A Dragon in Sheep’s Clothing

My poor Honey.

Tonight I had some work done on my car — two back tires and the battery replaced. It’s the minimum I felt I had to do in order to be safe. The back tires were worn unevenly, and the worn patches they were, well, very worn. The battery had corrosion on one connector, and she has been getting more and more sluggish on starting.

Now I feel much more ready for the wet weekend ahead, with the effects of Hanna coming north.

But I also learned that the reason my back tires were worn so unevenly is that the back struts are shot. Turns out the rear and front struts (and probably the shocks too) are original, so they have about 200K miles on them. The mechanic who worked on my car tonight said that I need new struts and strut mounts on the front and rear.

I didn’t get a quote on it, but I did a quick search online and found that someone with a ‘97 Camry (one step up from my Geo Prizm/Toyota Corolla) was quoted $500 per axle to replace the struts. Yowch. It’s one of those cases where the parts are cheap and the cost is for labor.

So I guess I’ll run with my Honey the way she is for a while and start searching the used car ads. *sigh*

I was fine when shopping for a new car was an intellectual exercise, but being told that my car needs work which costs about 2/3 of her current value… well, it made it real. I’m rather sad.

Strange to realize that need to mourn my car, but I guess she has a special place in my life. Honey is my first car, and I have proudly put about 160K miles on her. She has treated me very, very well. Only one “major” repair, and that was to replace a sensor that wore out and made the Check Engine light come on. Never had an accident with her. The only damage I put on her are some scratches on the trunk from my laundry basket (ah, the days of going to the laundromat), bumper sticker residue, and some more scratches on the front left from swerving out of traffic on I-64 when the lane suddenly slowed down and I swerved between some orange construction barrels to avoid rear-ending someone.

*sigh*

So with the struts shot, she has no cushion and all the bumps in the road are very hard. I probably didn’t notice the bumps getting harder because it happened so gradually. And you know how bumps are always harder after you add air to your tires, that kind of thing.

I can’t say that I regret the money I paid tonight for the tires and battery. Like I said, it’s the minimum I knew I should do to be safe. One front tire is a little uneven, so I still have a some vibration when I go over 50 mph. But the shaking is nothing like it was before! And before, my tires had been making a distinct “wub-wub-wub” noise at any speed over 15 mph (which made it kind of embarrassing driving through the parking lot at work).

I haven’t tried listening to the radio yet because I forgot how to unlock it. Since the battery was disconnected, it was reset, and I didn’t pull out the manual until I was parked at home. i think the bass will sound better now that the uber-thrumming is greatly reduced.