I Had Car Trouble Yesterday…And I’m Grateful

One thing you may not know about me is that as long as I've had my license I've had terrible luck with cars. For years I made it my mission to not have a car payment. To not be strapped down by that kind of debt. Unfortunately, it seemed like I found lemon after lemon resulting in just as much, if not more being spent on garbage vehicles.

Fast forward to 2016 and I finally bought a slightly used car. Despite the payment, the vehicle has treated me fairly well overall. Aside from a few things here and there. One issue, however, seems to haunt me. I'll get to that in a moment.

Yesterday I left for work and not even a half-mile down the road I discover that I'm out of windshield washer fluid.

I set myself a reminder and before leaving work I went to fill it up. I was so proud of myself that I was actually prepared with a bottle of fluid in my trunk. And to be super honest that's one of the few things I can do on my car. I know, I know...

I popped my hood and couldn't help but notice. WHERE THE HECK IS MY ANTIFREEZE?!

I know what you're thinking, "Brittany you've had that car for a few years. After a while, you need to add some!"

Yes, I'm aware. That wasn't the issue. You see, less than three weeks ago I discovered this same issue. I went to the mechanic and $200+ later the reservoir was replaced since the old one was cracked.

Cracked likely from someone being too rough in my engine working on other things.

Thanks to a rough mechanic I almost got stranded in Portsmouth, New Hampshire last summer when my car overheated and coolant went everywhere. A piece had been broken off.

That, a few months after replacing the thermostat housing, a fan issue, and something else that I don't even remember at this time.

So, as you can see, my relationship with the heating/cooling of my vehicle has been quite tumultuous over the last year.

At that moment I was so defeated. I just moved, I'm trying to figure out finances, I just dropped $214 and the problem clearly wasn't fixed.

Was I being taken advantage of by this mechanic? I thought I had thoroughly vetted them through Yelp and Facebook reviews. Maybe it was an honest mistake. I wasn't sure.

So I went back to the mechanic and I have to say, I was very impressed. The owner dropped whatever he was doing to see what was going on. He was equally as unimpressed that something had happened to cause me to come back in so soon. He poked around for a moment and discovered an ugly hole in one of the hoses.

He fixed it right up, refilled my reservoir and sent me on my way.

Was I inconvenienced? Yes.

Did I panic? Sure did.

But isn't it amazing how a chain of events can occur? Had I not run out of windshield washer fluid that moment, I wouldn't have known. My car could have overheated and caused a plethora of other problems. I could have broken down on one of these bitterly cold mornings.

So next time you come across a minor inconvenience that turns into a seemingly bigger one, look at the whole picture. Sometimes you go through one thing so you don't have to go through a worse thing.