Muse back!
June 19, 2008 / Thursday
Happy Car, Happy Viv
With a long drive to Mt. Whitney coming up in July, I finally got off my butt and brought my car in for repair. On Vinny's (and the internet's) glowing recommendation, I decided to bring it to Palo Alto German Car. I called them up, described my problems, and brought the car in on Monday morning.
I asked them to look at a couple leaks: the exhaust leak I discovered eons ago, and a slow but troubling fluid leak I couldn't identify under the car. They called me back Monday afternoon and let me know what they had found. The oily mess on the underside of my car was power steering fluid; I had a leak at both ends of the high pressure line. I've had this (slow) leak for years now, and given cost of fixing it, we decided that I should continue to keep an eye on it and top it off every once in a (long) while. The exhaust leak required a stethoscope (!!) to diagnose, and they narrowed it down to the exhaust manifold.
Tuesday morning, they disassembled their way to the exhaust manifold. The damage: a leaky gasket and a warped (but not cracked, hoorays) manifold. That was good news; it meant I didn't need a new manifold. New gaskets were ordered and the manifold was sent to the machine shop. Everything came in around 3 PM. Too late to reassemble and test. Another night at the shop for my car.
On Wednesday, they got everything back together. While checking things out, they found another leak: a hole in the intake manifold. This was a hole created as part of the original fabrication process, but it was supposed to be plugged. Where was the plug? Gone! They called a few dealers and located a replacement in SF (or was it SSF?). When could they get it to Palo Alto? Thursday morning. Night number three at the shop for my car.
Thursday morning came and I got a call. The part was here, but getting to the hole and putting everything back together was going to take a few hours of work. They said they would try to get it done by the end of the day, and they did. I love my car, but not how tightly everything is packed into the engine bay. Makes it hard to work on.
The above was just to document for my car. What I really want to say in this post is that despite the frustration of not having a car for four days, I was really pleased with the fact that they took the time to double check and make sure everything was okay. Harald (the owner) was great; he called to update me every step of the way, and gave me useful information on my options, what they needed to do, how much it would cost, and how long it would take. When I showed up to pick up my car, I wanted to learn more, so he did some more explaining and showed me some diagrams of what they had worked on. I asked about the stethoscope, and he showed it to me and told me how they used it. It really is a stethoscope! Minus the flat round part. Neat.
I remembered that I'd had trouble getting crush washers for my oil pan drain bolt from the dealer last month (they only sell one-piece bolt-and-washer combos now, and the one they sold me wouldn't go in), so I asked if he had any. He gave me a couple for free. Score! Also, they fixed the annoyingly misbehaving negative terminal connection on my battery. Score again!
My car runs smoothly and quietly now. Great recommendation, Vinny! Will I bring my car back here the next time it needs work? Absolutely.
• • •
"Stethoscope" is a total tongue twister for me. I can barely say it once unless I do it really slowly.
Comments
Wow, sounds like you found a good mechanic/mechanical place! They actually took the time to explain things to you and show you what they did after keeping you updated every step along the repair process? That's exceedingly rare these days. Especially if they follow up by doing a good job with the repair.
Posted by: Mike at June 20, 2008 05:45 AM