Tuesday, January 31, 2006
A Story of a Car Repair
If you know me, you know I love Volvos. The world's safest car. Well I love my 83 Volvo 240, and I love my wife's 99 S80 a little less.
A few days ago, my wife said, "My blinkers don't work." I know that my wife's car is highly computerized, and my first suggestion was, "take it to the dealer". We called the 3 local dealers and none had time to see it monday. Tanya's next suggestion is to find a local shop. She found a shop by dialing 411 which was called Sunnyvale Volvo. When we got there Monday morning, it turned out to be a place called Dayton Automotive. I have taken a car to Dayton Automotive before and was not happy with the results. But it was time for me to get to work, and I thought, "surely they can fix the blinkers".
They wanted $400 to fix the blinkers, and $400 for a 90K mile checkup. We went for the checkup and said ixnay on the ixfay. They talked about the danger of the airbag exploding being part of the high price for changing the blinker switch.
Next I called my favorite non-dealer repair person, Dave Maminski at Performance Techniques in Campbell. He said it might be a software issue. I made an appointment for Thursday morning.
Next I called IPD the volvo parts warehouse in Oregon, got a late-model guy named Lucky. Lucky said if the hazards work, it must be the turn signal stalk. He told me how to remove the turn signal stalk, and told me I would have to get it at the dealer. I went to the dealer and asked if I could pop the new stalk in to see if it would work. They told me "no", I'd have to buy it for $135. Then I asked if they would give me their best opinion of whether the stalk would fix it. They said yes they thought it was probably the stalk. So I bought the stalk, walked to my car saying to myself, "Do you feel lucky?" And I did, but I wasn't. The stalk didn't fix it. Now I have spent $535 on this car and haven't fixed the main problem yet. And I thought well it is up to Dave Maminski now. But then I remembered about how much good information I have gotten from Brickboard.com. I went online and found a post that said, Pull fuse 23, keep it out for a few seconds, put it back in, then the blinkers will work." And that's exactly what happened. Thanks brickboard.
A few days ago, my wife said, "My blinkers don't work." I know that my wife's car is highly computerized, and my first suggestion was, "take it to the dealer". We called the 3 local dealers and none had time to see it monday. Tanya's next suggestion is to find a local shop. She found a shop by dialing 411 which was called Sunnyvale Volvo. When we got there Monday morning, it turned out to be a place called Dayton Automotive. I have taken a car to Dayton Automotive before and was not happy with the results. But it was time for me to get to work, and I thought, "surely they can fix the blinkers".
They wanted $400 to fix the blinkers, and $400 for a 90K mile checkup. We went for the checkup and said ixnay on the ixfay. They talked about the danger of the airbag exploding being part of the high price for changing the blinker switch.
Next I called my favorite non-dealer repair person, Dave Maminski at Performance Techniques in Campbell. He said it might be a software issue. I made an appointment for Thursday morning.
Next I called IPD the volvo parts warehouse in Oregon, got a late-model guy named Lucky. Lucky said if the hazards work, it must be the turn signal stalk. He told me how to remove the turn signal stalk, and told me I would have to get it at the dealer. I went to the dealer and asked if I could pop the new stalk in to see if it would work. They told me "no", I'd have to buy it for $135. Then I asked if they would give me their best opinion of whether the stalk would fix it. They said yes they thought it was probably the stalk. So I bought the stalk, walked to my car saying to myself, "Do you feel lucky?" And I did, but I wasn't. The stalk didn't fix it. Now I have spent $535 on this car and haven't fixed the main problem yet. And I thought well it is up to Dave Maminski now. But then I remembered about how much good information I have gotten from Brickboard.com. I went online and found a post that said, Pull fuse 23, keep it out for a few seconds, put it back in, then the blinkers will work." And that's exactly what happened. Thanks brickboard.
