Another Day In the SHREKmobile

The saga continues.  I had hoped that almost all car problems had been cured.  Alas, I was mistaken.  After the last big hit with the timing chain, I had figured I had some room to breathe.  I acknowledge, the car is old. I have 189,000 miles on it, and I expect some hits.  After all the work done on the front, i knew I had one damaged tore, but, like was like a musical.  Even with all the idiosyncrasies of the car, It was feeling near normal.  I still have some troubles with the acceleration.  I have learned to adjust.  I had a bit of a vibration in the front end steering. With the one tire, I had a little vibration in the wheel.  At different speeds, the vibration changed from minor, to bad, and then to almost nothing.  Even with the vibration, the car never pulled to one side of the road or the other.  I could hold it steady with just one finger on the wheel.  My worst was at the frequency near the 55MPH zone.  That is where the car would keep me awake when driving late at night.  Thankfully, when I would drive very late at night, it would be at highway speeds, and over the 55 shimmy.  You just get used to it.

  Anyway, Life was like a musical, a G-rated Disney, Chitty-chitty-bang-bang.  The car just kept banging along. As all the changes happen over time, you grow to live with the demeanor of the vehicle.  When my sister Cathie came for a visit in October, life was like Chuck Berry.  " Ridin' along in my automobile.....Cruisin' and playin' the radio.....With no particular place to go. "  That is what it was like. Ever so subtly, it changes into " Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop" that is where the vibration comes in.  But, being the always driver, you get into the groove.

  It has been a month now since my sister was here, and I had the opportunity on Tuesday 11/08/2011, to approach the car from the front, and I noticed that there appeared to be a ring of mud on the inside edges of both front tires.  That is weird, if I went thru a mud puddle, I should have had mud on both the inside and outsides of the tires.  Upon closer inspection, It was not mud, but it was the steel belts showing thru.  Not good!  I called my tire place about getting two new tires for the front.  This was at about 3:30 PM, and he said bring it in and he can fix me up with a new set.  Once car was up on rack, they brought in bad news. Back tires had the same thing.


  I kind of knew there was a problem with the one front, but, with after replacing both side ball joints at the same time, as well as the sway bar in front, with all of that, I just assumed that they would have re-aligned the front end.  I guess not.  If the front is out, it can affect the rear wheels as well, so, instead of two, I now have 4 new tires.  Align job could not be done that late in the day, They close at 5, and it was already after 4:30. So, to continue on, I now also have an alignment set up for early Monday morning.


  It was now after 5 PM and I needed gasoline.  On the drive there, I happened to be going across E 12th St, and once you get by East Ave, those of you who know Erie, know that you can open the vehicle up to about 45 MPH.  I felt like I was "Secret Agent Man" and my car was in stealth mode.  No shimmy, no shake, and no vibration in the wheel.  It has been so long, I felt like I was sneaking up on some prey silently! WOW, how I have missed that!  Even though it feels good now, I have learned my lesson, and it still will get its alignment this time.