Travel Blog

Exactly three weeks after we paid almost $4,000 to have our check engine light not come on anymore, our check engine light came back on. We were less than thrilled. We checked the error code panel again, and it was the exact same code we had told the mechanics about three weeks ago. In fact, when Phil turned over the keys three weeks ago, we told them what code as popping up, and we even told them the internet (oh, the joy the internet has brought to professionals everywhere, I'm sure) told us that it meant a faulty throttle valve actuator. They didn't want to hear it. They said they could do their own diagnostics. So when we brought it back and told them it was the same problem happening, they said "Our bad. We didn't think it was that, but I guess it was." And they didn't charge us for the $400 fix. And we have a newly rebuilt $4,000 transmission, and I'm sure we would have needed that eventually, right? RIGHT? Ugh. Moral of this story is to always get a second opinion when your mechanic quotes you a price that makes you go "hmmmm."

But anyway, they needed to keep our truck overnight, and since we weren't shelling out any more of our hard-earned cash, they gave us a loaner. Has everyone seen "The Mask"? If so, you get the joke. If not, rent it, and then you'll laugh and laugh. We were wondering which mechanic was going without a car for a day because there were all these family photos on the visors, and even a wedding invitation on the dash, so we knew this was someone's car. But since it was free, we weren't going to complain.  Until we got pulled over by the cops. It seems that they gave us a loaner with expired tags. And not just a bit expired. Almost a year expired. So we got to sit at the gas pumps we pulled over at for about a half hour while they ran our driver's licenses and called the garage to see what was what. We didn't get into any trouble, and the officers were really nice about everything, and we can laugh about it now, but...So we took the illegal back to the garage and they got us a rental car. It was way nicer. A brand new Kia Sorento.

We got our truck back the next day without any further incident. We'll see how long the check engine stays off this time.