I got out of school this afternoon for lunch and went out to my car. RRRR RRRR RRRR. Car turned over, but didn't start. RRRR RRRRR RRRRRR. Did I flood it? RRRRR RRRRRR RRRRRR. Nope, couldn't have flooded it, it's fuel injected. RRRRRRR RRRRR RRRRRRR. Great, my car won't start. Well, one tow from a friend and a couple hours later, the local mechanic tells me my crank position sensor decided to go to crank-position-sensor-heaven. Guess what the cost of a crank position sensor is? $17 according to autozone.com. Guess what it ended up costing me to get it fixed?

Significantly more than $17. I'll leave it at that.

He wants to change the serpentine belt too, but I don't know if I'm going to have him fix that. I'm not sure if my credit is good enough to qualify for a loan that large.

I told the guy to go ahead and change the oil as well while he had it in. It's been close to 8000 miles since the last change - I think it's due. The oil must be the consistency of mayonnaise by now =)

So, lessons to be learned:

1. Make sure you have an emergency fund. You never know when your car will suddenly decide it needs a sabbatical.


2. Make sure you have an emergency kit in your car. I've used mine twice this week. I used my first aid kit to treat a person who was in a car accident on Monday, and today I used my tow rope to get my non-running car to the garage with the help of a friend with a truck. Imagine the cost of having to get the thing towed? Yecch!


3. Car parts are not really that expensive. It's getting them into your car and working correctly that costs all the money!!


4. The most expensive part of fixing your car now-a-days is diagnosing the problem. We don't have mechanics in America anymore, we have automotive technicians. This new title justifies the eighty bucks they charge to plug your car into a computer which then tells them what the problem is. Evidently this is much more labor and skill intensive than trouble shooting by trial and error was in the old days. ;-)