Well today was just poop.
Go to start my truck and get a single click. Do some troubleshooting and find the starter died. Call the parts store and nothing in stock, but they can get one in a few hours. No biggie, it gives me time to pull out the bad one. That was surprisingly easy, no rust (southern truck), and I had enough goosenecks and extensions to get the bolts out without busting my knuckles just to get a 1/4 turn on a wrench.
Plently of time left, I have my tools out, and I'm already blocking the wife's car so I start on that brake job I've been putting off. Big mistake. I broke 2 rusted out bolts (15 yo WI car) just trying to get the brackets off. Nothing on the back side to weld on a nut, ez-outs didn't work. So I got to drill them out. Ended up trashing the holes on the bracket in the process.
The starter is in so I take the old starter (avoiding the core charge) with me. Have them bench test it and the new out. New starter checked out as good (always have them check, I've had new parts be bad before). Old starter check out as good too (probably just got the brushes clean enough from moving around), but there was a shower of sparks coming out of it. I'll call it bad.
Go to order new caliper brackets and find out Suby doesn't just sell the brackets (I even tried the local dealer) and I need to but whole caliper assemblies. 2 x $10 parts just turned into 2 x $130 parts (plus core charges) and brake fluid. The new rotors and pads job, just turned into a full brake job (I hate bleeding brakes). Parts will be here tommorow.
Get the new starter in the truck. It starts right up. Something went right, yay.
Clean up my tools (it looks like rain), go run the errands that needed to be done hours ago, and grab some food; then head back home to shower and get non-dirty clothes on. I got yelled at by the wife for ruining my new pair of jeans and another teeshirt. Then got yelled at some more when I said just spray some brake cleaner on them. Yes, I'm the one that pokes the bear when it's mad.
Less than an hour after I'm all cleaned up and in my bed clothes. The kid calls from kwik trip a couple miles away with a flat tire and no spare (partially my fault on that). Buy a can of fix a flat (I'm not the one that has to clean up that gunk when I buy a new tire), and we have AAA so it can get towed home if the can gunk won't work. It's not far away so the wife and I go look at the problem. I'm in my shorts/teeshirt night clothes, wearing flip flops and it's raining. Find it's the sidewall of the tire with the leak, so can gunk won't work.
Call AAA and the kid isn't on the account, but for $80 we could easily add her (f that noise). We're already there so the wife puts it in her name. 20 mins later and no word from a tow truck (we just wanted and ETA so we could go home and wait) and the wife is bored. So she asks if I can "just make it work" and get the kid's car home.
Me, being a responsible adult, responded with "Wet roads, a grossly underinflated tire that will hold air for about 4 mins before being completely on the rim, and a couple of miles of in town driving with multiple stop signs/lights, what could possibly go wrong?" This went on for a couple more minutes, and in the end bored wife > common sense. I put as much air as I could in the tire (maybe 10 psi) and hightailed it home.
I figured it was a 50/50 chance of making it home. It was also a 90% chance of me coming out ahead. If I make it I look amazing (again). If I have to stop then I get an "I told you so." I figured it was a 10% chance I get pulled over or wreck out.
10/10 do not recommend doing this. Shaking steering wheel, sloppy steering response, dark, wet roads, while speeding and ignoring most stop signs (there was no traffic). The tire was flat within a minute of me getting out of the car at home. Now I'm looking at tire prices.
