Friday, February 28, 2003

Car Trouble On the way to work this Wednesday my 1998 VW GTi VR6 started making a strange scraping/grinding noise from the right front under moderate acceleration. My first instinct was that the CV joint had begun to self-destruct; the sound was unlike that of ailing Honda CV joints, but this is my first VW. Without any reference, I was guessing. I made an appointment with the dealer for the next day. My guess wasn't even close. The problem was one broken and two "collapsed" motors mounts (there are 3 motor mounts on this car). Just like what a car accident once did to my vertebrae: 1 broken and 2 collapsed. The actual damage was to the mounts' rubber parts. Other damage was uncovered, naturally. The upper strut mounts had deteriorated and -- finally! -- the engine's chirping was diagnosed as a problem with the serpentine belt tensioner. Needless to say, the serpentine belt itself was beginning to show cracks. A "mere" $1,000 would take care of everything. Ouch. Seems to me that some of this should have been uncovered at the 60,000 mile major service interval, wherein the car was brought to the same dealership; that was mere months and 5,000 miles ago. The bigger question in my mind is this: Did these rubber parts suffer from the effects of Miami Beach's salt air? 7:43:20 PM    comment []

Closure: Part 1 of 2 We closed on the purchase of our new home today, the little house in Hollywood. Not surprisingly, the closing took place hours later than scheduled, mainly due to last minute BS on the part of the loan processor; our mortgage company had never worked with this "closer" before, and I doubt it will be anxious to in the future. We had to do all but jump through flaming hoops. My bank, SunTrust, wasn't much better -- we twice bumped into unreasonably long holds on deposited checks. Since when is a certified check from 2 counties North an "out of town" check requiring a 6-day hold? I might have known the answer had the bank returned my phone call. Customer service? Heh... In any case, having signed and initialed all the requisite papers, we temporarily own 2 properties. We plan to move in about 2 weeks. 7:24:47 PM    comment []