My boyfriend is the most amazing person, if not THE most amazing thing to happen to me. I've been having car issues, I've taken it to the shop, and each time I go, there's something else I need to fix. Fortunately, and not so fortunately for the shop guys, I don't often just fix things without a second opinion. Thankfully my boyfriend is skilled in more things than just fancy, high-tech mechanics, so he offered to help me with my car whenever I wanted. I took him up on the offer last week, and last night the first thing on the bucket list was my brake pads and rotors.
The auto shop I had been going to for years had always been dependable, and reliable, and I always came away feeling like I was taken care of. I'm not sure if the shop changed hands, but the usual manager no longer manned the desk... and it's in these last few visits that I started to notice that I required more and more work. Granted that my car is a 2001, and I don't do work on it other than the usual oil change every 3-4 months. This last visit was no different, I asked for the usual oil change, and for a brake check. They questioned my request, "do you hear noises? is something wrong with them??". It's not the recent downpour of rain that's got me worried about my brakes, nope. Service was fine, but the guy working on my car looked so miserable. At the end of it all, he mentions a couple of things, and tells the desk guy to let me know all of the work I needed done.
I needed the following services:
- new front rotors and brake pads (I had about 20% left on them, and 60% on the back ones... which meant "change the front ones now, and change your back brakes in 6 months")
On top of these other services for other things I asked them to check and maintain:
- timing belt change (which I might actually need to do)
- new A/C compressor (boyfriend mentioned that I might only need to have it recharged... so this new compressor business is NEW to me)
And not to mention....:
- I'm missing 2 lug nuts and one of the studs had corroded...
And let's not stop there, they offered me this information, but didn't even suggest how I go about fixing it. I had to ask the desk guy what I needed to do about the lugs, and how to go about FIXING my corroded stud. Do I replace it? Do I bring it into a shop? Is it something I can do? The desk guy was very genuine, told me it was simple, and told me where to get the parts. I just had no idea, and this guy... didn't give a rat's a-s-s about my safety.
My boyfriend and I had tentatively planned to check my brakes before he ordered the parts, just to be sure. He showed me how to jack my car, loosen the lugs, take off the tires, look at my brakes, check the parts, and explained to me in detail what I should be looking for. He was extremely patient, since I was being a little prissy about unscrewing the lugs... and wimpy about jacking up my car. In the end, what I learned was auto shops are just not to be trusted. I had been lied to. Not only were my brakes and rotors fine for another half a year, my stud was not corroded. "Someone" had stripped the stud, and the lug wouldn't screw on after that... even I thought it was funny that he should tell me it corroded. ONE stud on ONE wheel... shouldn't they ALL be corroded?? Didn't make no darned sense.
All of this has made me think how lucky I am to have him in my life, and I don't know if anyone else in a relationship ever feels this way, but sometimes I wonder... if my boyfriend's so wonderful... then why didn't his last relationships work. It boggles my mind.
Maybe it's true, what's great for one person, might not be so great for another. For me, he's perfect.
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