The wheels on the truck go round and round...
It's been an interesting couple of weeks. I've spent most of my spare time either working on my house or playing Runescape just so I could have some "downtime" and connect with myself again. I tend to do this when I've got so many other things going on that I feel "lost" in the whirlwind of activity.
Everyone knows by now that my best friend was married a few weeks ago. It was a fantastic weekend of friends, family and get-down-and-dirty partying but I'll write posts specific to that at a later date. As the only bridesmaid within 1000 miles of the wedding, I volunteered to help as much as possible because I knew how stressed out Becky was feeling. Our fabulous friend Mikey came up from Phoenix to partake in the festivities and although Becky wanted to go with me to pick him at the airport, I knew her mother would have things for her to do. I was right and so I headed to the airport to pick up Mikey by myself. All was good though. As I'm sure you've read from Mikey's blog posts, we drove a lot of miles in order to have dinner with other blogger friends in southeastern iowa and then get up to the wedding location in northeastern iowa. Post-wedding wasn't much different with driving to my house in order to meet my parents for dinner and then back to the airport the next day. All in all, I put 800 miles on my truck during that weekend.
Just before the wedding, I had noticed that there was a squeaking sound coming from the front tire area and I knew I'd have to ask my father about it, but I decided to postpone that chat until after the wedding. However, upon the conclusion of the 800-mile trip, the squeak had become quite persistent so I had the wheels checked out along with an oil change. First they tell me it's the brakes and I'd have to replace the brake pads, etc. But my brakes had been fine. I know what brake pads sound like when they need to be replaced and this was an entirely different sound. So, I spoke to the mechanic a little more and inquired if it could be my wheel bearings since that had been mentioned once before (I always figure they're trying to take advantage of my ignorance with vehicle repair so unless it's something that is told to me repeatedly, I tend not to believe them). They said they could take a look but it would require keeping my truck for the morning. That was fine. I got a ride to work and they called me an hour later to say that yes, indeed, it was my front wheel (both wheels) bearings but only the bearings needed replaced, not the whole hub. Shew! I was imagining a $500 repair cost but it ended up being only $330. Next came the other bad knews. They said my tires were cracking from the weather. Now, I had planned to replace my tires anyway (Chevets could climb hills better than my truck) before the snow hit so I got a quote...$420. Ouch! I couldn't afford $420. So, I called Dad...what did he think about the kind of tire to get? He said he'd call his mechanic and get a quote for me there. The answer? An aggressive tire since I do a lot of driving in very slick conditions. But, they would give me a quote for $380. Still a little out of my reach but I could do two now and two later. Dad tossed that idea by paying for the other two as a short-term loan. (Isn't he terrific?!) So now I have four spanky-new tires and let me tell ya...I could go mudding in these things! No Chevette is going to put-put around me this winter! Ha!
So yeah...such a small aspect of vehicle maintenance, but what a whopper of a bill. Now I'll have to behave myself until it's paid off. *sigh*
4 comments:
There's an old saying: extra money is what you have just before your car breaks down.
Parent's are cool. My parents have done so many nice things for me in a pinch that I don't think I can count them.
Did a little bit of car maintenance myself this weekend. It just never seems to go away. I'm surprised to hear that it was your bearings squeaking. Most bearings these days (last quarter century) are designed from an engineering standpoint to last the life of the car two times over. You are the first person I have ever hear of having them go bad. You must feel lucky!
God bless our parents. Maybe that is why we are all such outstanding citizens!
Dad had to replace the entire hub on his truck recently. It's same kind as mine...maybe it's something to do with the model...*ponders*
I recently had an issue with a sound one of my wheels was making, and took it to the dealer--still under warrantee. The tell me that it will be solved with a simple tire balance and rotation, so I tell'em go for it. Well, for a week or so, it seemed to have fixed the problem...no more sound, no more weird, throbbing vibration. That is until two days ago, when I started to notice them returning, from the same wheel as before--only this time it had a fresh tire on it (from the rotation). So, I guess I'll be stopping in at the dealer again this week. I hate it when they don't get it right. I kinda wondered about this, anyway, because I'm always very good about rotations, and even in the past when I've gone way over the miles to rotate, I've never had a problem like that. I'm thinkin' it's something else and they need to spend a little more time under it trying to figure that out.
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