starter, battery, new car?

Lesson learned: when your car doesn't start, check your battery FIRST. We had been using one car for awhile now because gabe's car doesn't pass emissions to be registered in AZ so we decided that we would not put money into fixing it at this point anymore. When you're down to one car and it stops working, life changes fast for a little bit. Public transportation isn't well, the best in the Phoenix metro area and a car is needed.

So its determined that the starter went out in our car. Gabe confers with his dad that its true this is what is wrong and his father says that gabe can pretty easily fix it himself. Great! This would save us towing it to our mechanic who is clear across town about 20 miles. So the process begins. Here are our steps we took when we went into problem solving mode:

1. Rent a car - we needed one to go get all the parts we needed and to get to work in the morning, on my first day of classes.


2. Go to the library to look in the all knowing car manual book (whats it called?) and copy the page that describes in about 5 steps how to change the starter in our car.
3. Buy a coffee so you can get change to copy that page.


4. Go back home and start translating that foreign language of mechanic stuff.


5. turn on your foul language switch and eventually get the starter out after a long while.


6. I book it out of the house to go get the new starter before the store closes in 10 min. and of course come to a train which RARELY happens down here


7. Get there after it closed BUT the door was still open (YESSS!)


8. Buy it and book it home with the new shiny heavy starter.


9. Gabe smiles at me and I exclaim how lucky we are i got in there barely in time. He tells me its not the started; i need a new battery.


10. HUH
11. laugh as i'm sitting there being the assistant, handing tools his way and see the picture below of the message on the flap of the box of the new starter.

Chalk it up to experience! This all heightened our new car search and we ended up buying a new car 5 days later. It was the most expensive battery change I've ever had. humorous in many ways.

It is incredible the kind of car knowledge that Jim carries around in his mind. He was the true mechanic in this whole thing. So we have a new battery and a "new" car, of which we really are enjoying. I've wanted a forester for mmm maybe 7 years now so its exciting. We still haven't taken pictures of her yet though...

Blurry but still funny

Dirty work is almost done...

oh and how i love this one