So.. in addition to everything else that went wrong last month with my car, I developed a leak in the transmission fluid line. After being told that it would cost more than $150 to fix, I figured I could live with the quart-a-month fluid the leak drops out. Hey… I’m getting a free, albeit gradual, transmission fluid exchange!

So anyway… I bought a case of this stuff at SAM’s today and proceeded to add a quart in the parking lot. Clutzy me knocked over the half-full container, pouring fluid all down the front of my car. I got most of it wiped up… but the good news: my car is red! I meant to get to a gas station and wipe more of it off, but Ames stations started annoying me with their 5-10-cent price differences. I’ll just get gas on my way out of town tomorrow. I cleaned up the rest of the fluid at home. Hopefully it doesn’t do much damage :- .

My car’s been nice to me. Even though hail trashed a window last year, and I’ve gone through a couple of tires and other miscelaneous parts including a cruise control amplifier (whatever that is), I haven’t had any major problems it it.

SO. After this summer’s vacation, my brakes were squealing a bit after takeoff. And then a couple weeks ago they started grinding. So I take it into CarX to see what’s up. They said $550 for new brakes in the rear and $450 to replace my coil springs which they just happened to notice were broken. I told them to wait, considering I paid barely twice that for the car.

Yay for CyRide dispatchers with husbands who work on cars! Jen’s husband is helping me out with the brakes. Worst-case scenario, we’ll have to replace calipers only. Best case would be just new pads. And the coil springs are only cracked way on the bottom, so they’re fine to leave the way they are. But anyway… I had my car over at their house for him to look at. When I was ready to leave, I turned the key and “click… click.” We played with the battery for an hour, but there was nothing wrong with it. Apparently my starter is toast, so we just added another $100 to this car. *Sigh* Fun things going wrong with old cars. I suppose it could’ve easily been a whole lot worse. Question is… do I get rid of the thing as soon as it works, or keep on driving it until the next major malfunction? I suppose if I’m spending money on parts now, I might as well keep it for awhile. It’s still a nice car… fully wired up with 12VDC and 120VAC power :-D. Yay geekdom!