Car Trouble

Cars are one of those things that you love and hate. Love, because they are so convenient and allow you to be independent and not have to spend hours using public transportation. Hate, because they constantly need maintenance and repairs and you have to pay for insurance and it all costs a lot of money.

This week Tyler decided we were overdue for spark plug replacements and wanted to get that done. According to Tyler, this is a pretty simple job. He went to Walmart and got the new spark plugs, got the little gapping tool from Auto Zone and even showed me how to use it. "In case I die." His words. If Tyler dies, learning how to do minor repairs and maintenance on my own car is going to be the least of my problems. Also, I do not plan on ever doing any work on any car. A couple weeks ago I finally got up the nerve to figure out how to air up our tires on my own. It was a success, but the entire time I was scared that the tires were either going to pop or completely deflate.

But back to the story. So Tyler went about his business replacing spark plugs and when he was doing the last one a little piece of metal fell down the cylinder and into the engine. Tyler called his dad and brother to see what to do about it and his dad said it wouldn't be a problem, just start the engine and it would fall out. His brother said absolutely don't start the car, you need to get it out or you will have to replace your entire engine. Tyler didn't want to chance it so he made a makeshift tool with a stick and some gum to stick down there and get the small piece of metal out. While he was fishing around for the metal, the gum fell off the stick and got stuck down the cylinder as well.

At this point Tyler is completely frustrated and decides he needs to get a real tool to fish out the gum and the metal. He called our friends to drive him to Auto Zone so he could get a better tool. He got this grabber tool thing with a little claw on the end that looks like this.

So he starts fishing around for the metal and the gum and gets both of them out. Keep in mind that by this time it's dark outside even though he started working on this project at like 1 in the afternoon. It also had started raining. Hard. But he got both the metal and the gum out and then he stuck the tool in there one more time to make sure he got everything and the stupid claw thing on the end CAME OFF!!

I don't think I've ever seen Tyler more frustrated in our entire marriage. This simple repair turned into huge problem that just kept getting worse and worse the more he tried to fix it. When Tyler came in to tell me what had happened I thought it would be a simple solution to just go and get yet another tool to fish the first claw out. Not as easy as it sounds though because the hole is extremely small and apparently the claw was open and expanded inside making it impossible to fit it up through the hole again.

At this point Tyler was thinking our next option was to tow the car into a mechanic and have them take apart the whole engine to get the claw out. But he thought he would to get it out with another claw first to see if somehow he could fish it out before we spent hundreds of dollars. So our good friends once again drove Tyler to the store to get another tool. Unfortunately, it didn't work. At this point it was late and dark and we just had to wait until the next day to make our next move.

In the morning we called the Bishop to see if he knew of any mechanics in the ward. Fortunately a guy in our ward owns a tire shop and knew a lot about cars. He sent out one of his mechanics to try and get it out in our parking lot so we wouldn't have to tow the car, but the mechanic didn't have any more luck than Tyler. So we ended up getting the car towed to this guys tire shop and anxiously awaited the verdict. They would either figure out some way to get it out with their tools or we would have to let them take the whole car apart to get the claw out, which would likely cost hundreds of dollars.

Finally we had some luck! We got a call just a short time after the car had been towed that they had figured out how to get the claw out without having to take anything apart. We were SO relieved!! We were so grateful that we weren't going to have to pay a bunch of money for a repair that was just a complete accident.

It was a stressful week here in Galveston and we are glad to put that trial behind us. We are grateful to have a working car and friends in the ward who are willing to lend their tools, talents, and time to help us in a bind. 

Here's a picture I took of Tyler back when he was only somewhat irritated by the whole ordeal. He was using his stick tool to fish for the metal piece and I thought it was going to be a great success story for the blog how he was able to fix the whole problem with a stick and some gum. I wish I had been right.