Posts tagged lake geneva

As I sit here in this tiny little car shop in Lake Geneva, WI, staring into my iPhone and listening to a local radio station on a “boom box” sitting atop a Little Debbie Snack Cake rack filled with “pixy  stix” and stale “blow pops”, I find myself pondering a few questions.

Before I get to the questions, here’s the situation.

Last week, the water pump in our VW Jetta broke and since we were near a local shop where we know the mechanic, we pulled in and asked advice. He told us to take the car down the street to this other shop that specializes in foreign cars.

We did and they couldn’t look at it until the next day, which was Saturday.

Remember that we sold our other car last month, so we’re a one car family now.

Saturday comes around and we’re told that the car won’t be fixed until late Monday. OK, so, shit. We make a few calls and my mom was gracious enough to let us use her only car for the weekend.

Monday comes around and we call the shop to get a status on the car. Jen asks how it’s going and gets a reply of “(big sigh), it’s going, car is not going to be ready until 5pm, but call before you come.”. We call at 4:45pm and were told that it wouldn’t be ready until 6:00pm, but call before you come. We called at 5:30pm and they said to be here before 6:00pm and it should be ready.

Jen’s dad drove me down to the shop, which is only about 4 miles from our house. The mechanic shows me the water pump that was in the car and how it was broken. Cool.

Fast forward to today, Monday of the following week. I drive the car into Milwaukee to go to work and don’t notice anything out of the ordinary. I leave work and as I’m driving out of the parking lot, the “holy shit, you’re either out of coolant or your car is way too damn hot” light came on. I say WTF to myself and proceed to the nearest gas station to see what was going on. As I look under the hood I see that the coolant is indeed empty. I look under the cat and see a nice little drip of something coming out of the car. It feels slick and appears to be coolant. Awesome.

I venture into the gas station to buy some coolant and wouldn’t you know it, they are all out. Awesome.

It just so happened that I was less than a half mile from a large VW dealership. I drive the car over to the dealership and pull into their garage bay. I explain my situation and they happily fill the coolant for me and since my plan was to get the car back to Lake Geneva to the car place that did the work last week, I was on my way.

Driving approximate 55 miles from Glendale to Lake Geneva not knowing if your car is going to overheat is kind of stressful. Every little noise I heard I was thinking that the car was doing something that it wasn’t supposed to, but, the drive back went fine, no overheating.

I pulled into the local shop and explain the situation. The owner guy takes my keys and I sign some paper saying he could work on the car and he looks up and says “OK, we’ll look and let you know what we find.”.

I look at him and reply “this is our only car and I am on foot now, I’ll be hanging around the shop.”, which brings me back to the questions I’m now pondering.

1.  When someone comes into your establishment with car problems, is it normal to assume they came there with alternative transportation? I relate this to computers, because it’s easier for me understand… If someone drops their computer off to be fixed, would the tech say “OK, we’ll email you when the computer is fixed.”?  I suppose the answer depends on the person. Just sort of got under my skin when he assumed I was just dropping and taking off.

2.  Are local mechanics worth their weight compared to a dealership? I’ve had a lot of work done on cars over the years and it’s been my experience that I’ve had to return to the local shops more  often than to the dealership to have them redo or rework the previous work.

3.  Would anyone really purchase candy from a place like this?  I mean, a gas station / car shop type place isn’t known for cleanliness.  Nasty.

The mechanic / owner came out to talk to me.  He indicated that there wasn’t a leak and that the coolant container was keeping pressure normally.  We walked into the garage and he raised the car up on the hydraulic lifts so I could show him where the leak was.  I show him the spot where the coolant was dripping out and he shows me how it is dry and no longer leaking.

He provided a couple thoughts about what could’ve caused the leak or spillage of coolant.  One idea was some dirt under a seal that must’ve cleared itself out.  Another was a ‘burp’ of the radiator that would cause coolant to spill out.

I’m not a mechanic, but I can tell when someone is telling me something he doesn’t really believe himself.  We’ll see whether or not the issue was indeed nothing, hopefully it turns out to be.  Its horrible to think that the car could overheat with Jen and the kids in the car.

For now, we’re keeping an eye on any drips or leaks.  Stay safe in your cars…