Today is Monday, but I want it to be Tasteful Thursday because I can't think of a good name for Monday to go with this article. Lately I've noticed water building up in the driver and passenger floors of my Pilot. In fact, Kelly noticed on the passenger side how her feet were essentially in puddles. During the winter I noticed on some mornings the insides of the windows would be frosted over, so I thought all this water was the winter frost unfreezing. And I thought all that frost was from the water vapor in my breath. Let us forget the fact that this has never happened in any car I have ever owned prior to this occasion. So I figured all this water build up will simply go away once the days heat up and it can evaporate.
But spring time came around and we had some hot days and the water didn't go away. In fact it seemed to get worse. About this time I needed new brakes, so I took it in to get those replaced and asked them to look for a clog because maybe my air conditioning wasn't properly draining water. Not that I had used it very much up to this point, but since I felt that water vapor could create puddles let us not be surprised that I felt that running my air conditioning a couple times could cause floods. Also I noticed that when I did use it, water wasn't coming out of the tail pipe like it sometimes does on other cars.
Sure enough they found a clog, and I was happy. But after driving it for a few weeks after that the puddles were back. I also noticed the water wasn't draining out of the tail pipes like I thought it should be. So I took it back to the car folks and asked them to recheck that they got all the clogs. They did and were certain my water build up was not from the air conditioning. Well that was odd to me because any other leaks in the car should certainly get other things wet than just the underside of my floor boards. At this point I had determined that the water appeared to be coming from the bottom up rather than from the top down. For example, my puddles did not appear to be coming from leaks around my windows that dripped down onto the carpet, but rather they seemed to be coming from under the carpet and coming up like a spring.
This oddity perplexed them too and they decided for a handsome fee to remove the carpet altogether to have a better look. Pay attention to that. They removed the carpet and if they found nothing they could still charge me because this way they could be sure when they put the carpet back in it would be nice and dry and that way I wouldn't have to smell mold. For $450 I can roll down the windows and put an air-freshener in. But it is what it is.
Today I got a call from them.
It went a little like this:
"Hi, did you have a sun roof installed?"
"No, it came with the car."
"I see, well that is the cause of the leak. See sun roofs have a built in drainage system so that water doesn't get into your car. But this drainage system wasn't properly installed and now it is draining under your passenger side floorboards and has a caused a lot of rust and if it were allowed to continue you would have had major structural damage not to mention the mold and spores. So it is great that you took it in."
"This all makes sense I suppose. (Actually it made no sense. I thought that's what seals were for. I didn't see why my sun roof needed internal drainage if it had weather sealers. It's not like our car doors have internal drainage systems. But I'm not mechanical engineer). But the first question you asked was if I had the sun roof installed. I did not. In fact I got the car from my grandparents and I am positive they would not have had one installed. Are we sure it didn't come with it so that we can bill this to the manufacturer?"
"We checked the VIN number and sure enough your car didn't come with a sun roof. That means the dealership installed it."
"How horrible. What will this repair run me?"
"A little over $900."
Not having much experience at buying new cars I didn't know this sort of thing occurs. By that I mean I didn't know that dealerships will augment cars to make them more attractive to purchasers if the manufacturer defaults don't appear to be enough. So the dealership added a sun roof to make the car more attractive to potential buyers. I guess a lot of products have this happen to them. We go from painting oranges orange to photoshoping magazine photos. So a dealership adding a sun roof shouldn't be surprising. Especially since this has happened to me before. Last year I had a crack in the front window of kitty-cat and I had a new window installed. I asked for a window with the wires in it, because my current window had the wires in it that allowed it to defrost. I thought that was so cool, that I could defrost both my rear and front windows. Not that I had ever figured out how to defrost the front windows. I noticed my owner's manaual didn't quite agree with the button layout I had in my car. So the repair man came and took out my front window, but as he was getting ready to install the new one it broke on him and he had to get a new one. During this process he noticed something. While my old window did have those wires, he noticed that the two main wires, to which the smaller ones plug in which then plugs into the car, were cut. So the person who installed this window simply put it in for show. There was no where to plug the wires into, so they cut the wires and simply made it look like the car could defrost the front window. Now I do not know for certain if this was a dealership move, but I am fairly positive given the history of the car that it was.
So to end this Tasteful Thursday on a Monday article always check your cars from a dealership to see what if anything they did to it after they received it from the manufacturer or previous owner, and if they offer any warranties on their work. Let's keep it classy.
Update. Okay this isn't really an update since I haven't posted yet, but I was trying to think of a title and I started thinking about lipstick. I was clearly naive and thought dealerships wouldn't change a car to make it look better. I also thought that if they did change a car that the work they did would be top notch because they'd have qualified people do the work. Then I realized this is like me thinking that all girls can apply makeup in a manner that will enhancement their appearance. If you are confused it is likened to the idea that anyone from Asia is a master at martial arts. So I often today I find the skill young woman have at applying makeup is a travesty. All Mom's should teach their daughters how to wear makeup. And if you don't have a Mom to teach you then you watch one of those style-based networks that are so addictive, or go to a department store at a mall and ask. There is an art to it, and while the art of an inexperienced 4 year old is exceptionally cute it is upsetting when that same art is produced by any one older and made out to be a masterpiece. Clowns belong in the circus.
But spring time came around and we had some hot days and the water didn't go away. In fact it seemed to get worse. About this time I needed new brakes, so I took it in to get those replaced and asked them to look for a clog because maybe my air conditioning wasn't properly draining water. Not that I had used it very much up to this point, but since I felt that water vapor could create puddles let us not be surprised that I felt that running my air conditioning a couple times could cause floods. Also I noticed that when I did use it, water wasn't coming out of the tail pipe like it sometimes does on other cars.
Sure enough they found a clog, and I was happy. But after driving it for a few weeks after that the puddles were back. I also noticed the water wasn't draining out of the tail pipes like I thought it should be. So I took it back to the car folks and asked them to recheck that they got all the clogs. They did and were certain my water build up was not from the air conditioning. Well that was odd to me because any other leaks in the car should certainly get other things wet than just the underside of my floor boards. At this point I had determined that the water appeared to be coming from the bottom up rather than from the top down. For example, my puddles did not appear to be coming from leaks around my windows that dripped down onto the carpet, but rather they seemed to be coming from under the carpet and coming up like a spring.
This oddity perplexed them too and they decided for a handsome fee to remove the carpet altogether to have a better look. Pay attention to that. They removed the carpet and if they found nothing they could still charge me because this way they could be sure when they put the carpet back in it would be nice and dry and that way I wouldn't have to smell mold. For $450 I can roll down the windows and put an air-freshener in. But it is what it is.
Today I got a call from them.
It went a little like this:
"Hi, did you have a sun roof installed?"
"No, it came with the car."
"I see, well that is the cause of the leak. See sun roofs have a built in drainage system so that water doesn't get into your car. But this drainage system wasn't properly installed and now it is draining under your passenger side floorboards and has a caused a lot of rust and if it were allowed to continue you would have had major structural damage not to mention the mold and spores. So it is great that you took it in."
"This all makes sense I suppose. (Actually it made no sense. I thought that's what seals were for. I didn't see why my sun roof needed internal drainage if it had weather sealers. It's not like our car doors have internal drainage systems. But I'm not mechanical engineer). But the first question you asked was if I had the sun roof installed. I did not. In fact I got the car from my grandparents and I am positive they would not have had one installed. Are we sure it didn't come with it so that we can bill this to the manufacturer?"
"We checked the VIN number and sure enough your car didn't come with a sun roof. That means the dealership installed it."
"How horrible. What will this repair run me?"
"A little over $900."
Not having much experience at buying new cars I didn't know this sort of thing occurs. By that I mean I didn't know that dealerships will augment cars to make them more attractive to purchasers if the manufacturer defaults don't appear to be enough. So the dealership added a sun roof to make the car more attractive to potential buyers. I guess a lot of products have this happen to them. We go from painting oranges orange to photoshoping magazine photos. So a dealership adding a sun roof shouldn't be surprising. Especially since this has happened to me before. Last year I had a crack in the front window of kitty-cat and I had a new window installed. I asked for a window with the wires in it, because my current window had the wires in it that allowed it to defrost. I thought that was so cool, that I could defrost both my rear and front windows. Not that I had ever figured out how to defrost the front windows. I noticed my owner's manaual didn't quite agree with the button layout I had in my car. So the repair man came and took out my front window, but as he was getting ready to install the new one it broke on him and he had to get a new one. During this process he noticed something. While my old window did have those wires, he noticed that the two main wires, to which the smaller ones plug in which then plugs into the car, were cut. So the person who installed this window simply put it in for show. There was no where to plug the wires into, so they cut the wires and simply made it look like the car could defrost the front window. Now I do not know for certain if this was a dealership move, but I am fairly positive given the history of the car that it was.
So to end this Tasteful Thursday on a Monday article always check your cars from a dealership to see what if anything they did to it after they received it from the manufacturer or previous owner, and if they offer any warranties on their work. Let's keep it classy.
Update. Okay this isn't really an update since I haven't posted yet, but I was trying to think of a title and I started thinking about lipstick. I was clearly naive and thought dealerships wouldn't change a car to make it look better. I also thought that if they did change a car that the work they did would be top notch because they'd have qualified people do the work. Then I realized this is like me thinking that all girls can apply makeup in a manner that will enhancement their appearance. If you are confused it is likened to the idea that anyone from Asia is a master at martial arts. So I often today I find the skill young woman have at applying makeup is a travesty. All Mom's should teach their daughters how to wear makeup. And if you don't have a Mom to teach you then you watch one of those style-based networks that are so addictive, or go to a department store at a mall and ask. There is an art to it, and while the art of an inexperienced 4 year old is exceptionally cute it is upsetting when that same art is produced by any one older and made out to be a masterpiece. Clowns belong in the circus.
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