Uh-oh car!

[judecorp]

Sometimes I really think that my vocabulary is going to turn into random word-word utterances. Too much work! (Bye-bye work!)

~//~

Yesterday was not a good day for a Ford Focus Driver.

Jen had scheduled a maintenance appointment for our car because it has been having some trouble starting on and off for some time now. We tried a while back to take it to this garage near our house that our landlord recommended, but nothing changed (except the fuel filter) and the problem was still happening. Then last weekend when I went to RI, I noticed that the car was leaking some sort of petroleum product a little bit, and well, that needed to stop. So off to the dealer we went, since they know the car better then the local dudes and they have convenient rental cars.

Jen gets up early and goes to the dealer while I'm getting ready for work, and as I'm waiting for her to come back with the rental so I can do my job, she's stuck in rush hour traffic. She gets home with just enough time for me to get into work for my stuff, and I take the key and run downstairs to see... a flat tire on the rental car. And I mean TOTALLY flat. So I call Jen back down, she calls the rental car roadside assistance people, and I beg my coworker to come pick me up.

Jen waits something like an hour and a half for the roadside assistance people to actually show up, at which time a grumbly man puts the donut on so Jen can drive the car back to the dealer. It is now about 11am.

Jen gets to the dealer and they don't seem to have time to change the tire right away, although they do tell her that there is a screw in the tire. So she waits, and at 11:45 she calls and says she's waiting for them to have time to change the tire. At this point, I can't cancel any more appointments, really, and I tell her to just ditch the rental and wait for our actual car because I can't use the rental car at this point. She ends up waiting at the dealer until 2 and I beg a coworker to let me borrow her car (another Ford Focus, HAR HAR) for the afternoon.

Jen comes home with the car and tells me that they said that our spark plugs were too loose and that over time, they kept getting looser and now gas was getting into them and the whole thing was just a big, gassy, loose mess. So $500 later, we hopefully have a fixed car. And they were "nice" enough to only charge us for half a day of rental car even though, HELLO, we never got to use it. But whatever.

Jen met me at work at 5 so I could drive her back home and then go to my 5:30 home visit. Ugh, what a frickin' day. Stupid car.

Today I'm working 11 hours straight. Yeah, that will be fun.

Comments

[oxlahun.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Foci, have you had the warranty service where they replace your springs (if that applies to your year)? 'Cos, well, it's a real pain in the ass if they break. Takes a day if you schedule it, a week if it happens on its own.

[kieron.livejournal.com]

I have an extended warranty so I have to do all the maintenance and recall stuff. I had a recall issue for rear door hinges and they looked atthat yesterday at the dealership. Said it was okay.

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

...Gas getting into your... sparkplugs?

OK, well, I don't actually know what that means since...

A: I tightened those plugs plenty and
B: Sparkplugs are supposed to have gas on the "ignition" end anyway.

So, uh, I don't get it.... :(

[kieron.livejournal.com]

He said that it looked like the spark plugs had come loose over time due to some sort of "rattling" which caused more gas than it was suposed to have to get in there - that is what caused the "gas smell" when we used the heater - or something. He also said that the computer or something had to be reset after changing the spark plugs and all that crap...or something - they did yesterday exactly what they had wanted to do that time and by that point I just said yes okay do it. Jude can't have a hard to start car all day! And we had to have a recall thing checked out and/or fixed anyway, and the rental from them was cheaper than from Enterprise....yeah except for paying to wait for the tire to be changed...

Now, however, last night the car stalled twice - which it didn't do before. And this morning Jude called me as I got to back bay to tell me that the car stalled while she was driving *AND* the check engine light came on - which it also didn't do before. So now we have to bring the f*cker back to Quirk on Saturday. Jon, the service person, told me about Ford's wonderful 12/12 warranty on all repairs - 12 months or 12000 miles. So when I called this morning and spoke to some other ass, he tried to make it seem like a brand new problem. I was very specific that the check engine light came on only while the car was being "repaired" by the tech and now today after I brought it to them. So if it is a new problem then they caused it. If it is in fact the real problem and they just screwed me over for $500 futzing around with the spark plugs because they didn't look any further for their $90/inspection fee for *each* complaint, they are damned well going to fix the car right.

I am so pissed off right now, I cna't even begin to tell you!

I really wish I had bought that Hyundai instead.

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Yeah, sounds like they broke something else in the fix. Suck-o-matic.

[00solstice.livejournal.com]

Like putting the sparkplug wires back on all the way?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I just hope they plan to fix it. For free.

[00solstice.livejournal.com]

I have to say, when I read the part in Jude's post about sparkplugs, I thought "bullshit." Changing the spark plugs is a common dealer 'cure' when they haven't figured out what the problem really is. It takes like 10 minutes and allows them to charge a couple of hundred dollars for 40 bucks in parts and true labor. Except, of course, that it sounds like they didn't even give you new plugs. And if you go back saying the problem isn't fixed, they can be like "oh, but they needed to be tightened anyway... no refund for you!"

Yeah, I read last year that Hyundai is tied for second place, and one point away from first, in JD Power's quality survey, ranking right alongside Toyota and Honda. But keep in mind, there were important reasons not to get the Hyundai... namely the inability to get an automatic transmission without a leather interior.

[kieron.livejournal.com]

Well the reason was that there was no non leather interior for the GT...period. Leather = unhappy Jude. Unhappy Jude = no gf (at the time) riding around with you in your new set of wheels.

Feh....this whole deal pisses me off.

[00solstice.livejournal.com]

Right, I remember the leather dilemma and I thought the GT model was the only one that offered an automatic transmission...

Why didn't you get a non-GT model without leather? I can't remember...

[kieron.livejournal.com]

Non GT model did not come in hatcback - only in sedan. I wanted a hatchback....of course I then bought a sedan focus....it seemed like a good deal at the time.

[00solstice.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, that's right! Do you want me to throw a rock at "The Used Car Factory" next time I drive by?

[kieron.livejournal.com]

YES!

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

YES!

[volumeat11.livejournal.com]

· Don't ever wish you bought a Hyundai instead.

· The check engine light coming on is due to the same problem -- the "sparkplug misfire," I bet they'll come back with.

· I'm a closet-car-guy.

· I like bulletpoints this morning.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

-I also agree that the engine light is due to a spark plug misfire. And that they will just reset it and say, "hey, you're fine."

-My guess is that the wires either are not on correctly or are loose. And they will blame us.

-I also wonder if they set the idle-thinger too low and now every time it goes to idle, it stalls.

-See, I'm a closet car gal.

Off-Topic Response

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

What's the Waterbed situation in RI? Am I going to be draining it?

Re: Off-Topic Response

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

No. I did it last weekend. I thought I'd posted that here but I might not have.

So, thanks for the offer of the sump pump, but it's been totally covered. :)

xo

[00solstice.livejournal.com]

at which time a grumbly man puts the donut on so Jen can drive the car back to the dealer. [...] So she waits, and at 11:45 she calls and says she's waiting for them to have time to change the tire
Lesson learned? Drive with the #$%&ing donut. Who cares, it's not your car.

She ends up waiting at the dealer until 2 and I beg a coworker to let me borrow her car (another Ford Focus, HAR HAR) for the afternoon.
At which point the steering wheel suddenly and inexplicably locks to the right, causing the Focus to careen uncontrollably to the side and and pitch nose first off a cliff that no one ever, ever previously knew existed in Dorchester... absolutely and unequivically ruining the rest of your day.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Dude, seriously. I really kept waiting for something to go wrong with my coworker's car. Thankfully, nothing did.

But now that our car is back, and it's stalling every time it's in park - augh. I hate cars.

Stereotype broken

[vorpalbla.livejournal.com]

"Jen waits something like an hour and a half for the roadside assistance people to actually show up, at which time a grumbly man puts the donut on so Jen can drive the car back to the dealer. It is now about 11am."

I don't get it. Two lesbians and neither of you can change a tire?

Re: Stereotype broken

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I had to go to work in a hurry, so I had to call a coworker and BEG her to be late to her visit and come pick me up.

Jen called the roadside people because we didn't want to do anything that might in any way screw with the stupid dealer rental car. There's NO WAY I would want to be told that we scratched the car or some crap like that.

We can both change tires.