I have a $800 car repair bill out of nowhere

[oregano]

I was in Merlin, Oregon, getting something repaired (not the car) and on the way back home I stopped at the big truck stop in Central Point for gas. In Oregon, an attendant pumps your gas by law, and he nudged my left rear tire with his boot and said "your tire looks low buddy, the air machine is over there".

There is a Les Schwab Tire (regional chain) only a couple miles away from there near the airport, so I decided to ask them if there was a nail in the tire. My check tire light has been on for months because the dummies at a tire store in Yreka couldn't figure out what tire sensor fit in the wheel they sold me last year. So I asked these guys to slap a sensor in that wheel.

They came back after looking at it and said I need 4 new tires and 3 sensors. They said that left rear tire was so rotten they were surprised it hadn't come apart yet. They said they would have to order the sensors, but would put a new tire on so I could get home. Total bill: US$792.

My mom has covid real bad, as I posted elsewhere, and she is 77 and she likely only has a few years left even if she survives covid. My SSI check is $1100, and I regularly have to have her pick up some living expenses. What do I do when she's gone and I can't fix something because I don't have the money?

 

[Aspychata]

Apply for help from state and county. Will she leave you house to sell?

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

It is an object lesson for people who are dependents and not earning a living wage. I see too much of that in my county, of people surprised by their short term views and sudden income insecurity. Now is the time for you to plan for your future. "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" was the adage of the great depression. This is also a lesson that you need to know your equipment and learn basic repairs so you do not necessarily have to rely on people who have every incentive to sell you something.

 

[Aspychata]

I try to repair a lot of things.

 

[Gerontius]

I was in Merlin, Oregon, getting something repaired (not the car) and on the way back home I stopped at the big truck stop in Central Point for gas. In Oregon, an attendant pumps your gas by law, and he nudged my left rear tire with his boot and said "your tire looks low buddy, the air machine is over there".

There is a Les Schwab Tire (regional chain) only a couple miles away from there near the airport, so I decided to ask them if there was a nail in the tire. My check tire light has been on for months because the dummies at a tire store in Yreka couldn't figure out what tire sensor fit in the wheel they sold me last year. So I asked these guys to slap a sensor in that wheel.

They came back after looking at it and said I need 4 new tires and 3 sensors. They said that left rear tire was so rotten they were surprised it hadn't come apart yet. They said they would have to order the sensors, but would put a new tire on so I could get home. Total bill: US$792.

My mom has covid real bad, as I posted elsewhere, and she is 77 and she likely only has a few years left even if she survives covid. My SSI check is $1100, and I regularly have to have her pick up some living expenses. What do I do when she's gone and I can't fix something because I don't have the money?

You need some kind of a job or something that will go along with what you're doing.

Also, never pay full price for anything. Get your tires at a salvage yard if you can get them. Figure out how to work on things like the car. Used tires are tires, and it doesn't sound like you drive much anyway except getting to town for supplies. What are you going to do when the engine blows? Pull it using a gin-pole and rebuild it in the kitchen sink, or go a-begging to town? Your house had to be built & it will have to have repairs. Mend clothes, don't buy them. Get things secondhand or thirdhand--thrift shops, landfill, dumpster diving. It's how I get my packaging materials for selling people things, and scavenging for old used things is how I get furniture.

I understand you & your mom don't have a great relationship; however, don't let her concerns about your independence be valid. Some mothers and fathers love in an overprotective way. Some even seem like they are bullying because they fear the consequences of the Unknown. Being independent is a lot of work & takes funding. I am looking hard for jobs right now to be able to move out, have a way to get my feet under me.

Kind of sad seeing this business with you & your mom. I don't know your mom from Adam's housecat but someone who's lived 77 years and hard ones too, now stuck with a dose of covid, probably not on great terms with everyone else, and possibly fixing to die a very painful death--That is a sad way for a human being to end a life.

 

[Au Naturel]

Low but not flat is a slow leak. I keep a can of fix-a-flat in the car for such occasions. Probably a nail or a screw.

I ignore low-tire pressure lights. The sensors go bad far more often than tires go soft. A $10 tire pressure gauge will give you the truth. Air pumps usually have a gauge right in the hose.

I don't know how old the tires on your car are. Unless there are cracks in it, tires don't get "rotten." That typically happens in really old tires, super cheap tires pushed beyond their performance range, or tires that haven't been driven on for a long time. Maybe they were referring to tread wear?

There's the "penny test" where you insert a penny into the tread, and it if touches the top of Lincoln's head, the tire is still good. (Canadians use a "nickel test" where the tread has to cover Queen Elizabeth's crown.) Bald tires are bad news, doubly so in wet conditions. You do it in a lot of different places on the tire because wear can be uneven. Uneven wear usually is a sign of alignment or suspension issues.

Used to work in a tire store as an installer, long ago.

 

[Gerontius]

Low but not flat is a slow leak. I keep a can of fix-a-flat in the car for such occasions. Probably a nail or a screw.

I ignore low-tire pressure lights. The sensors go bad far more often than tires go soft. A $10 tire pressure gauge will give you the truth. Air pumps usually have a gauge right in the hose.

I don't know how old the tires on your car are. Unless there are cracks in it, tires don't get "rotten." That typically happens in really old tires, super cheap tires pushed beyond their performance range, or tires that haven't been driven on for a long time. Maybe they were referring to tread wear?

There's the "penny test" where you insert a penny into the tread, and it if touches the top of Lincoln's head, the tire is still good. (Canadians use a "nickel test" where the tread has to cover Queen Elizabeth's crown.) Bald tires are bad news, doubly so in wet conditions. You do it in a lot of different places on the tire because wear can be uneven. Uneven wear usually is a sign of alignment or suspension issues.

Used to work in a tire store as an installer, long ago.

One way to forestall uneven wear is to rotate the tires so they wear evenly.
You use the jack & jack handle, lug wrench, & another jack stand which might or might not be a strong piece of stone with a board on top to protect the frame.

 

[VictorR]

Ideally, it's best to limit spending to about 80-85% of one's income so that one can set some money aside for savings, but also for an emergency fund, as inevitably things will happen.

If you're finding that you're spending more than that, then you may wish to look into additional sources of money and/or find efficiencies or areas where you could reduce spending. Is it possible that you could share the costs of a vehicle with someone?

You may also wish to look into what programs/services are available in your area. Sometimes social service agencies have funding available for one-off emergencies (e.g. someone's prescription glasses broke). There may be programs for subsidized internet connections and/or phone service (sometimes via the service provider).

Finally, most disability pensions usually allow the recipient to still have some employment income. Since COVID, there's a lot more remote work. Maybe you could find something on a part time basis that might work for you? And if you need training, sometimes there is funding targeted to certain demographic groups (including persons with disabilities) that might even fully pay for the training in addition to offering a stipend while in the course and doing a practicum, if there is one.

 

[oregano]

The tires are pretty old, I will have to look at the paperwork but I think that two of them are pretty much near the end of their useful life. I never really cared about tire sensors, I have been living with a malfunctioning tire check light for a year so it doesn't bother me, but I asked them to take a look at the sensors anyway. I didn't think that the sensors would cost more than the tires!

Sensor costs have always been reasonable in the past, but now it's $110 per sensor, while the tires are $100 each! The law says they have to replace the sensors if they go bad, I think. It's considered essential safety equipment. Most car repair places will upsell you, but Les Schwab generally isn't as bad as a lot of others. I can do basic stuff like swap out a flat tire, but actually *replacing* a tire requires specialized equipment.

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" is a motto that my grandparents-who lived through the Depression-taught me, and I live by it. My computer that I am typing this on is 11 years old and originally ran Windows 7, now it runs Linux Mint. I wear clothes until they wear out, and only then do I buy new. Sadly, clothes today aren't easily mended. I don't own very many clothes anyway, just what I need. Yes, I have been doing repairs on my house when they come up.

 

[MildredHubble]

I always keep faulty stuff that comes off my car etc. I figure out how it works and repair it. There's every chance you could have done this with the tyre sensors if they had given them back to you which is a shame.

I think a lot of this "essential safety equipment" in cars is such a load of nonsense these days. Manufacturers no doubt lobbying to get their fancy add-ons to become "safety standards" so people get FOMO when their friends new car has a feature their older one doesn't. And if it's "essential safety equipment", well then you are going to feel that your old car is dangerous by comparison.

My advice. Buy a 1980s Japanese manufactured car. The parts are cheaper, they are more reliable as they were built at a time where quality control was matured but they made the parts out if solid (metal) materials that if looked after will last essentially forever.

They are easy to work on, parts are plentiful and they don't have any of these dumb paranoid systems that really are only there to force you to go to the dealership for repairs. Seriously! Look at the history of OBD or on board diagnostics and you will probably want to go and scream at Ford with a mega phone for a week!

 

[Jeff T]

Everyone has their style of living. Mine has been 'skipping by on the cheap'. The only things here at this place I have had others do for me has been: cutting back a leaning 100' tree threatening my barn; having the septic tank pumped; replacement of the water pump 140' down the well.
Everything else I've had to do with my poorish motor skills, through necessity.

At this point, you've had issues with the expenses with your car. It sounds like you regret the tire sensor purchases?
My cheepy way around cars is to get a lowest trim level 80's-90's car built in Japan, as MildredHubble suggests. If you can one with 100k on the clock, excellent, although checking the pedal pads and other wear points is good idea.
Fully decked out models simply have more stuff to break. It's not hard to crank up a window with a handle, shift a transmission manually.
Once you get such car, replace the fluids and rubber items- coolant hoses, belts, suspension boots, brake seals, axle shafts etc.
In doing so you may come across potential future problems that you can fix before they become really pricey.

The '91 323 I had was a hand-me-down: first my brother's car until he died, then my dad's, then I got it for $50.
I went through the car, then took it on vacation to the Canadian Rockies with two pooches in the back seat. Very few repairs driving it from 80k to 220k, a lot of driving vacations including rough dirt roads. If I put in a new clutch disk I imagine it would go another 150k- engine output seems to have increased after I blasted the combustion chambers with walnut shells!

How long do I have, if I decide to delete this post?

 

[MildredHubble]

Once you get such car, replace the fluids and rubber items- coolant hoses, belts, suspension boots, brake seals, axle shafts etc.

Definitely, and I would also consider these too...

Replacing fluids annually is a good idea too, if you can, every 6 months. It's way more than is strictly necessary, but the engine wear will be almost none existent.

I have a low trim level car too and it rarely has issues. Most of the car is pretty much as it left the factory. Utilitarian is the way to go, but you don't need to forego a bit of sportiness.

Keeping the engine in excellent condition, keeping the brakes in good order and the exhaust leak free, and really there's not much that can go wrong with some careful, mindful driving.

I see people careening over potholes and kerbs. Revving their engines until they misfire and blasting up to a junction then dive bombing on the brakes or keeping the car in the wrong gear.

Keeping the stresses on a car to a minimum by learning how to drive it properly and it will reward you with many, many miles of trouble free driving.

 

[Au Naturel]

The tires are pretty old, I will have to look at the paperwork but I think that two of them are pretty much near the end of their useful life. I never really cared about tire sensors, I have been living with a malfunctioning tire check light for a year so it doesn't bother me, but I asked them to take a look at the sensors anyway. I didn't think that the sensors would cost more than the tires!

Sensor costs have always been reasonable in the past, but now it's $110 per sensor, while the tires are $100 each! The law says they have to replace the sensors if they go bad, I think. It's considered essential safety equipment. Most car repair places will upsell you, but Les Schwab generally isn't as bad as a lot of others. I can do basic stuff like swap out a flat tire, but actually *replacing* a tire requires specialized equipment.

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" is a motto that my grandparents-who lived through the Depression-taught me, and I live by it. My computer that I am typing this on is 11 years old and originally ran Windows 7, now it runs Linux Mint. I wear clothes until they wear out, and only then do I buy new. Sadly, clothes today aren't easily mended. I don't own very many clothes anyway, just what I need. Yes, I have been doing repairs on my house when they come up.

In California, I have never heard of requiring sensors to be replaced if bad. Every car I've ever had with a tire pressure sensor had it go bad. Must be a profit center for auto companies.

 

[oregano]

Well, in the end I wound up with a bill of $370. I managed to convince them that two of the tires were still under warranty. (This is why you should always keep receipts for major repairs with the car.) Also, they figured out that two of the sensors were not bad after all.

The car itself is a 5 door 2016 Hyundai Accent that my mom bought for me from Hertz Rent-A-Car in August 2018. It is a pretty basic car that lacks a lot of the bells and whistles that are standard equipment nowadays, since it was a rental car and a lot of rental cars are just "strip models". Still, there's a lot of "safety" regulations that car makers have to comply with, such as maximum airbags everywhere and all sorts of sensors that are supposed to tell the driver if something goes wrong.

I've read that in Australia old Japanese econobox cars are in high demand because people rip out the internal combustion powertrains and put electric motors in their place. I figure by the time the engine in the Hyundai goes bad that electric motor tech will be much more advanced and also that swapping internal combustion engines with electric ones will be as popular in the USA as it is now Down Under (thus bringing down cost), so I may simply put an EV powertrain in it and charge it off solar panels.

@Au Naturel: I had the car repaired in Oregon. I live only a few miles south of the OR/CA state line, and it is common for locals in central Siskiyou County to shop in Medford, Oregon, which is the nearest metro area.

 

[Mary Terry]

Well, in the end I wound up with a bill of $370. I managed to convince them that two of the tires were still under warranty. (This is why you should always keep receipts for major repairs with the car.) Also, they figured out that two of the sensors were not bad after all.

The car itself is a 5 door 2016 Hyundai Accent that my mom bought for me from Hertz Rent-A-Car in August 2018. It is a pretty basic car that lacks a lot of the bells and whistles that are standard equipment nowadays, since it was a rental car and a lot of rental cars are just "strip models". Still, there's a lot of "safety" regulations that car makers have to comply with, such as maximum airbags everywhere and all sorts of sensors that are supposed to tell the driver if something goes wrong.

I've read that in Australia old Japanese econobox cars are in high demand because people rip out the internal combustion powertrains and put electric motors in their place. I figure by the time the engine in the Hyundai goes bad that electric motor tech will be much more advanced and also that swapping internal combustion engines with electric ones will be as popular in the USA as it is now Down Under (thus bringing down cost), so I may simply put an EV powertrain in it and charge it off solar panels.

@Au Naturel: I had the car repaired in Oregon. I live only a few miles south of the OR/CA state line, and it is common for locals in central Siskiyou County to shop in Medford, Oregon, which is the nearest metro area.

The place where you took the car sounds like a rip-off place. I'd never go back there. But glad that you were able to force them to be honest this time.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I

I always keep faulty stuff that comes off my car etc. I figure out how it works and repair it. There's every chance you could have done this with the tyre sensors if they had given them back to you which is a shame.

I think a lot of this "essential safety equipment" in cars is such a load of nonsense these days. Manufacturers no doubt lobbying to get their fancy add-ons to become "safety standards" so people get FOMO when their friends new car has a feature their older one doesn't. And if it's "essential safety equipment", well then you are going to feel that your old car is dangerous by comparison.

My advice. Buy a 1980s Japanese manufactured car. The parts are cheaper, they are more reliable as they were built at a time where quality control was matured but they made the parts out if solid (metal) materials that if looked after will last essentially forever.

They are easy to work on, parts are plentiful and they don't have any of these dumb paranoid systems that really are only there to force you to go to the dealership for repairs. Seriously! Look at the history of OBD or on board diagnostics and you will probably want to go and scream at Ford with a mega phone for a week!

I agree that some modern "safety" features are worthless. The worst I have seen is traction control which activates individual brakes depending on circumstance. I found that this makes my 2017 car behave erratically when, depending on conditions, I could drive perfectly well by knowing how to compensate.

 

[MildredHubble]

I

I agree that some modern "safety" features are worthless. The worst I have seen is traction control which activates individual brakes depending on circumstance. I found that this makes my 2017 car behave erratically when, depending on conditions, I could drive perfectly well by knowing how to compensate.

I definitely find traction/stability control irritating on most cars. They often reduce oversteer that can be advantageous in certain situations and try to pull the car straight, which is not what you want when cornering. The car tends to feel slack and the steering not as positive. You feel like you are fighting the car to some degree.

I definitely prefer my car, which has literally no driver aides!

 

[oregano]

ABS (assisted braking) drives me nuts. Even my cheap Hyundai has it. The general idea is that the computer will automatically "pump the brakes" in order to stop stalling and hydroplaning and stuff like that. But mine goes off at times I don't need it, any sudden stop will result in a loud popping sound and cause the car to shudder.

 

[MildredHubble]

ABS (assisted braking) drives me nuts. Even my cheap Hyundai has it. The general idea is that the computer will automatically "pump the brakes" in order to stop stalling and hydroplaning and stuff like that. But mine goes off at times I don't need it, any sudden stop will result in a loud popping sound and cause the car to shudder.

I don't like it either. Especially when most of my driving experience comes from a car that doesn't have it. It feels like the pedal has a mind of its own and interferes with my natural braking instincts and cadence braking. I get used to it after a while and I guess it's not often that it kicks in.

I just feel that a lot of driver aides are there to make up for the lack of skill a lot of drivers have. I know lots of people who simply chucked all they learned out of a window when they passed their test. They often don't understand how gears work or brakes, or steering.

That being said, I do have a fondness for power steering now as I think without it, I'd have to hang up my driving gloves, due to the pain and fatigue manual steering would cause me. Though I do prefer how connected to the road manual steering makes me feel.

I also don't drive a manual on the rare occasions I drive these days. Manuals are fun when you have something sporty to drive like my car. But again, aches and pains get in the way with my clutch operation and operating the gear shift.

I'm just glad there's options when it comes to cars that can mitigate these problems.

 

[Au Naturel]

Wife has a 2022 Subaru Crosstrek. Wonderful car, except all the bells and whistles drive me nuts. Now what the @#$% are you beeping about now? You can some features off, but you have to do it every time because they default on.