This just in from the “Don’t Fix It If It Doesn’t Seem Broken”(tm) department.
The Nissan Sentra Saga
by Courtney Vallentyne
Most of you will know by now that we have a fair to middlin’ sized family. 3 kids. Not as big as some, but bigger’n most. As a result we thought we would get a minivan. No problem, except we already have the lease on the Sentra and we didn’t want two car payments. Cost to just break the lease was in the neighbourhood of $5000, so that’s out of the question. Leasebusters to the rescue, you pay $300 to sign up and they advertise your car to potential buyers. Well don’t you know it, somebody finally calls and wants the damn thing. One small hitch, she lives in Quebec so the car will need to be safetied in Quebec. No problem you say? Well, get comfy cause this is where it gets interesting.
The Sentra is 3 years old, 42000km on it. Still shiny and new in my eyes. I’m not expecting any problems with the safety test. Well, the first appointment is for Tuesday morning, I show up wide eyed and innocent. I have my “good little Ontario innocent person’s” photocopy of the ownership like anybody else in Ontario. ‘Cept that’s not good enough in Quebec. So, the second appointment is for Wednesday morning. I’m better armed this time and make it past the paperwork guy to get the car actually tested. It didn’t pass, I’m told. The rear brakes are the problem, that’ll be $92. Oh dear, I say.
So, it’s off to the Canadian Tire to get the brakes serviced. Overnight stay at the shop, $324. Immediately head on over to the testing facility in lovely Hull, QC. Still doesn’t pass, I’m told. Rear brakes are your problem. Huh, I say.
Off to the Canadian Tire in lovely Hull, where they clean and adjust the rear brakes for $35. Back to the testing centre where they retest my newly machined, adjusted and cleaned brakes. It didn’t pass, I’m told. It’s the rear brakes, apparently. You should get those looked at.
Yep, so off to the Canadian Tire on Carling to get the brake lines flushed, $85. Fortunately I noticed that the testing centre is open til 9pm on Thursdays so I get the chance to drive back to lovely Hull to get squeezed into the last test opening of the night. It didn’t pass, they say. It looks like it’s the rear brakes, they aren’t braking. Huh.
It’s too late in the evening for anything else, so I go home and sleep.
Wake up bright and early in the morning to drive back to lovely Hull for 8am to be at the Canadian Tire there. I end up taking the shop manager for a drive and we have lots of fun slamming on the brakes. We go back inside and the boys gather around for a heated discussion on what to do. The consensus is to get the dealer to look at it, they have magical shop equipment that your local Canadian Tire doesn’t. Yep.
So, take’er in on Monday morning to the dealer. They call later that morning to say the rear drums need to be machined (the keen reader will know we already had that done) even though they were just done (see?) on Thursday. “We have vastly superior machining equipment, and frankly we feel that Canadian Tire did a pretty piss poor job of it ” the dealer guy told me. Okeedokee, that’ll be $220.
Back to lovely Hull and you may be surprised to know it, the story takes quite a twist right here, but the car didn’t pass the safety test. “It’s the rear brakes, that’s the problem” the testing guy deadpanned, even though he must know me just by looking at me by now. I’m pretty recognizable by the flushed purple complexion, twitching left eyelid and the writhing blue vein snarled pumping under my left temple. “Huh, wow” I growl. “Whaddya know”. Back off to the dealer in a fiery arc and sonic boom heard across the Ottawa valley.
Court – Why doesn’t the car pass the safety?
Dealer shop guy – Dunno.
C – What’s left to possibly be fixed that could be the problem?
DSG – It could be the master cylinder, I suppose.
C – Great, let’s fix that.
DSG – I’m not fixing that, it doesn’t look broken.
C – So what else could it be?
DSG – Dunno. Maybe the master cylinder.
You get the idea. So the car remains at the dealer to date. I’m suspecting that it’s simply a matter of bad karma and that the whole deal is a wash. I’ll keep you posted.
In other news, the TPB opener was absolutely excellent. We obviously needed a laugh and they delivered tenfold.
Later.