Things you'd never expect to hear me say:
Nov. 27th, 2009 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblog* "Why, sure, I'd LOVE to go shopping!"
* "Boy, that President Bush sure got a bad rap. Why is everybody so mean to him?"
* "I love my auto mechanic."
Fortunately, only one of those statements is true. Since the second one is patently absurd, and the first is hardly one I'd utter on this of all days, I should explain the props I'm giving to three guys: Erin and Bill, the proprietors, and Scott, the runner of the service counter, at Maple and Sweet Home.
----
Finding this place may have been the only long-term good thing to come out of Eleanor's many years in her last furniture retail job. One of her co-workers there recommended them- on its face, no different than a dozen dozen other gas-station-connected service bays in our home town, but just a couple of blocks down from Ashley Furniture- and they've always done well by us. When the antilock brakes on Eleanor's truck got gorked earlier this year, right around inspection time, Scott had a simple solution to the problem that saved us hundreds, if not thousands, over the full repair the dealer would've surely recommended: he pulled the fuse on the ABS circuit, and the remaining brake-brakes work just fine (ABS being a bit redundant, anyway, on a truck that rarely drives more than 40 mph or the five miles to Wegmans and back, and it has all-wheel-drive for the rare occasions you would want extra vehicle control). My friend Donna entirely owes her current ride to their good efforts over the summer. Today, though, my car and I were blessed with their smarts and their kindness.
The car's run fine, but has sounded a little shaky the past few weeks. Literally so- at idle, at times, it sounded like somebody shuffling cards under the front end. On Wednesday, I made a biryani-and-bagel run to a shopping plaza near here (we've been ordering shrimp biryani from that restaurant as a Thanksgiving Day side dish for over a decade now), and happened to walk back to the parking space at just the right angle to see something hanging out from under there.
Eleanor looked earlier today after I made my lookee appointment with Scott, and her earlier posted guess about it being a heat shield issue was exactly right. I'd suspected that, too, but was mostly worried that the shield was somehow intergrated into the catalytic converter, which is a restricted-repair part that can't be fixed or even replaced with a functioning used one in this lovely country of ours. That was the source of my earlier worrier about winding up spending more on Black Friday than even the mallrats were.
Ten minutes after my 2:00 appointment began, Scott confirmed both that it was (a heat shield) and it wasn't (a repair requiring a new converter, or a new anything, for that matter). Ten minutes after that, they'd nailed it back into place, good as new. Cost of this effort: zero.
Scott did notice my ever-balding tires (an issue I've known about since March, when automotive houses of far less repute brought it to my attention), and quoted me on a new set and an alignment. Of course I'm going back there to have that done.
Seriously. If you have car issues here, call 836-7500. Scott will answer. Mention either of us, or "honking yellow truck" if he sounds especially busy and doesn't recognize our names out of context. They'll take good care of ya.
* "Boy, that President Bush sure got a bad rap. Why is everybody so mean to him?"
* "I love my auto mechanic."
Fortunately, only one of those statements is true. Since the second one is patently absurd, and the first is hardly one I'd utter on this of all days, I should explain the props I'm giving to three guys: Erin and Bill, the proprietors, and Scott, the runner of the service counter, at Maple and Sweet Home.
----
Finding this place may have been the only long-term good thing to come out of Eleanor's many years in her last furniture retail job. One of her co-workers there recommended them- on its face, no different than a dozen dozen other gas-station-connected service bays in our home town, but just a couple of blocks down from Ashley Furniture- and they've always done well by us. When the antilock brakes on Eleanor's truck got gorked earlier this year, right around inspection time, Scott had a simple solution to the problem that saved us hundreds, if not thousands, over the full repair the dealer would've surely recommended: he pulled the fuse on the ABS circuit, and the remaining brake-brakes work just fine (ABS being a bit redundant, anyway, on a truck that rarely drives more than 40 mph or the five miles to Wegmans and back, and it has all-wheel-drive for the rare occasions you would want extra vehicle control). My friend Donna entirely owes her current ride to their good efforts over the summer. Today, though, my car and I were blessed with their smarts and their kindness.
The car's run fine, but has sounded a little shaky the past few weeks. Literally so- at idle, at times, it sounded like somebody shuffling cards under the front end. On Wednesday, I made a biryani-and-bagel run to a shopping plaza near here (we've been ordering shrimp biryani from that restaurant as a Thanksgiving Day side dish for over a decade now), and happened to walk back to the parking space at just the right angle to see something hanging out from under there.
Eleanor looked earlier today after I made my lookee appointment with Scott, and her earlier posted guess about it being a heat shield issue was exactly right. I'd suspected that, too, but was mostly worried that the shield was somehow intergrated into the catalytic converter, which is a restricted-repair part that can't be fixed or even replaced with a functioning used one in this lovely country of ours. That was the source of my earlier worrier about winding up spending more on Black Friday than even the mallrats were.
Ten minutes after my 2:00 appointment began, Scott confirmed both that it was (a heat shield) and it wasn't (a repair requiring a new converter, or a new anything, for that matter). Ten minutes after that, they'd nailed it back into place, good as new. Cost of this effort: zero.
Scott did notice my ever-balding tires (an issue I've known about since March, when automotive houses of far less repute brought it to my attention), and quoted me on a new set and an alignment. Of course I'm going back there to have that done.
Seriously. If you have car issues here, call 836-7500. Scott will answer. Mention either of us, or "honking yellow truck" if he sounds especially busy and doesn't recognize our names out of context. They'll take good care of ya.
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no subject
Date: 2009-11-28 02:27 am (UTC)I like Frank's in Albion, which has the added benefit of being right next door to the County Health Dept. where I work.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-28 02:14 pm (UTC)Sadly, I think that shop is a bit far for me to drive, esp. if the goal is to fix a broken car.