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Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003 - 8:29 p.m. Codeman�s oil-hemorrhaging Grand Am appears to be finally repaired. I am looking for wood to knock on, now that I typed that last sentence. I�m not suppositious, but this never-ending problem might be over. Codeman left the car at the local Quickie-Lube one more time today. They took off the oil pan one more time, made extra-sure that no traces of the old gasket remained, and resealed the pan with a new, super-duper variety of form-a-gasket. They ran the engine for about a � hour, and nothing dripped. When I picked the car up, the area below the engine on the ground was bone dry. All good, but it doesn�t mean the new seal couldn�t fail sometime in the future (knock knock knock). The last time they replaced the seal (a few weeks ago), there were spots in the parking lot when I picked the car up. Since we still had a leaky valve cover gasket at the time, I thought that was the problem. After changing that gasket last Saturday, the leak actually became worse. Our mechanic at work told me that might have happened because the compression in the engine increased, due to the valve cover not loosing pressure. This cause the oil to push harder against the oil pan seal, causing it to leak even more. Let me put it simply- I am sick of gaskets, oil pan or otherwise. If the kid who helped screw up the original oil pan had just asked for help from a more experienced person at Quickie-Lube, maybe we wouldn�t have had to waste so much time correcting the problem. I would have eventually changed the valve cover gasket (warmer weather would have been appreciated). The leak before the threads were damaged on the oil pan was minor. A few nickel to quarter-sized circles in the driveway didn�t bother me at all. He might have added a quart between every oil change (3 months), not a quart every other day. Oh well, maybe it�s finally fixed (knock knock knock)�.. We had to do a little shuffling to get the car fixed today. After Codeman drove to college yesterday 9about 10 miles round trip), he was a full quart low. We couldn�t put it off any longer. I had already set up plans for the Quickie-Lube to fix it on Thursday, so that was problem #1. A call at 7:30 this morning cleared it up with them (the manager said anytime we could leave the car for a few hours was fine with him). Problem #2 was getting Codeman to work after he left high school at 11 9this was when he dropped the car off at Quickie-Lube). My Dad offered to pick him up there, go to the local greasy hamburger place (very good burgers- super thin, slightly crispy and cheap) with Codeman for lunch, and then drop him at the door of his workplace. Aren�t Grandparents great? Problem #3 was picking he car up. The shop closed before Codeman was to leave work. I could have waited for Lease to come home from her workplace, pick me up, and take me there. Instead, I decided to just walk there. I always need the extra exercise, and the distance was only about 2 miles from my front door. I didn�t take one thing into account- the temperature was around 20� (not cold enough to deter me from walking outside instead of on the treadmill), but the wind was whipping at about 20 mph. If my memory serves me right, that would put the wind chill somewhere below 0� F. I felt the bite as soon as I started down the sidewalk. I even picked up my usual fast pace to work up a little internal heat. By the time I walked into the shop, my face was completely numb. 4 hours later, and my cheeks are still red. I know what the problem is- I have been made soft by sitting in the tool room all year round. I used to have to work in the weather, no matter how hot or cold it got. Now? Air conditioning all summer makes it tough for me to force myself outside once the humidity and heat start kicking in during the summer. Even though I don�t get much heat inside of the tool room (it might have been 55� in there today, with the strong north wind blowing against my side of the building), it still beats shoveling patch into potholes in the wide open��.
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