Spoke too soon

I spoke too soon about PepBoys and my car. When I posted on Sunday they had promised me that my car would be ready the same day. Around 5:00pm I contacted them and was told they didn't think it would be done by closing at 6:00pm WHAT? So I called back around 5:45 pm and they said there would be no way it would be finished. The mechanic was going to finish it that night but it probably would not be finished until after 7:00 pm and they would be closed. Great. So my mom had the privilege of taking Cole to daycare and then dropping me off at work before 7:00am and getting herself to work.

That morning, I called PepBoys and asked if they would do an oil change since my car was still there, they said no problem. Leah was going to take me to get my car after her shift ended at 2:00 pm. Around noon the manager called and said, "Can you walk me through everything we did on your car?. We changed to brakes and rotors, did an
oil change, and you called back to have us replace two tires, right?" No, I DID NOT call back to have two tires replaced, my tires are only a year old. He explained there must have been some confusion but I wouldn't be charged for the tires. I said that in addition to the tires being semi-new they were expensive tires. My grandmother had bought them for me and she bought the top of the line since I'm on the road so much. I told him that if my tires were better I wanted them back on. He called me back and said, my tires were better and he would get them on and my car would be ready in an hour.

I picked my car up at 2:00pm. On the way back to work I was irritated because my hands were coated in dusty black debris from the mechanics hands on my steering wheel and gear shift. I had to clean my car when I got back to work.

After work I picked Cole up and we headed home. When I pick him up from school, we never have the radio on, because we talk about our day. While talking, I thought I heard a high-pitched squeaking coming from the driver's side tire. We were quiet for a moment and sure enough it was squeaking. It only squeaked when the car was moving. When idling or when applying the brakes the noise when away. When we got home I called PepBoys and they wanted me to bring the car back up. Since it was dinner time I left Cole with my parents and headed back up. I was there before 6:00 pm.

They immediately test drove the car and verified the noise. They had to pull another car out of the bay to work on my car and they lifted it and got to work. As they were spinning the wheel, a shrill squeaking penetrated the lobby. Another customer looked over at me and said, "Geez, glad that's not my car!" Gee thanks, buddy. The mechanic thought maybe the new rotor was slightly warped or uneven so they were going to try and fix it, maybe thirty minutes or so. After grabbing a bite to eat I headed back over and my car was still up on the lift. The mechanic said it was still squeaking, so they decided to start from scratch and "cut a new rotor" Another hour later he said, they were almost done. The tested the tire several times while on the lift and no squeaking. So they lowered the car and took it for a test drive. The mechanic looked at me and smiled reassuringly and said you're almost out of here. A few minutes later here comes my car, back into the bay and up onto the lift. Off comes the tire, work stops on all the cars and there are now five mechanics looking over and under my car, wheels spin, brakes applied, wheels spin, brakes applied, SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK! After another 45 minutes the mechanic came out with a grave look on his face. He explained in mechanic talk which I nodded like I understood that my Taurus is built different than any car he has seen before. The bottom line is that he thinks an "undercarriage engine mount" that is connected somehow to the rotor/tire is broken and in the short test drive this had caused the second brand new rotor to warp an 1/8". He explained that a "master mechanic" would have to look at the car the next day and they would have to call the Ford dealership mechanics, etc. He said I could drive the car and he thought "it should be safe" but that I would be continuing to warp the rotor. He would prefer if I left the car again. It was now almost 9:00pm.

I called my parents to try to work out travel arrangements for the next day. Luckily it is Spring Break so I didn't have school, but I had several appointments that were scheduled.

So on my first day of Spring Break I got to wake up at 6:00 am to take my dad to work (several hours earlier than he ever goes) so I could make it to my own doctor appointment. I'm still waiting to hear from the mechanic,not entirely sure that I will get my car even today. Sigh!