Car Repairs

Last week when I got the oil changed in my car at Subaru I was told that the CV boots were cracked and leaking and that I needed to get them repaired right away.  Subaru made it sound like my car would break down as soon as I drove off their lot.  I don't have Subaru repair my car because they are so high priced that it's ridiculous.

Got home and told Gary so he told me to make an appointment with our local mechanic to have a look, sure enough the CV boots were cracked and leaking, at the time he wasn't sure if I needed the CV joints replaced has he wouldn't know until he got into it.  As luck would have it I needed new joints, so told him to fix it.

That was last Wednesday, got my car back the next day and it wasn't running right.  It sounded very gravely to me.  Hard to describe but my car wasn't right.  Gary thought I was crazy until he heard enough of my complaining that he drove the car around the block.  I was not crazy.

Called the mechanic and he asked if my car was like this before I brought it in.  NO!! So back to the mechanic we went.  He didn't drive the car after the repairs were done, had his helper do it.  Found out that I needed new front wheel bearings and the struts replaced. In the mean time he also tuned up the car.

OK get it all done.  I was without my car for the weekend and didn't get it back until Tuesday.  It wasn't too bad but we had to play musical drivers on Monday with the pickup.  Gary goes to work at 7:00 am and gets off at 4:00 pm, while I work 8-5.  I took him to work then we traded drivers at lunch.

So glad I got my car back, but I still think that it doesn't sound right.  Gary and the mechanic think I'm crazy.  Gary said that it's probably running right but drove it when things were going bad for so long that I just got used to it.  Anyway, $1300 later I have a car. I think that I'm right and it's not sounding right after all I have driven this car for 8 years.

We are going to look for a new car probably next year.  With as much money as I have sunk into this thing and I have to renew my plates this month, we are going to get our money's worth out of it.

I have had this car for 8 years and this is the first time that we have had to do anything major with it.  I just keep reminding myself that it is just maintainance. 

I did check with Subaru to find out how much all this repair would cost and they quoted me over $2000.  They did tell me that only their work is qualified on my car, but not at their prices.