T.I.N.S.T.A.F.L.

So, I've known for some time that there truly is no such thing as free lunch...I mean everything's gotta cost you (or somebody) something. But my dreams of a deeply discounted lunch are becoming dashed now as well.

A few months ago my brakes started making noises, so I knew something needed to be done. Not having tons of money to dump into car maintenance, I decide to call up a friend of mine who rebuilds Nissans for fun (I know, crazy hobby, but it works for him). Anyway, I determine that the noise just means that my front brake pads need replacing, so I get some pads, set a time to meet with him (which took about 2 weeks because of our busy schedules) and we get started. While changing the brake pads, we notice that one of my wheel studs was stripped, meaning the lug nut wasn't tightening all the way and was in need of replacement. After driving to 3 different auto part stores, we cannot find a wheel stud to fit my Maxima.

So over the next week, I head to the dealership to get a wheel stud and call my friend again to set up a time to get him to install it. We play phone tag for several weeks and I get a bit frustrated. After about 3 weeks of carrying this stud around in my cup holder, my car starts making even more (and notably worse) noises coming from my wheels. At this point, I assume one of two things...either there's something wrong with the new brakes or the missing wheel stud is causing greater issues and must be installed immediately. I guess I finally sounded desperate enough on the phone b/c my friend finally worked in some time to look at my car.

So we finally meet, he hears the horrible noises and tells me that it is actually coming from my rear wheels. Yes, that's right...now my back brakes have gone out and need changing. Arrgh! Well, he didn't have time to change them then, so we just changed the wheel stud and agreed to meet again at a later date for the brakes. More phone tag ensues (keep in mind, with every mile I drive, I have to listen to my brakes rubbing on my rotors b/c the pads are essentially gone) and finally, about two weeks later, I'm able to get a hold of him and we agree to meet last Friday afternoon b/c he was getting off work early. Friday comes, I get to his house and, lo and behold, no friend. I wait...no friend. I call him at work...no answer. Call his cell...no answer. After sitting in his driveway for 45 minutes or so, I give up and go on to my second job. Finally we agree to try again this morning as he was off work today.

Well, I get to his house this morning, and he was there waiting (fortunately). We knew we needed to have the rotors turned (since driving with the bad brakes for so long created groves in them) so what was to be a simple brake pad change, turned into removing the whole wheel, taking the rotors to a shop and having them turn them. One of the rotors is stuck on, but after 20 minutes or so of fighting, it finally breaks loose. We take them up to a shop where a friend of his works to get them turned and they tell us it will take an hour! We go off and run some errands he had to do and came back to pick them up. Then, when putting it all back together, we realize the auto parts store gave us the wrong pads! Back in the car we go to exchange those and finally we get them put on. What should have taken 1 hour or an hour and a half at most today (including having them turned) ended up lasting about 4 hours!! And of course that's not to mention the 3 or 4 months that have passed since I first started having problems!

Don't get me wrong, I'm very appreciative of the help my friend has offered b/c I know, even if he doesn't mind doing it, there are better ways he could be using his time. And although it was insanely frustrating playing phone tag for a couple months (and by phone tag, I basically mean me leaving him voicemails which were unreturned), I do realize that we both have very busy schedules, so it was bound to be difficult. I'm just frustrated b/c what should have been been an easy thing to do and shouldn't have cost much ended up becoming an ordeal! To top it all off, between the pads and the rotor turning and everything else, I still ended up spending about $70 on the rear brakes alone. Naturally that doesn't include what I had to pay for the front pads and wheel stud and everything else. So really how much money did I save? I know a shop would have cost more, probably $150-$200, but also with a shop I could have just dropped my car off in the morning months ago when I first had issue, told them to look at the wheels, had them find all the problems at once, fix them and I could have been back in my car, problem free by the afternoon. This whole ordeal never even needed to be an ordeal if I could have just paid someone to do it up front!

Ugh! All I can say is, I can't wait until I have enough money coming in to just take care of stuff like this the right way from the start! I'm not necessarily trying to say money can by happiness (although I'm not denying it either) but in this situation, a little bit of money sure could have saved a lot of frustration and time! So much for big discounts!