Unexpected Expenses
Posted on July 5, 2007
Filed Under Uncategorized |
My car has been in need of some repairs for a while. For a variety of reasons–mostly financial–I’d been putting these repairs off. Some of the repair items were noted in my last inspection (last spring), and I was told that they weren’t of major concern at the moment. Most of them were dealt with months ago, and the rest were, as far as I knew, still not of major concern. One of them, though, became a huge safety issue recently that I didn’t even know about. It was discovered during a brake inspection.
My brakes were incredibly soft when I left the house for work this morning. Fearing that they’d fail altogether on the way to the office, I turned around and went home. After calling around for quotes, I ended up taking the car to Canadian Tire, mostly because it was the closest shop to my apartment. With the state my brakes were in, I didn’t want to risk driving the car farther than necessary.
In the process of the brake inspection, it was noted that my right front tie rod was ready to fall off (I knew it was lose, but it hadn’t been in dire need of repair at the time of my last inspection, and it had slipped my mind since then). The front tires were bulging on the inside of the tube, as well.
Basically, my car was falling apart. I knew that I needed new tires, and I knew that I needed new brake pads (although I was trying to hold off until payday). The tie rod, I had forgotten about.
All told it was–well, let’s just say it wasn’t cheap. Despite the cost, it made more sense to repair the car than to try to buy a new one. Any car that I’d have found that was equal to or less than the cost of the repairs would have likely been in even worse condition than my car. On the bright side, my car is now completely safe to drive, and more than worthy of the road trips I want to take this summer. (I’m still looking for recommendations on where to travel.)
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