Last week I had mentioned about how Stacey is out of commission at the moment. Well we were able to find a shop that was able to get her in and serviced, but not without some problems....
Stacey had some issues. When we would drive down the highway, every once and awhile, she would backfire and start to shake a little bit. That became the brunt of the issue when we were coming back from the ONF and were on I5 by the Nisqually Bridge. Stacey's check engine light started to flash and she became pretty weak. At that moment, I knew what we were dealing with... Spark Plugs.
With some calling around I was able to secure an appointment at Zyggi's Auto in Tacoma. Thankfully it is right down the street from our home and the train station that I use almost every day. I was very thankful for that. I was able to drop my car off and still make it to the train to get to work.
A couple of hours later Zyggi calls me with the news. I have no compression in cylinder 1 and my plugs were going out. The pain was that almost the entire top half of the motor has to be removed to get to the spark plugs, so that means more money. At the end of the day, they replaced the spark plugs, the ignition coils and the manifold gaskets. The bill came right over $1400, but that wasn't the worst of the issues.
After the service was complete, they took Stacey out for a test drive. Stacey did okay, but wouldn't get over 25mph, and it was rough getting her up there. After they got Stacey back to the shop, they found out that my Catalydic Converters were clogged and were not allowing my motor to breath. This is a big problem. I had the shop take it to a nearby exhaust shop. Now I won't name the shop since they did not do the work for me, but they did quote me $5800 for the exhaust work. This almost gave me a heart attack.
I was floored. How could a ute wagon's exhaust cost over half of what the car was purchased for? Was Stacey a lemon and I didn't know about it? It blew mine and Zyggi's mind on how they came to that number, and it wasn't worth trying to figure it out. I called so many exhaust shops and Zyggi did as well. (I cannot tell you how impressed I was with Zyggi's professionalism and caring for their customers. I will be using them again.) We were finally able to get Stacey into a exhaust shop, and hopefully they aren't the same way. We found some awesome folks at Jesus Exhaust and Muffler in East Tacoma.
On Monday, Loz and I left Port Angeles after spending the weekend adventuring with Becky. (Who will forever be known as BeckyGoat.) We were able to make some great time and get Stacey to Jesus Exhaust and Muffler Repair. I met with AJ and we had a nice conversation where he said "$5800? You can buy a new car for that much!" He took my keys, and I waited like a child on Christmas.
It was the next day, and I received that sweet phone call. It was AJ telling me that he finally got everything quoted and the parts ready to go, just needed my sign off. The total quote was $2600, and my heart sank in thankfulness. I was so happy that I wasn't having to pay over $7000 to get Stacey able to travel. We are hoping that Stacey will be ready by the 4th of July weekend so we can take her out in the forest! I will update when Stacey is all said and done.
Since I mentioned the Fourth of July, I should let you know what we are planning for this upcoming weekend. Let's just say that the Danes do not like fireworks, and neither do Loz or I. I can go into all the negatives surrounding fireworks, but I'm sure you have heard them all. As long as Stacey is all buttoned up, we will be heading out to Rimrock Lake in the Wenatchee National Forest. There are plenty of dispersed camping options and since it's in a National Forest, we shouldn't have to worry about any fireworks.
More to come!
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