Re: OT Car repairs was Re: Thanx Linda

On 7/7/09 3:20 PM, in article C679184B.15AC1%egirl22@xxxxxxxxxxx, "ellice"
<egirl22@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 7/7/09 2:38 PM, "Cheryl Isaak" <cherylisaak@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 7/7/09 2:21 PM, in article C6790A87.15AAB%egirl22@xxxxxxxxxxx, "ellice"
<egirl22@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 7/5/09 3:27 PM, "Nancy" <Tangyn@xxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jul 4, 7:13?pm, ellice <egir...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
planted. ?

Snipping all Ellice did yesterday....she makes me yawn just
thinking about it.

Pulling all these weeds, and spreading mulch - I felt like I was
channeling
Cheryl. ?Of course, on periodic breaks I did come in, drink huge glass of
water, and watch the American Revolution on the history channel.

?I need some pink hair tape for my hair, I think!

Ellice-

I think I should hire you. We've got a bumper crop of clover this
year (what happens when you don't fertilize/kill the weeds in May)
as well as lots of ground ivy. And of course it's been raining
off and on ever since the painters finished painting. Then there are
the windows....do you do windows? I have delayed cleaning them until
the paint's competely dry.

But....I did stitch yesterday.

Nancy

LOL - don't hire me - I only do these things in bursts.

Today has brought another thrill in expensive car repairs. I'm avoiding
doing paperwork right now. Ugh.

Ellice

Don't kill the clover - it helps fix nitrogen in the soil. And grass is a
heavy feeder. When it grows where I don't want it, I trim at the soil line
to leave the nitrogen high roots in place.

Clover - understand the nitrogen thing, however, the HOA doesn't like the
look in the front. We'll see how things look in a week - after some more
regular watering.

Mow it twice in a day, day and half, and the clover will respond by growing
lower while the grass grows taller. Unless of course some one actually comes
to inspect what is growing in the lawn.

And Ellice - what is the damage on Nessie?


C

Nessie - ahem. After we negotiated to split the labor - as in not pay for
their mistake, and then paid cost for the new Air Suspension reservoir bags
- that ended up at about $1280 or so (including the a/c flush & recharge,
oil change, etc) Then the next day - Nessie had to go back as on the same
night we got it the suspension dropped again. This time they gave us a
rental, which we had from Thursday thru Monday - the brand new Nissan
Sentra. It was just fine. This time the "senior/head tech" went through
the car - he had fixed the mistake the earlier one made - and found a burned
out relay. So, the question then becomes chicken or egg - did the relay
cause the pump to burn up by constantly sending to it - or did the bad
installation of the new pump cause the relay to fail? We ended up paying
the cost only for the new relay, and no labor - so that was essentially
another $120.

Now, of course, I am having really dreary frustrated oh woe is me thoughts.
We brought the TT to the local VW dealer - which has very high ratings for
work, customer satisfaction, etc - and 2 certified Audi mechanics. They
only charge a bout $11 more/hour than our usual independent shop. They did
thie diagnostic - we waited - which was a good thing. The bad part - we got
to look at lovely new cars, many on special. But ...nothing til the house
is settled up. The other thing - the service writer came and got us to go
back into the bay and see the deal with the leaking Power steering fluid.
What fun - I love being under the lift. Yup, it's dripping regularly -
right out the end of the boot that covers the hydraulics on the power
steering rack rod which ties to the tire. Lovely. Sealed hydraulics. The
boots were replaced just 6 months ago when the suspension was done. Also, a
minor/maybe leak in the high pressure hose (not critical). The service
writer hands us an estimate for ....$2150 for the rack. $430 for the Hi
Pressure Hose, and forget the $835 for the gas sending units (2 of them).
Uh huh. I almost choked. They were very nice, but... She did say they'd
give us a rental car for the 2 day repair. But wanted us to see what the
deal was (as I always now do the "we're engineers, please let us know what
you really find - and can talk gearhead stuff with the techs). Lovely. We
took a few minutes to go call the shop we usually use (where we have an
apptm in a week - as it takes time to get on their calendar) - asking for
them to e-mail us again (as we could use the customer courtesy office space
for web access) what was repaired with the suspension - I knew the boots
looked really new. And then we contemplated our many various bad
alternatives. Ending with the VW folks telling us that we wouldn't have to
pay again for the hour diagnostic time, and she recalculated the PS repair -
there was a mischarge with the alignment that has to be redone. But, they
want 8 hours as that's what the Audi book says for that job, as opposed to
charging the actual charge. And their part cost is about $ 860. We decided
to come home, DH will drive the now working Nessie, and I can drive Skeeter
(the TT) for my miniscule 4 mi commute til it's fixed. The good thing, the
very nice mechanic told us the pump is quite hardy, and we could likely
drive it around for about a year without fixing the steering rack - wouldn't
damage the pump. Just if we're driving it - keep replacing the fluid -
which leaks out over a few days.

So.... We decided to go eat lunch - as it was about 11 - been there for 3
hours. By which time DH called the office, relayed the saga to his
colleague that has been following the progress - or lack thereof. And then
DH decided "mental health day." So, we ate lunch, came home, found stupid
e-mail from regular shop = sending us the estimate but instead thea
attachment was the repair record from May. Sent replay asking if perhaps we
were blind, but..... Then argued with Capital One on phone over cc which we
got but didn't want and never activated - to be told by Indian guy that all
was fine, it had been corrected we have nothing to worry about - but he
won't send us anything - in the meantime some collection person is calling
us. Finally, DH conveyed enough unhappiness so that we got a manager - who
I think is actually here in NA (she sounded very Canadian - or maybe from
ND) who finally understood our dilemma and agreed to take care that we are
not "blamed". Yeah.

was it bitching about paying annual fees. There is a good reason not to use
Capital One.

Now, get e-mail with correct estimate. So, our regular shop (well known
Audi/VW specialist in DC area near old house) is charging $180 less for
part, and only 5.5 hours of labor instead of 8. So, we send them back note
to keep our appt for the 14th, and we'll let them know if we want to push
the appmt out further, and BTW, will they give us a loaner? Waiting to hear
response. DH actually wants to go to the VW dealer here - as it's so close,
and the shop was quite nice. But, OTOH, $500 is more than the cost of a
rental for 2 days.

So, right now, I think I'll just go put my head down and cry as I'm again
haging that overwhelmed feeling. OTOH, I could just avoid doing what I
should and go stitch - which I also should do. Ack. And I haven't heard
from the fabulous give my eye teeth and whatever else job people.

Hope you stitched.
Such is life.
Hugs

Cheryl

.

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