Halloween Hyundai

One of my favorite things to watch on TV is "This old house" A PBS show where they remodel a historic home.

Usually about two thirds through the show you see the homeowner proudly walk into the house and look around at the demolition as they explain "We only had budgeted $2,000 to replace the porch light and the shutters, but we found termites, when treating the termite damage, we found most of the electrical was damaged from a previous homeowner. When we were replacing the electrical we found that most of the pipes were cast iron and some of them were even clay pipes! Can you believe it! Clay pipes! Now we are looking at a bill of $250,000!" The homeowner explains as a fake smile beams across their face and a tear runs down their face. "And that is just the price of the demolition! The contractor says we are looking at about a million to get it back together! In the mean time we have been living in my in-laws linen closet with a Rottweiler." At this moment one of the hosts walks into the scene holding a skull and is followed by a policeman who is jotting down notes. The host explains in a thick Maine accent "It looks like we just found the remains of a human under the master bedroom. Looks like we are going to have to exhume the corpse and excavate the entire west wing of the house Norm." I would laugh and slap my knee because I knew it wasn't me footing the bill. Besides, the thought of them living in a closet with a rottweiler did strike me as humorous.

Last week on my way home I smelled anti freeze in the car. I watched the temperature to see if it was going to overheat. Nothing.

I got home and found the car was making a small puddle of coolant. I wiggled hoses, shined a flash light all around, but I couldn't find where the leak was coming from. I took off the hoses to see if I could find a leak in them. Nothing. Removed the cooling fans and the radiator. All looked fine. I figured I might as well replace the hoses because the car had 150,000 miles on it and they were original hoses. They were definitely getting soft. Perhaps one of the hoses was just leaking. As a safety measure I took the radiator to a radiator shop and had it pressure tested. They called back later that evening. There was a split running the whole length of the top tank. They could fix the tank or for $12 more get me a new radiator. I went with a new radiator.

When I was pulling out the radiator I noticed the timing belt was glazed. In some cars (not mine) when a timing belt breaks the pistons collide with the valves and causes catastrophic engine damage. These are called destructive timing belt failures. Luckily in this car it has a non-destructive engine. but a broken timing belt is still a huge pain to repair once broken. I decided it was time to replace that.

While removing the A/C compressor I noticed the A/C belt was cracking and missing some pieces. Time for a new A/C belt. I also found the alternator belt was unraveling and was missing some cords. Time for a new alternator belt. After taking the water pump out I noticed there was some coolant stains and heavy crust build up around the weep holes on the water pump. Time for a new water pump. I have it all torn apart. noticed it needs an oil change too. Unfortunately I am out of money. The water pump and the re assembly is going to have to wait until I get paid again. This all comes in the same month that all of our cars need to be registered and several other bills are due.

I am sitting here with a fake smile beaming on my face and a tear running down my cheek. Just flooding the market with my own little economic stimulus package.