Kuunari

So, as many of you know, I have a 2004 Hyundai accent, that I have a soft spot for, as it’s the first new car I bought. Well, it just had it’s 60 thousand mile check up, and it was hurting. The exhaust had become damaged from all the salt and ice of Minnesota winters. The rear shocks were shot. All the belts needed to be replaced. About 1500 dollars later that was all done.

Then, on my way home to east Lansing from Rochester, NY, my car started rhythmically revving when above 50 miles an hour. Stopped, car wouldn’t start, so I got to walk to the Days Inn half a mile away from where my car died to stay the night in rural Ohio. When I got back, thought it might be covered under my 100,000 mile warranty. Turns out it wasn’t, but it was just a sensor that monitored the amount of gas that was going to the engine.

That left just two more items left to repair: the cabin air filter and the rear door handle that had broken over the winter. The cabin air filter wasn’t too hard to replace, although the place that did my 60,000 mile had taken out the old filter and had neglected to tell that, so I put about 2,000 miles on my car without the filter, which explains why I could smell everything on the road.

The door handle was more of an adventure. I got the door panel off with minimal issues, and could see the broken handle buried deep on the other side of the door. There were two nuts holding it on. One, not too hard to reach with a wrench and an extender. The other one, no so much. I could get to it, if only I could remove the door clasp, which was held on by three over tightened or rusted screws. With my rusting screwdrivers, I had no chance of getting them out before striping them. So I took the car down to Tuffy’s to get the screws removed. Well, the mechanic had a wrench with a flexible bit, and he had that bolt out in about thirty seconds the fun came trying to get it back on. About an hour later, me with my small hands was able to reach in and get the bolt threaded enough for the mechanic to tighten it. He did it for free, which I appreciated, since i think if we had done it my way by taking out the door clasp that was in the way it would have taken maybe fifteen minutes.

So now I have what feels like a brand new car. Hope it lasts me another 60,000 miles before I have to spend this much again.