Thursday, August 30, 2007

Car Repair

Okay, it's actually the van, but whatever.

For about a year now, the blower for the vents either has to be on high or not at all. This is the second time it's happened, so I knew that it was nothing critical to the van running, so I've dragged my feet on getting it fixed. It's been particularly annoying this summer, though, because it's been so darn hot. So, we've either been freezing or sweating. I've noticed, lately, that my brakes don't feel right. The kicker was when the van began squealing. Okay...time for it to get fixed.

When we first moved to Virginia and were living in temporary housing in Herndon, I took the van in to have the blower motor and brakes fixed. I remember it costing a fortune and thought that if we add in a belt (I thought that's what was squealing), it just might cost us a child or two.

I held my breath when the phone rang this morning and it was the Dodge dealership on the other end. "We've figured out what's wrong with your van," the guy tells me. The squealing is indeed a belt that needs to be replaced. Okay. My brakes are shot and I do need new ones. Okay. I need a new motor so that the blower doesn't only work on high. Okay...what's it going to cost? $300 less than what it cost 3 years ago to fix just the brakes and blower motor. Seriously? Deal! The van will be ready for pick up later this afternoon. Sweet.

In the meantime, I'm driving Mike's Kia. It's always so strange for me to drive the car. It's so much lower than the van. When I pulled up in carpool to drop the boys off this morning, I almost hit the curb and it was really funny watching the boys get out. They are so used to being able to stand up and get out of the van that they were struggling to get out. It didn't help that the child lock was engaged on the back door so Jacob had to open the door for him (after teasing Daniel for a minute...which Daniel hated).

I really can't wait to get the van back...the first thing I'm going to do is put the blower on low!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We're having the same blower issue with my car. I'm going to have to take it to the dealer, but don't know when I'll be able to. Hope my luck runs as good as yours and that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Barbara said...

Well, I'm glad to hear that it isn't just my van that does that! I'm sure I'd still be dealing with it if the brakes hadn't started going. Good luck getting yours in.

Anonymous said...

Just get it back to being road worthy again. You put that thing on the road too much to drive an iffy set of wheels.

Barbara said...

Okay...so I've got new brakes (they said that I only had 10% remaining on the front...OMG!!!!!), a new drive belt tensioner (I guess it wasn't the actual belt) and a new blower motor. They said that other than the things that needed to be fixed, it's in great shape. So, now everything's fixed and it works, sounds and feels great.