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Blogs by Paul Cuenco
Predicament: Saving Money 5/23/2012 1:23:46 PM
I saw that my running lights and brake lights were not working the other night. Worried that I may not use it in the evening, I requested my mom that we should go to a shop the morning after next to fix it. (I had an interview in San Francisco, so I traveled to the Bay Area from Portland, Oregon.) The next afternoon, my mom approached me and mentioned about what had happened when her light bulb died. A Cousin-in-law said that it was easy to fix a broken light bulb. All he has to do was buy the light bulb and he changed it himself. So, she bought a light bulb nonetheless, and he changed the ones in my mom’s car. So what my mother was saying, it would be easy to change the light bulb without incurring a lot of expense and time. We studied the back of my car. We started the car, switched on the lights and stepped on the brakes. The broken lights were indeed broken. Soon, I was convinced that we do not need to bring the car to a repair shop; rather we’d do it ourselves.
Early this morning, we headed to O’Brien’s just like it was an ordinary day. We fell in line and waited for our turn and when it was our turn, we ordered the light bulbs. We went out in the hope that changing the light bulb would not be too difficult. The last time I change the light bulb by myself, I had a hard time that I asked the clerk to help me with it. Of course, he just changed it like it was Spring and he smell like roses. The last time I changed it was without my help. I went to a shop and like before that, there was no issue. It was wham bam and a dunk! All went smoothly. Of course, I paid dearly for it. It was not that much as fixing an engine but more than enough to have four cups of Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks just for one light bulb. So I figured this time that if I could just change the light bulbs by myself, I would not spend a lot. I’ll just pay for the light bulbs.
I read the instruction on how to put the light bulb on. I must smear the goo around the butt of the light bulb so that it could be easily removed and so that the tin would not stick; and also so that water would not penetrate the cubicle the bulb sat in. Then I concentrated my effort in removing the bulb to the right of the car. It was difficult but I got it unhinged. I wiggled it and pulled it apart that the bulb got separated from the cubicle. After putting the good bulb in the cubicle, I concentrated on the second bulb, the one to the left of the car. I figured that it would also be as difficult as the first and so I tried. I tried pulling the bulb from its cubicle. It did not work. Then I wiggled it. Nope, nothing happened. But I repeated the process until the glass part of the bulb got unhinged with the butt still in the cubicle. I took a goose pliers to pry it off. Mom said that she’ll go in the shop to get some help. I proceeded in twisting and turning the metal butt but it did not budge. Mom came back and said that they can’t help. We needed to go to a shop to do the repairing. Soon, my twisting and turning made the metal butt give way that the entire bulb was soon free from the cubicle. And proudly, I connected the new light bulb to the cubicle, of course smearing the goo first to the butt.
We tested the lights. We started the car, switched on the lights and stepped on the brakes. All worked out fine. But when I pressed on the button to let the handle slide on the transmission to Reverse, the stick just wouldn’t. Oh, another set of problems!
Mom called her mechanic which is just two blocks away. He mentioned that in order to let the stick slide, I needed to press a tiny button which was right on top of the transmission panel. I eventually found it and by accident press the button which was in a deep hole with a small Phillips screw driver. But the check engine lighted; and when I slide the stick back to Park, it wouldn’t slide back to Reverse or Drive unless I press that small button again. So off to his shop we went.
He took out his tools and studied what was wrong with my car. He has this wand which lighted whenever there was a current flowing through it and a reader that tells him what could be wrong with the electrical charge. He explained what the matter was and he was terribly patient even though he was suffering from gout. A short time passed and all was clear. He started the car, switched on the lights and stepped on the brakes; and all went well. Even the Engine Brake light which was set off by some incident was cleared; after which, my mom pulled out the checkbook and wrote a check.
I’m sure that we would have spent a few dollars putting on the bulbs ourselves. But for the bother and the subsequent problems we tried working on, it could have been cheaper to go to a shop in the first place. We spent less with this shop only because mom knows the mechanic well and she had her car fixed by this mechanic all the time. If this were another shop, we could have spent more fixing what we messed up; and we could spent a tad less if we had gone to this shop to change our light bulbs. Only if the lights didn’t give us trouble. Only if the clerks at the store we bought our light bulbs from could have helped us. Only if I were a mechanic knowing how to fix my car; but I ain’t a mechanic.
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