Well after fixing the boy’s car in the snowstorm last Sunday we seemingly damaged the oil pan and that fault didn’t become apparent until the boy took it out for a lengthy drive on Monday evening when all the oil leaked out. He didn’t see the oil light or hear the engine complaining until permanent damage was done to the rotating parts.
Of course I had to take time off from work to drive down to Salt Lake to rescue the car from where he abandoned it. We towed it to a nearby garage and left it for them to check out and they confirmed that there was no point in replacing the busted oil pan since the engine was wrecked. And they estimate $1700-$1900 to purchase and install a 2nd hand engine, plus tax!
It’s just a thousand dollar car!
So now, we have to decide what to do with it. It is much too cold to consider changing the engine in my carport right now. One possibility would be to tow the car to my house and park it and a used engine in my driveway until the spring thaw arrives and it gets nice enough to do the work ourselves. That would be a $500 job and seems feasible. Alternately, if the boy is going to be receiving a tax refund this year he might just be able to sell this car to a pick-a-part yard and use his own money to buy a different $1000 car. That’s my first choice- as you might imagine but I’m not at all certain he will actually be receiving a refund based upon his circumstances.
No matter what, I’m going to have to make another trip to Salt lake, probably with a car tote in tow, to move the car away from the garage’s parking lot, probably on Sunday.
Good Grief!
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