Friday, March 16, 2007

Vehicular Drama 5: Bonus Drama

As discussed earlier, the car was in the shop this week while I was away. The work seemed simple enough: replace some worn CV boot covers before they tear through. The mechanic was certain that they would survive the trip - but I wanted to be completely safe.

When I arrived at the shop yesterday afternoon, the mechanic looked slightly pale as he said "I'm glad you didn't take the trip [with the boots like that]."

It turns out that one of the previous owners of the car had injected oil instead of grease into the CV joints, causing them to seize up badly. It was only a matter of time before they failed completely, destroying the rear end of the car. Luckily, by attempting to change the boot covers, we found the problem.

The half-shafts are getting rebuilt, and hopefully I can have the car back on Saturday afternoon, just in time for another visit with schoolchildren (next Wednesday, we'll be discussing biofuels with 250 5th graders in Stoughton, WI).

Previously:
Vehicular Drama 4
Vehicular Drama 3
Vehicular Drama 2
Vehicular Drama 1

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