A tale of two mechanics

So before we drove the 400 kms (240 mi) to Vancouver in order to visit Pastor Brent and Lauren last Sunday (June 30) I took the car in to have the brakes checked. Marianna thought they might be a bit worn from having driven so much in Kamloops. (There are lots of hills there.) So I took the car in to where my boss usually took his vehicles, City Auto Repair. The mechanic popped the wheels off, inspected the brakes, and assured me they were in great shape still. But he noticed there was a very slight ‘clunk’ sound in the steering and said that was a tie rod needing to be replaced, which would run me about $350. I said thanks and that I’d get back to him another time on the whole tie rod thing. The good news about the brakes (and tie rod) cost me $20. Whatever.

Except it could have cost me a lot more than that.

The trip was uneventful, but over the next few days in Kelowna we started hearing some strange sounds coming from the front end of the vehicle, like something was rubbing. And the rate would increase or decrease with the speed of the vehicle. An annoyance at first, since it was barely audible, but it began to get louder over the next day or two and I began to be concerned. During one trip I pulled over to inspect the front end to see if it was anything obvious, which is when I noticed that one of the lug nuts was missing from the passenger-side front tire! The stupid mechanic lost one of the lug nuts and never said anything to me about it? Grrr.

I could not see anything obvious—that is, anything else obvious that would be making that rubbing noise. So we continued driving the vehicle. And the sound continued to worsen. And now there was a distinct but ever so slight shake that could be felt in the steering wheel, a slight shake which the next day could be felt in the whole vehicle. That was the last day we drove it. It was a Friday evening and I assured Marianna that I would have it towed to the mechanic first thing Monday morning.

That Monday morning I found out from my boss that his mechanic stopped working for City Auto some time ago, that he had opened up his own shop on Highway 33 at Sadler Road. Well, that might explain the bewildering ineptitude and dishonesty I experienced at City Auto. So I called Doug Hoy at Hwy 33 Napa AutoPro and arranged to have the car towed up to his shop and properly cared for. “I don’t care what you need to do,” I said, “just get it purring like a kitten again.” I was expecting several hundred dollars in repairs because, honestly, the car sounded that bad. I was prepared for the worst, so at our Monday evening Bible study my prayer request was that God would be merciful to my bank account.

That brings us to this afternoon, when Doug called me up to tell me the news.

“Well, I am only going to charge you for the towing,” he said.

My heart sank, thinking the repairs were estimated to cost more than the vehicle was worth. “How bad is it?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s not bad at all,” he replied. “The lug nuts on the driver-side front tire were not torqued properly. The tire had almost fallen off. It’s a good thing you stopped driving it!” he laughed.

And that was it. That other mechanic had lost a lug nut for one of the front tires and didn’t torque them properly on the other one. Well, I’m sure glad I saw that stupid mechanic before making that long trip on the Coquihalla Highway through the Cascade Mountains!

I was so grateful for the answered prayer and Doug’s honesty and integrity that I could not leave it at just a tow bill. I asked him to maybe run a thorough inspection of the vehicle, and he suggested a maintenance service package which included a complete safety inspection and oil change. Sounds good, I said (and made an appointment for a tune-up next week, given the results of the inspection). When I arrived to pick the vehicle up Doug also told me that he had signed me up for free roadside assistance coverage from NAPA AutoPro. 24-hour roadside assistance anywhere in North America, covering me if I need a tow, lock my keys in the car, run out of gas, got a flat tire and so on. Yeah, free.

I told him that he is officially my mechanic, that I will never take my vehicle anywhere else but to him. That was great service.