Saturday, August 2, 2008

The Triumph of Man over Machine

Ever since we bought my wife’s car (which used to be mine), nearly three years ago, we’ve had problems with the AC. I knew it didn’t work when I bought it, and to my surprise it turned out that all that was wrong with it was a bad electrical relay. But then it became apparent that the clutch on the compressor was bad, since it made a rattly grinding noise when engaged, so I replaced the compressor. But ever since then, it has worked less and less until it stopped working altogether.

Until now.

I won’t bore you all with details about replacing accumulators plugged-up service ports and leaking Schrader valves and whatnot, but I will say this: after entirely too many trips to Autozone and Wal-Mart, after three sets of service port adapters and too many cans of refrigerant, after renting $390 worth of tools (don’t worry—I got all my money back when I returned them), I was finally able to get it fixed for real.

It worked perfectly all the way home from my parents’ house, and that’s an hour drive. For the first time in two years, the AC didn’t cycle on and off every few seconds and then cut out altogether. I really knew I’d done it right when I drove past a sign that said it was 100 degrees, and I was surprised to see that it was so hot—for once, it was cool and comfortable in the car. Ahh. It’s nice to be rewarded for my efforts.

SHARE:
Grease Monkeying 4 Replies to “The Triumph of Man over Machine”
Jonathon
Jonathon Owen

COMMENTS

4 thoughts on “The Triumph of Man over Machine

    Author’s gravatar

    Congratulations – that is a big triumph!

    Author’s gravatar

    And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making my car drivable again.

    Author’s gravatar

    Nice job!

    (For reals? WordPress won’t let me post a two-word comment? Weird.)

    Author’s gravatar

    Huh. I never knew that was an issue. Maybe it’s the antispam plugin I just recently installed.

Comments are closed.