The Red Herring is Back

Good news everyone! We got the Red Herring Back.

You may recall the car went into the shop a few weeks ago to see about fixing some of its many ills. We got it back briefly with new brakes and took it in for a wheel alignment, but parts were so worn out they couldn't get the alignment to stick. So back it went to Kevin, who has now replaced parts in both the front and rear of the vehicle so we're off again to the alignment shop.

Once we're past that, it's new tires, then back to Kevin for Round Three, which involves a timing belt kit and a run-through of some sensors sending out some distress signals.

In the meantime, we've dropped Liam's 1997 Pontiac minivan off to him to look at the anti-lock brake system.

The bill for the Honda has come to about a thousand dollars with more to come, but it's still better than shopping for a new, much more expensive vehicle to replace it.

My Grandpa Car

I was visiting my father-in-law over the weekend, and happened to come as my brother-in-law and their family were leaving after a brief Spring Break visit.

We got to talking about my car, a 2005 Honda Pilot which we bought from my father-in-law for $10,000. I don't remember when it was, but we've had it ever since, which I think is about ten or so years after that.

Carl, my brother-in-law, asked what work we've had to have done on it to keep it running. It's got 260,000 miles on it now.

I had to think about it for a bit.

Aside from regular maintenance, from battery replacement (once), new tires, (once) and oil changes and such, the only repairs I've had to have done is to replace the starter and replace the gas cap.

So it's been a *really* reliable vehicle for us.

I don't have an accounting like the one in this video, but I believe it's comparable.

There are some repairs which should probably be done:

1. I've got an air bag sensor that's gone bad.

2. The power steering has developed a small leak.

We've tried finding a used sensor at the scrap yards, but apparently this is a common failure point on Pilots, so the one we need is always missing.

And as for the power steering, the leak is small enough to the point I'm not that worried about it yet. It's more an annoyance to have to top up the fluid every once in a while than anything else.

Knock on wood, it'll keep running for a lot longer.

THE NEW GAS CAP IS HERE

I'm pretty sure no one else will be as excited about this as I am, but MY NEW GAS CAP IS HERE.

Here, a little rant.

A month or so ago, a new warning on my 2005, 250,000-mile Honda Pilot, but one I can't ignore, because CHECK FUEL CAP is now obscuring one of the most important dashboard instruments: The thermometer.

So I went to the auto parts store, being the forward-thinking man that I am, and bought a new gas cap. The old one had hung on for 250,000 miles and by golly, if a $14 gas cap could get rid of that dashboard warning, so be it. No matter that the other dashboard warnings, one for TPMS and the other for the airbag, go unanswered. I should probably look into those, thought I'm convinced TPMS is a system set up on Hondas to slow let the air out of the rear drivers' side tire. And airbag, I have *never* used that thing.

And for a while, the CHECK FUEL CAP error cleared, so smooth sailing.

Then it came back. Then it disappeared but was replaced by the dreaded CHECK ENGINE LIGHT. So my youngest, checking on his own vehicle, took it to the mechanic who read the error codes and deduced it's probably due to the cheap gas cap I bought, since 95% of the errors linked to the evaporative whatever system on Pilots is linked to a faulty gas cap, and the non-OEM ones tend to not fix the problem.

Thus the new gas cap.

I'll put it on tonight after work, drive around for awhile and hope that the error clears. Maybe I'll have to go clear it myself. Or I can make my son do it. I've earned the money for the $35 gas cap, after all.