Yeah, My Car's Gonna Be The Death Of Me

Brought my car in Friday.  Wanted to wait a while before I brought it into the mechanic Father trusts to take care of the Check Engine light.  But I drove it and white smoke was coming out from under the hood, so I decided to take it to The Other Mechanic Around The Corner to take care of that, because I couldn't wait.

Turns out it was as bad as it could possible have been: The gaskets for the oil pan and the valve cover are leaking, which is the reason for the smoke.  Swore I had The First Mechanic Around The Corner fix the valve cover gasket in the spring.  But when I looked at the receipt, turns out that did not happen.  Plus I thought the valve cover gasket was fixed a year ago by the mechanic Father trusts.  Guess not.  (Was told in a later phone call that that gasket was held in by screws that were screwed on only finger-tight, not ... uh, electronically.)  That valve cover involves taking out the whole engine ... which just so happens to be the place where the knock sensors are, which is (I believe) the source of the Check Engine light.  So, as long as they're going to be rooting around there, I told the mechanic, you might as well replace the knock sensors too.

No problem, the guy said -- that'll be about $1,500.  And like a dumbass I immediately said yes.  I love this car, love it so much it's going to kill me.  But I can justify it this way: With so many things at work spinning out of my control and not being done the way I want it to be done, this was something that I think would be a problem taking care of by people I want to trust.  I don't care if it took me a lot of money; at least something would break in my favor.

I walked down there Thursday and drove it -- to the Wendy's across the street, then a local strip mall to find rubber thumbs, then close to my house to fill up the car, then, finally, home.  The taillight warning lights are still on (have to get the sockets fixed) and the low oil level light is still on (although I finally have a complete answer, I think: A mechanic pulled out the oil pan and saw that that sensor is broken -- like, literally broken).  But so far, the Check Engine light has stayed off.

Now it's going to light up while driving to the soccer game tonight (Friday night).  And I'm going to just laugh, laugh, laugh in my car because I pissed away $1,500.