Today, I forgot about the pledge I'd made myself to avoid letting employees of oil change places do anything more than change the oil and do a few other things that don't require much mechanical know-how. The guy who talked to me mentioned that the serpentine belt was cracked, and I knew that this had been mentioned before by another service place in Rochester over a year ago. So, I had them replace it.
Bad idea.
They replaced the belt, and took a long-ass time to do it. When I got in my car to leave, I noticed a weird rattling when the engine first revved right after starting. As I left the parking lot, I thought I heard a squeaking noise over the radio. The car kept making little chirps and squeaks as I accelerated from stoplights and turned corners on my way home.
For some reason, I'm paranoid about the automatic transmission in that car, so my first thoughts were along the lines of, “what the hell, did they drain fluid from it?” However, as soon as I pulled into the apartment's parking lot and popped the hood, I could tell that the problem was much more fundamental—and much more logical.
The new serpentine belt was vibrating like crazy. I was pretty amazed that it didn't come flying off the engine. This seemed to be the problem, though I guess I was still giving the guys who worked on my car the benefit of the doubt for a while. However, I had the thought that I've heard about belts causing screeching noises, so I called my dad to confirm my suspicions. Actually, he seemed a tiny bit skeptical at first, but he convinced me to do what I was going to do anyway—go back and have them fix what they broke.
So, most of my afternoon ended up being spent at Jiffy Lube. Not the best day I could have asked for…
Posted by mike at November 25, 2003 05:14 PM | Car | TrackBack