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

Feeling as though everything I own is falling apart isn't so bad; I'm used to that. No, the awful part is feeling as though I can't even get the stuff I bother to fix to *stay* fixed....

Different mechanic?

[pmat.livejournal.com]

Depending on how thoroughly you trust your mechanic, you might consider switching. We have had very good luck indeed with Paoli Auto, behind the Wawa in Paoli. As far as I can judge after 20 years of taking cars to them they are both incredibly competent and completely honest.

Re: Different mechanic?

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

No, I do trust my mechanic. I've been dealing with my current mechanic at least as long as you have with yours, and the double-double whammy is most unusual. Part of the reason I trust my mechanic is that if something doesn't stay fixed, I can take it back and they'll fix it without further charge without question.

The reason the steering didn't stay fixed was that my guy got a defective part from his supplier. I haven't gone back about the A/C fan, in part because I got a very late start this morning and didn't want to come home early to retrieve the car afterward.