I have a car appt. story to tell you. Okay yesterday our 2008 Sienna had an appt. for the oil change/check up before the road trip on Sunday. Toyota calls me around 10 and tells me the front brake pads need to be replaced since we are going on a trip and that they are at the min. 3/32. I was a little surprised by this since the van only has 27,000 miles and two oil changes ago they were at like 11/32. SO...I called my husband and he said nah...I think it is fine just let them do the other stuff they are probably just trying to get money out of us and there is probably several more months of good driving left on these. The brakes were going to cost 299 bucks at Toyota dealership.
SO then it started bugging me about the trip and maybe we should get a second opinion. I called Sears where we have had brakes done over the years on our OLD 1998 Dodge Caravan. They told me they could do the brake eval for 15 bucks and wave the fee if indeed it needed brakes. Cost about 135.00 bucks for front brakes and rotars turned.... so I decided to take it there to see.
OKAY...our dd had to work so she was in her Toyota Corolla so I couldn't have her follow me to drop it off or have our son take her car to follow me. I didn't want to wait on it because I had stuff to do.... SO...I had our son (16 1/2) drive over in our old 1998 van so I could drop the Sienna off and we could take that old van back home. We get in the parking lot and he comes over to where I parked the Sienna and says "MOM the white van is smoking and the red light came on right as we were turning at the light"... which was where the mall is. SO I walk over and YES IT IS SIZZLING AND SMOKING.
So MAJOR REGROUP.....we go into Sears and tell them we are NOW leaving the WHITE VAN and they go out and look at it ...thinking it is the radiator and would do a check on it and call us. SO we left and get home....are about to eat dinner and they call. THE RADIATOR HAS A BAD CRACK AND NEEDS TO BE REPLACED ALONG WITH THE WATER PUMP AND THE SERPENTINE BELT. The radiator has to be replaced ..can't be sealed or anything. WE HAD NO DESIRE TO PUT A BUNCH OF MONEY INTO THIS OLD VAN. Well since it could not be driven and we do use it occasionally my husband said we have to do it. SO that is costing us 784 bucks. YEAH just what we wanted to do days before leaving for Disney AND....IT IS NOT EVEN THE VAN WE ARE DRIVING TO DISNEY.
Not to mention that I am still going to get the NEW van checked out today when I go to pick up the white van. I am worried about the brakes...more like paranoid now. So..... I did find a 15 buck FREE brake eval coupon on the Sears site to take with me.
SO here's hoping YOUR CAR CHECKS OUT OKAY WITHOUT MAJOR ISSUES. UGH
This came after just a few weeks ago we had to replace two front tires on the Sienna. I picked up a roofer nail and we have run flats so they can't repair the hole. SO of course they say you should replace tires in "TWO'S" UGh so that was around 450 then like 4 days later...OUR DACHSHUND PUPPY chewed up my son's inhaler and had to spend the night in PUPPY ICU and that cost us over 600. SO..I just want to get out of here on SUNDAY without any other major issues.
I'm also going to bring the vinyl up another inch on the bottom - gives more support.
