Car Troubles (or "A Day in the Life of a Poverty-Stricken Grad Student")

I bought a car last year when I came back from Jerusalem. I tried not to be desparate in the decision-making process, but with a very small budget and a very short period of time in which to find a car that would be immediately able to make a trip across the US filled with my earthly belongings (thankfully I don't have very many!), I was somewhat limited in my decision-making process.

So I bought a car. A 97 Honda Civic with 220,000 miles on it. I found out right away that this car had some quirks--like the back door (driver's side) didn't open from the outside. And the air conditioning didn't work (in the middle of August, this was more than just a little quirk!). And everything was manual (manual locks, manual windows). And the driver's side door didn't lock with the door open unless the door handle was pulled open. And the oil dipstick's handle was broken. And the handle on the lever under the dash that opens the hood was broken (you have to use pliers because there is nothing to grip).

But, what's a car without some quirks, right? So I bought it and, with a little (lot) of help from my parents, promptly fixed the air conditioning and drove out to Ohio. 

A year later, it's had a few problems...like the clutch fork breaking and smashing the clutch, rendering it completely unusable (that one was a pain to fix because it happened right at the end of the semester and I had to get it towed to an auto repair and arrange for someone to go and pick it up because I was out of town for Christmas--you would not believe how few people know how to drive a stick shift!)

yeah, I did that

...and replacing the timing belt (an expensive repair that I knew needed to happen when I bought it) and oh yeah, that one time when the ball joint on the driver's side tire broke in the middle of the freeway when I was driving to church and THIS happened:

One broken ball joint on the freeway + skidding over to the side = broken ball joint, broken axle, and unusable tire. Thankfully it was the snow tire that got torn up and had to be replaced, since I needed to replace it anyway, but still. Coming on the heels of the other car troubles I had had, I wasn't thrilled about the price to make it drivable again.

With this background, you might be able to imagine why, when my air conditioning quit working a few months ago, I wasn't keen on fixing it. Yes it was deathly hot. Yes I couldn't see when it rained because the defogger didn't work. But gosh dangit, I didn't have any money to repair something that had just been fixed LAST YEAR.

But. I just moved out to DC, and it is HOT. And humid. And has been flash-flood raining almost every other day since I got here. Which means that I spend a lot of time suffering from heat exhaustion from driving in the heat (even with the windows rolled down--it's like having a hot blow dryer on your face all the time) or pulled over to the side, waiting for the rain to stop because I can't see.

This past Thursday, I finally decided it was time for a change. I was going to fix my air conditioner. I had called my dad and found out that it might be a cheap repair and I could even fix it myself. So I headed over to AutoZone to buy some freon. 

Now, I hate going to car stores in fancy clothes because almost without fail the people there treat me like I don't know anything about cars (and try to sell me the most expensive thing) when I walk in. But I had just come from a job interview and didn't have much choice. So I walked in with my dress pants and heels and bought the freon (NOT the most expensive one that the guy tried to sell me, thank you very much) and asked one of the workers to come out and show me where the opening was so I could put the freon in.

But. I had to open my hood first. And remember how I mentioned that the handle was broken off the lever thing that opens the hood? Yeah. I've had to open it with pliers, but I've always been able to get it open. Not today. I tried for a full two minutes before the AutoZone worker kindly suggested that maybe he should give it a try. Well, I was more than happy to relinquish the pliers to him. But unfortunately he couldn't get it open either. We both left embarrassed -me that my hood wouldn't open, and him that he was clearly not manly enough to figure out how to open it.

Well, it was at least a thousand degrees that day (more like 89, but still HOT) and I was dying. I drove over to an auto repair shop next door just to get an idea of what could possibly be wrong and how much it would cost to fix it. I walked into the shop and asked the guy at the front how much it would cost to replace the cable so I could open the hood. When he said $120-$160, I looked down at my dress pants and heels and thought, he just jacked the price up at least 250%. Dripping with sweat and dying of heat, my patience was already running thin. So I asked him if there was a way to open the trunk without fixing the cable.

"What, you just want to look inside or something?" he asked with derision.

No. I patiently explained to him that I just need to add some freon to my A/C because it was broken.

"Ha," he laughed, again with derision. "Don't even try to do that yourself."

Now, I don't know everything about cars. But I have had to do quite a few repairs, and I'm pretty sure that I can put a tube on a spout and fill my A/C up with freon. I was MAD. I didn't care how hot it was. I left the shop, got back in my oven-of-a-car, and drove home.

And guess what? Two days later, I figured out how to open the hood ALL BY MYSELF, and I replaced the freon ALL BY MYSELF. Take that, guy at run-down car repair shop.

And my A/C? Works like a charm now. 

Life is good again.