It happens fast and without warning. One minute you're driving along keeping up with traffic and the next you're on the side of the road. The steering failed and you couldn't control the vehicle. Or perhaps a tire fell off from carelessness on the part of the person that installed it. And even worse yet perhaps someone lost control of their vehicle due to a mechanical failure and they hit you. Whatever the reason it's not fun and sometimes can produce deadly results. Take the Ford Focus that was in the shop last week...
Our fearless broadcast engineer here at WOR, Tom Ray brought his wifes car in for service with a concern that the steering felt loose and the car had vibrations through the steering wheel/floor pan area on the road at 6-65mph.
Ok, it needed 4 tires; clear cut, no doubts. The repair got ugly from there. The front sway bar links were worn out and beat up. 7 year old car with 80,000 miles on it. Acceptable and expected. Looseness in the left front lower ball joint where the joint and the knuckle meet? Problem and strange. I removed the cross bolt holding the 2 parts together and noticed it had a bend to it. Normally the bolt goes straight in and basically pins the knuckle and ball joint stud together. Something it afoot. I could smell it coming. Upon disassembly I looked closely at the knuckle mounting hole. It was oblong. You know, out of round. And low and behold upon closer inspection it was cracked. A very fine hairline crack in the knuckle. That piece you see missing from the corner of the knuckle I posted on the blog page shows it clearly. A little more time and one good bump in the road and perhaps the 2 pieces would seperate. And Mr or Mrs Ray would have found themselves on the side of the road. Like I said in the begining. Auto repair is life and death sometimes. Tom explained to me that he had some front end work done at another shop a while back and it appears to me this is the missing piece of the puzzle. Someone did not assemble it back together correclty and the results could have been much worse.
Makes a good arguement for the licensing of auto mechanics doesn't it? We license plumbers and electricians. The time is here due to the responsibilities and demands of todays (and yesterdays vehicles too) that we need to consider ramping up the certification process of mechanics. Hey, it would generate some fees and help fill up the state or federal treasuries too.
In a previous blog, “A Runners Wife” I spoke about my husband training for the NYC marathon. All I have to say is that the months of training all came together of an amazing race. Race day is a grueling day for runners, and the family. But a miracle happened...
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the senate judiciary committee and basically shrugged when asked if any other enemy combatant captured overseas had ever been brought to civilian criminal court to face justice. Talk about an incompetent boob, not to mention a disgrace.
Here is a list of wines all from Spain, and menus from restaurants in Brooklyn where a crew of us did a food / wine crawl through Carrol Gardens and Williamsburg recently
E-Mail Story
Print Story
