Let me know how you found me, where you're from, why you're here, a little about yourself, recommend a book, recommend a movie, tell me a secret, tell me something, ask me a question, etc. =)

Ad Astra,

The Bride of the First House.
bride (at) livejournal (dot) com

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		18°C
mood	:		not too bad

Both of our families have always washed cars ourselves. I'm the only Black Sheep Car Owner in both families who just can't be bothered. The only time the family cars were done by someone else, were the times when my volunteer group did Donation Car Washes and I asked them to help us out, we'd do all the cars for $5 each. It went to charity anyway and Grandma would usually give us $20 for two or three cars.

So, last night, I went to pick up toturi (that's Husband Guy, BTW). I usually wait for him in the passenger pick-up zone at the Delta Vancouver Hotel Downtown Suite Hotel. As I sat, water started coming down on the car. Bubbly water. And it reeked of chlorine. *blech* >K{ I got out of the car when I thought the water had stopped. One of the security guys also came out to investigate. Apparently, there's a swimming pool on the 4th floor. It must be an outdoor pool and it must've been the Olympic Cannon Ball & Belly Flop Qualifiers going on up there. toturi had to hose down the car in the dark when we got home. Blah... I'm not waiting in that spot again.

We'd been curious about the touchless carwash at an Esso gas station ever since we drove by it while test driving the TSX. Self: write about the TSX test drive... ( So, I took The Knight Ridah in to try it out. )

weather	:		blazing sunny
outside	:		24°C
mood	:		better than yesterday

I'm feeling somewhat better than yesterday. Thanks for all the encouragement and kind comments =)

Well, we got home before dark last night, so we went straight to washing my car before dinner. It was nasty. And it still has residue on it, but it's presentable.

This morning at the Honda shop went okay. Husband Guy did as well as I've seen him at being an upset but reasonable customer. They won't give us our money back on the work they did. They took the car in to give it another look and make recommendations on what else can be fixed. I really don't know what that will do.

The car has a Conditional Pass, which means that we can get insurance, but it has to go back in for AirCare testing next year. It also needs a major service tune-up. Because of the low mileage on the car, it was never presented to us as critical to get any of the major mileage services done. So, some of the parts could be well worn by now, but haven't been changed because of that. Or that's Honda's excuse anyway ("we don't have the service history, so it could be any of a number of things...").

We'll probably also start using a higher octane gas. Husband Guy insists that he only needs 87. I've always used 94 in my car. I told him to use either 89 or 92 and once in a while get 94. I'm not sure that it makes that big a difference in a new-ish car.

The question now is, would I feel too stupid bringing this car to the Honda shop to do the major inspection/tune-up, so they can't blame not knowing the service history? I do feel like they dicked us around and just made lame excuses. Do I really want to give them the benefit of further business? And what's the say they won't make up some other lame excuse like "oh, Acuras are totally different and it's not our expertise..."?

*sigh* I dunno.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		21°C
mood	:		livid
music	:	Steps - I Think It's Love

Husband Guy took his car to AirCare again today to get tested after the Honda shop made the repairs. (See the orginal Car Stupidness).

Not only did it fail again, it did even worse than before.

We're just livid.

He's already called the Honda shop to tell them and he has an appointment on Tuesday to bring the car in again.

Husband Guy asked me to "give them hell" on Tuesday. =} I am the *cough* more outspoken one.

As much as I would love to pound these tard heads back into the primordial ooze from which they failed to evolve, it's Husband Guy's car and "giving them hell" is a skill I think he needs to learn. I can help him prepare with certain things to say and do (talking to a Manager or someone who has authority to promise things, getting everything in writing, etc.), get a list of things that he wants from the Honda guys and a list of "extras" that he can try to guilt them into.

He has to do this himself.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		19°C
mood	:		annoyed

We picked up Husband Guy's car this morning. The oxygen sensor in the emission control system was farked. Emission control is only covered under warranty for 3 years and the car is 4 years old (not 3yo like the phase shift in my brain thought).

So, $400.00 of parts and labour later, we still have to take it to AirCare ourselves again ($48.00 for the third time).

If anyone needs me, I'll be curled up behind my desk today.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		25°C
mood	:		okay

Champagne is my car. She's a gold/champagne coloured 1990 Nissan Maxima. It's the first car I've ever owned outright. Paid for with all my own money and not shared with anyone else.

I was going to just hop out over lunch to get a one month insurance policy. I found out that I couldn't do that. The shortest policy I can take out is 3 months. Fine. But I have to get AirCare certified first.

*ahem* I haven't driven my car in about two months. It's been sitting in an outdoor car port under an Olympic calibre spitting cherry tree. It was pretty disgusting with bird doot and cherry gunk baked onto the car. I drove it to the $12 hand car wash and that gave the engine a bit of a run before AirCare as well.

So, it turned out to be a three hour lunch to get the car washed, go sit in line at the AirCare Inspection Centre, pay, wait for them to measure my car fart, then go back and get my insurance.

Why am I doing this? Husband Guy's car failed AirCare. It's a 1999 Acura 1.6EL. Umm... yeah, I'll wait for you to pick your jaw back up from the floor.

Doo-dee doo-dee doo... *file and buff nails*

Got your jaw back on straight? Okay. By all accounts, a car made in 1999 and that's been taken in for maintenance twice a year should ABSO-FARKING-LUTELY NOT be failing AirCare. But anyway, it needs to be fixed at an AirCare Certified Repair Centre. There are no Acura repair centres that are authorized to do AirCare repairs. So, Flagpole is going to a Honda repair shop tomorrow.

I think we're going to hold off on raising hell with Acura for the moment.

We live close-ish to work - I think it's about ~15 km (~10 mi), so the short distance twice a day might be causing engine buildup. As well, we almost exclusively use 87 octane gas which, apparently, could be a problem. We didn't think it was necessary to use a higher octane.

I also don't hear any other 1.6EL owners screaming blue murder about not passing AirCare, so we'll see what the Honda shop says.