Confused about Midas!
For those who don't know what Midas is, they are the automotive servicing chain in the US. THey do all kinds of jobs on cars, such as oil change, trouble shoot and various other car things that cannot be done by yourself at home. I have always found Midas a bit expensive, but I also don't know others who are less expensive, apart from the local garage mechanics to whom I would not risk give my VW-Jetta.
Couple of days ago, my car started making a dragging sound, like the engine was getting stressed or had to put in more effort to run. Now when sounds start coming from your car when driving, I feel its a bit difficult to pinpoint where the extra sound is coming from. I say 'EXTRA' cos, being an old car from the year 1996, it has its own share of unavoidable squeaks and creaks. I feel blessed that my ears are well trained to this, and as long as I am single, she is definitely going to be treated as my wife. So in short I know my present wife very well :-)
So as she started groaning a couple of days ago, I thought something was wrong and so decided to take it to Dr. Midas. But before taking her there, I did some checks on my own and came to a 90% conclusion that the groaning was coming from the rear wheels.
Apparently it turned out that 3 months back, the guy at Midas had screwed up a bit when changing the rear brakes, and now the rear brakes were stuck to the wheels even when the brake was not on!! This somehow happened 2 days ago, I don't know how!!
I felt good of my rough diagnostic ability, cos if I had gone to Midas with the 'I dont know where the noise is coming from' expression, he surely would have put up a bill of atleast a 100 bucks.
I say I'm confused cos, the works done at Midas is usually very good- other works done on my car previously have made my car well and smooth. But the buggers are expensive and if you don't have a slight idea about the problem, in all probabilities they will slap you with a big bill.
So finally got todays work done free, and the owner apologised for his mechanic's mistake.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005