Anything to do with fixing cars kind of scares me a bit. It's the same with computers. I'm even more embarrassed to say, it's the same experience with my flippin' bicycle too, which I bring in yearly for a simple tune up because I still don't quite know how to oil my chain. I have all the tools to change a flat, but that doesn't stop me from just walking miles to a shop instead of ever even trying to fix it myself. There's something about mechanical things that shuts my brain down. It's a strong aversion as if I don't want to know how things work. I think part of me thinks that if I try anything, I'll somehow make it worse - I have actually broken a computer by trying to plug in a cable before by bending the little sticky-out thingies. I can build a website no problem, but I'm still a bit weird about using apps on my phone. I've watched as people helped me change a tire on my car twice before in my life, and my son has helped with my computer and phone a ton, and I realized that once someone is there to take over and save the day, I just stare blankly at the process without actually learning anything. The previous tire-fixing steps didn't register at all. I was completely useless. At some point in my life I seem to have learned that this type of information is just not for me.
It's yet another reason why I didn't buy my first car until I was flippin' 53!
My daughter suspected there was something wrong with her twenty-something-year-old car shortly after we left the house. She heard a new noise that was imperceptible to the rest of us. Because we didn't notice anything weird, we convinced her all was well. Then after a few miles, my bionic nose kicked into gear. I thought I was just getting a little headachy and nauseous from the old smell of the car. I couldn't open my passenger side window because it just falls straight down if opened, so I asked to drive with her window open a bit. That helped, and we continued on our way. It wasn't until the whole car started vibrating that we pulled over. There was smoke coming from the rear wheel on the passenger side. Had I been able to open my window, we might have figured it out sooner. The tire didn't look flat at all -- it looked exactly like the others -- but a kick to it confirmed it was just a jiggly mass of rubber. I've heard about people kicking the tires, and now I know why.
We emptied the very full trunk in order to dig out the tire and jack, so it all looked a site with packages and boxes and loose clothes piled in the snow beside the car on the side of the highway.
Then we were visited by three different guys - unfortunately for the story timing, it was more like the Good Samaritan story than A Christmas Carol. The first just looked the type to know about cars, a bit rough and tumble. But he had stopped on the other side of the road, and we were still pretty confident that we could handle this at this stage of the game, so we sent him away. By the time the second car stopped, our confidence had waned as we all googled where to put the jack for the right amount of stability. He also stopped on the other side of the road, but we waved him over, and we chatted for a while about what a drag it is to have a flat on Christmas Day, and how much he sympathizes with our situation, and that CAA could likely help us. This is a lazy comedy riding on stereotypes because he had a strikingly effeminate voice and looked far too clean and tidy to be of service. He was about as useful as any of us would have been, and it was curious that he would stop to help, but I appreciate that he really wanted to help - and now he has a story to tell over Christmas dinner! We thanked him for his time, and he darted back across traffic and drove off.
None of us have CAA. My daughter and I each have emergency assistance through our insurance from different companies, so my coverage doesn't cover someone else's car, and my daughter apparently has NO IDEA how to access her insurance's emergency roadside assistance, so that's something we'll have to figure out ASAP. At least it was good to find out that she doesn't know how to access help while we were dealing with a small issue, with other people in the car, in the middle of the day, and on a well-travelled highway!!
We finally figured out how the jack works and started jacking up the car when the third guy came. This one parked on the shoulder right behind us. Right away he said, "I've never seen a jack like that before!" Right?!? It wasn't just us; this was a weird contraption. His first instruction: lower the jack to loosen the bolts. Doh! Our knight in a white pickup truck was wearing untied work boots with flannel pyjama bottoms and tattoos peeking out of the sleeves of his open jacket. With a full dark beard and bright blue eyes, he was impossibly attractive, seriously, like as if this was the start of one of those Hallmark movies where he was clearly supposed to immediately fall in love with at least one of us. I was rooting for my youngest, but it wasn't meant to be. He told us he almost kept driving after passing us, but, in the spirit of Christmas, he turned around. Hot and helpful - on Christmas day at least. We stood back and watched as he completely changed the tire himself, but this time I tried to actually pay attention so I'm ready for next time. Who knew about locking lug-bolts!?! Then we had to get the old tire back into the trunk with the guy still there watching us. TIP: it doesn't fit in the space that the donut came out of, so maybe don't struggle for ages to try to make it fit there!! Half the stuff originally in the trunk had to sit on my lap for the rest of the trip.
He told us to check the pressure on the donut wheel at the next gas station, which was a whole other adventure. The first station had a machine that was out of order. The next one had a working machine, and it looked like we could check the pressure without paying for air. We tried it and somehow ended up completely deflating the donut!! We paid the $2.50, and then tried to figure out how to use it while the money TIMED DOWN. It's just $2.50, but the pressure of a timer clicking down towards zero was an added stressor. We put in 30 PSI (pounds per square inch), but that didn't look like enough. We were scared to put in too much in case it exploded! A random dude stood silently and creepily pointing to the driver door of the car, like Donald Sutherland in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and I thought he saw something wrong with the door, so I walked over DURING the countdown!! He was just telling us that's where to find the tire PSI, but that's that's just for the regular tires, not a donut. My other kid did some fast googling to find the answer, and came up with 60 PSI for donuts. We were able to fill it to 60 just in the nick of time! TIP for gas stations: put some better instructions on those machines!! TIP for people like us: check the PSI first, then pay the $2.50, then check the gauge super quickly or it deflates and keep a pressure gauge in the glove box. TIP for the elderly, like me: I would NOT have been able to read that gauge even if I knew everything about cars because I don't ever think to bring flippin' reading glasses with me on casual drives into the country. Luckily my daughter has much better eyes.
The flat tire looked misleadingly fine on the half facing outside, but it was completely shredded on the inside, and it's amazing that we got a good 15 km on it before we had the prudence to stop. My daughter's dad (not a mechanic) bought and services her vehicle [side TIP: it's a bitch to find insurance for a used car over 15-years-old, much less 20, no matter how great it works - it was almost impossible to find something cheaper than what you might be willing to pay for a precious classic car]. It's a little disconcerting that, when I googled what could cause the outside of the tire to look perfectly fine but the side facing the underside of the car to be destroyed, it mainly said things prevented by taking care of the vehicle rather than anything about a likely puncture:
Yikes! That's between her and her dad. Nothing I say would get her to go to an actual mechanic, but I can buy her a tire-pressure gauge and get her to figure out how to use it without completely deflating the tire - and I should probably learn about that too!
We made it to the stable and home, driving well below the speed limit with the hazards on. It was my job to turn the hazards off before each turn so other cars could see we were signalling, but as soon as my daughter did it once, I forgot I even had a job and just stared out the window. It's amazing my kids and I have survived this far! I don't depend on it, but I don't think I could have made it without the random kindness of strangers.
4 comments:
This will help. Change your own winter / summer tires. You'll get really good at using the jack, knowing when to loosen the bolts, how to loosen the bolts by slightly jumping on the tire iron when the are too tight. Practice makes confident. Plus it costs less, and you will learn to remember to switch out the summer tires before it gets really cold.
Thanks, but the number of things that could go wrong and be life-endangering feels too intense for me to try that!
Don't be a wimp give it a go!
Life is too short to live in a protective bubble.
I'm fortunate to be mechanically minded and ,through life, it's saved me enough to live better than more successful academics I know.
That said I know many pen pushers who have turned their hands to money saving activities and others to the arts and crafts.
Live well and prosper aka Take care , be safe.
TB
As I watched the guy have to put his weight into taking off the lug nuts, I wondered if it would have even been possible for us to take off the tires ourselves. I certainly wouldn't trust my kids in the car if I were the one who had tightened those bolts with my puny little arms!
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