SURPRISE!

So, you know the bolt that was supposedly responsible for my car's A/C malfunction? You know, the one that was going to cost me $700 to fix? Well it turns out that I paid $100 to my dealership for nothing. The bolt (which was supposed to have punctured through the filter and was holding the "hole" shut) did not actually puncture--it only dented, and it was barely holding on. My BF only had to flick it away, and guess what! No leaking fluid. So my mechanic is going to be getting an earful as soon as we can stop playing phone tag.

In other news, BF was able to replace my starter motor successfully. The unsuccessful part of the whole endeavor was finding the correct starter. Apparently Honda makes two different types of starters for my car, and there is absolutely no way to determine which one is which. The manufacturers that make the part don't even know, because the part they had pictured was correct, but the part in the corresponding box was not. So it took me three hours to track down the correct one, had a guy at the auto parts store tell me that I could just un-mount the piece of the part that was wrong (DO NOT go to the Checkers on 45th and State if you live in SLC. Their employees are obviously retarded), and ended up paying $300 for the correct part from Honda. Thankfully the BF talked them down from closer to $400. Still--uber ridiculousness.

All in all, though, I saved about $400 replacing the part by hand instead of having it done at the dealership, thanks to The Wrench-It Center (which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone!) and my darling gear-head BF (it is so nice to have a man that is handy with tools and can fix a car around!). Hopefully I won't have to replace the starter again EVER.

Clive, I've Been So Good To You...

I have been wondering most deeply if it is more than just coincidence that my car's starter is going out just now as my warranty is running thin. Probably not, which doesn't make the situation any better. And to add to it, here's what else needs to be fixed:

1. The Windshield. I've been driving around with a giant crack for about 2.5 years because I didn't have to go through safety/emissions last year.

2. The back brake pads. According to my mechanic, they'll be completely gone within the next 100 miles...

3. The A/C, which is going to cost me $700 just for the part because there is a three inch bolt embedded in the front air filter right below my license plate. Don't worry, that bolt is keeping the hole mostly sealed, and the air on the passenger's side is great. It's just the air on the driver's side that is warm all the time...

4. The back tires. I just had the front ones replaced at the beginning of June because there was a bubble in the front driver's side tire, but the back ones still have to be replaced.

The most excellent news of all is that I have to get all of this done before the end of August because my registration is up. Well, the A/C part isn't critical. I drive with my windows down anyway, and I don't exactly have $700 extra laying around (wouldn't that be nice?). But the starter isn't going to be cheap either. According to this new fangled internet, a replacement starter for my car is going to run $200, and of course that doesn't include labor. And to top it all off I just paid the dealership $140 for an oil change and to find out about the bolt in my air filter.

Honestly, I want a new car. I know that Hondas are supposed to last forever, and that at 100,000 miles they're only just getting started, but it does scare me a little that all of these problems are cropping up just as my warranty expires (I'm at 93K+ miles total). What happens when I cross that magical limit on the odometer? I'm scared to find out.