WEBmikey: Car maintenance saga

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Car maintenance saga
11.10.2007 6:34 AM \| Link	My 1998 Acura Integra is starting to get a little old, now that it's creeping around the 94,000 mile mark, so I never know what to expect when I take it in for regular maintenance. Last month I had a bit of an adventure, right when I was super-busy editing my Christmas video! First, I had a leak in my oil pump seals, which is one of those cheap parts that takes all day to take the whole car apart and costs a bundle. But, I needed to have it done, so I dealt with it. Then a week later I started noticing more leaks! I took it in again, thinking it was nothing more than a simple botch from last time, and they told me my rear seals were leaking! Another whole day of labor and another giant gob on my credit card, but I figured that would take care of it. But a week later, it was leaking again (very small, but I wanted this taken care of)! When I showed up the third time, the mechanics were actually surprised, since they totally remembered taking my car apart twice. This time it was the cam seals – more huge work! But they discovered that my PCV valve was the problem all along – it was completely clogged shut, so my car was just finding new seals to pop to release pressure. They kind of felt bad about it, I think, so they did the cam seal work at a 75% discount, which was nice! On the down side, it was really a pain to have my car in the shop three weeks in a row when they could have replaced that valve in five minutes, but on the up side, my seals were all 10 years old and probably ready to go anyway. For now, I'm happy to have a leak-free engine, and since I love not having a car payment, I'm going to keep driving my Acura for a long time to come! Labels: life


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