Away with the heating

Heating tube Ibiza!It is a very strange sensation. Our car breaks down every couple of months. I always take the car to the same mechanic, because I believe I’ll be less likely to be cheated being a loyal customer. As a foreigner I run an even bigger risk of receiving highly inflated bills.

Sometimes I receive very little benefit from my loyalty to our mechanic, who sometimes likes to be creative calculating the hours he spends on our car but ever since I returned his screwdriver to him I notice a difference. Our most recent problem was a warm liquid that was dripping on the passengers feet. A liquid with a very obnoxious smell.

We quickly realized something was wrong about a wet car and pulled over. After a quick checkup I found out it was the cooling liquid, Quickly I added almost 3 liters of water to the cooling reserve and we continued our drive home.

According to the mechanic the problem was with the heating. The cheap solution was the disable the entire heating system. Result: 30 euro. A very nice price.

Our car turning into a sad story all the time. The alarm was dismantled, he heating does not work anymore, the paint job was destroyed because I cleaned the car with a very tough sponge and at some spots rust is appearing. How much longer will she survive?

Revenge is sweet

Screwdriver under the hood!I was just called by the mechanic that yesterday charged me two hours for one hour of work. As it seems he is missing some tool, and he presumes the tool is located under the hood of our car. Well, that’s a coincidence.

The mechanic even claimed that I should leave my job and go home to check the car, get to tool, and bring it by his garage. I think he must have been on some kind of mind altering chemical to make these pretty outrageous demands.

We made the deal that this afternoon I would look for his tool and afterwards we will see.

  • Phone inquiry: Free
  • Search: Half hour (15 euro)
  • Return product: Half hour, plus gas and deduction costs car
  • Rounded up: 40 euro

I’m planing to tell him to come and get his tool, or he can wait until I pass by when I’m in the neighborhood.

Result: I am to good for this world. In the end we had to be in the neighborhood, van I delivered the screwdriver to his porch. Still, I managed to secure a discount for the next job. Now I only hope he will remember about this discount, but might he forget I still have the photo proof.

Garage

Taller Peru!Since we are living in Las Palmas we take our car on a regular basis to the same garage ‘Taller Peru’. Thanks to our old seat we provide our mechanic with a steady flow of jobs. The weird thing is that is seems like our car has a completely new problem almost every month. In recent months we experienced:

The most recent problem with the windscreen wipers was solved quickly and for the nice round amount of 80 euros. The weird thing was the invoice. We needed to pay 2 hours of work (30 euros an hour) plus some small parts like oil and rubbers. Only the car had been in the garage only a single hour! Maybe we need to find us a different garage.

Car breakdown

Breakdown!!It always happens on the worst possible moment. One day before I needed to pick up my pregnant wife from the airport the cars cooling liquid is forcing its way out of the engine. A situation that does not make me very happy.

I just went to do some shopping and had parked in a gas station. I wanted to fill up the car with its favorite juice, but as soon as I stopped driving I noticed a big cloud of white smoke and a very peculiar smell coming from under the hood. Oh-oh!

It seems the temperature indication is also a bit defective, because it kept indicating the motor was quite cool. My plan is to first relax, have a beer and accept the situation. Tomorrow I’ll have a talk with our mechanic.

Mobile again

Our car has been repaired again. After the checkup we needed the following reparations:
· Change oil and oil filters
· Clean the air filter
· Replace boogies and power cables
· Change the ‘distributor’ (part of the engine)

These repairs set us back almost 200 euros. The mechanic felt sorry for us (poor students without lots of money) so he did us a favor with the price. Still, although he told us he was doing us a favor, how can we possible know this is really true, without knowing anything about car repairs and prices.

We’ll just have to have faith. For now the car is running perfectly.

Car

We have a new battery, a new sensor, fresh oil, a new oil filter and the cooling liquid has been replaced (the old liquid resembled liquid rust). The car functions again. All that remains it changing who tires that have lost all of their profile and maybe w´’ll need to fix that one headlight thats quite loose and then the car is ready for her annual checkup in january. I wonder if it will pass, but I do expect so, because here in Spain there really not so strick with these kind of things.