Dad and daughter bond, job needs work

Brian Early

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

THE BEST

My best automotive experience this past year was attending the Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto with my then-6-year-old daughter Lauren.

She had surprised me by specifically asking if she and I could go together; mommy had other commitments that day.

Despite my fears that Lauren would get tired or bored quickly due to the sheer scale of the show and its crowds, she lasted through all three venues, delighting in asking the representatives for posters and brochures, and sitting in and poking and prodding many of the cars on display (even getting impatient when people wouldn't get out of some of her favourites to let her in).

It was an unexpected bonding opportunity, because although she shows some interest in cars, she's more of a horses, dollies, and dressing-up kind of girl.

Having any common ground with your kids is a fantastic thing. What father wouldn't be thrilled to share his passion with his daughter?

THE WORST

I should have learned better by now – nearly every time I agree to do an after-hours job at the auto repair shop where I work, it ends up being rather gross.

As we were behind schedule, I was asked if I would mind tackling a heater core replacement in a 2001 Dodge Dakota one evening. The customer had declined to have us diagnose it; they knew what needed fixing and had even supplied the part. All I had to do was change it.

It's a big job, as the entire heater system has to come out and be split in half, which requires moving the instrument panel out of the way.

Even so, it's straightforward enough, and in fact the job was progressing better than expected, right up to the point where I was ready to pull the heater box out of the truck.

It wouldn't budge. Studs secured by nuts on the engine side of the firewall hold the plastic box in place. I'd found all of those, or so I thought, as they are all exposed in cut-outs in the firewall's insulation pad. I looked around inside – nothing obvious. I checked again from on top and underneath, both by hand and with a flashlight and mirror. Nothing. I tugged, I pulled, I cursed, but something was still holding it in.

Finally, nearly an hour and three-quarters later, I discovered one last nut, hidden behind a tangle of tubes, lines and wiring beneath the firewall insulation, immediately above the evaporator drain (why I couldn't see or feel it).

Good thing, because by this point I was becoming tempted to remove the box with a sledgehammer. (In the trade, designs like that are considered proof that somewhere a mechanic has fooled around with an engineer's wife.)

To add insult to injury, the old heater core was fine, showing no evidence of a leak.

I still got paid to do the job, but it was a complete and very frustrating waste of my time, not to mention the customer's money.

Freelance auto reviewer Brian Early can be reached at bandb.early@sympatico.ca.

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