Zen and The Art of Automobile Maintenance

Car was in the shop for 2 days. It's the first big maintenance expenditure on my car since I got it few years back. Maybe it's about time. The only things I've done on my car was oil changes every couple thousand. A tire rotate there. New tires here and there. So I got a check engine light. Big deal right. I check the diagnostic codes on my car by flipping my ignition key off and on several times. So I have an evaporative leak. Whatever that means. Well that's apparently an emissions issue. Which there is a federal emissions warranty for most cars 8 year/80000 mile or 10 year/100000 mile, depending on the vehicle I guess. A hidden one. Make sure you ask about if you ever need your emissions systems worked on. Catalytic converter is covered believe it or not! But apparently that doesn't cover the evaporative vent valve apparently. Nor the labor. Blah.

So that's what's getting fixed along with my oil change. My trunk lid won't stay up, knocked me upside the head several times. Right, I wait until after the fifth bruise I decide to take it in. Stupid moi. So that's that, getting those trunk struts hydraulic lift thingies changed. Along with my front brake pads. Yeah. It's about time. Apparently they're really thin. I guess it's nice to be able to stop your car at will, so I decided to just go ahead and get it fixed even though it seemed pricier than going to your local brake shop. At least they use the OEM parts here. No third party brands here. I guess that's better. And they are gonna rotate the rotors on the car and not remove the rotors from the car which apparently is better? You brake people correct me if I'm wrong. So anyways that's the deal.

Hopefully this car will last me a couple more years. I need to find something to sell to offset this arm I paid for fixing everything. Kinda sucks. I probably got ripped, but I have to do some travelling might as well fix it all at once and not peace meal fix one thing after another at different places. Anyways, oh well. Safety first I guess. So like yeah I'm thinking I probably should get the rest of my engine or stuff checked out when I near a big mileage benchmark coming up. Get a thorough inspection of everything. Or something. I really haven't done much maintenance to this car the past couple years. Which is good I guess right? Harbinger of things to come, hopefully. A bellwether if you will. And no, I don't have that much experience working on cars, not a car guru. I think everything is cool, I think but I could be wrong. What do I know? Anyways, more later as it happens...