Stephen Jacob (mavjop) wrote,
Stephen Jacob
mavjop

Car fixed up and happy!

I was 944 miles late for it, but I just got my car's 142.5k mile service done.

In addition to the usual service stuff, I wanted them to check into two things.
  1. The odometer backlight seemed to be broken.
  2. The right front wheel seemed to have a slow leak of some sort, and it wasn't obvious if it was the valve or the tire.
The other day, while at Costco filling the car up with gas, I noticed (ok, so the guy at the next pump noticed and pointed out to me) that the right front tire was a bit low. I checked it, and it was 13psi instead of the recommended 32! Ouch! So, it turned out there was a nail in the tire. They fixed it for $30. Not too bad. I might have been able to get it fixed for a tiny bit less elsewhere, but it definitely wouldn't have been worth the significant wasted time and effort to save five bucks or something. In addition, from being driven on when low, the outer edges of the tread on that tire were worn smooth! Car expert-ish colleagues told me that tire should be moved to the back since on a front wheel drive car you want the best tires on the front. The dealership had done that anyway. YAAAAAAAY![*]

As for the backlight, I'm not sure, and I'll have to check this next time I drive at night, but it seems it may simply have been because a knob which adjusts the dashboard backlight brightness level was turned down. I hope so! I like the "free" better than the "however much they'd charge me to take apart the dash board and replace a 0.5 cent LED"!

In other related news: The guy who works for the dealership who drops me off at and picks me up from my office when I bring my car in to them is leaving! Boo!

Francisco drives 4.5-5hrs every day to and from work, from Stockton, CA to Redwood City, CA. I don't know how he does it. He gets up at 3:15am, and he gets home anywhere from 7pm to 9pm. OUCH. He is starting next month at a job based near where he lives, and his wife who worked at Stanford is starting some new job around Stockton too, so both of them will have an extra 4+ hours every day.

I'll miss being able to hop into the dealership van, say "Hi Francisco, how's things?", and have him drive me to work without my having to tell him where to go, though.

[*] That post cracks me up every time! :)
Tags: car, friends, life
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