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New Lessons with New Cars

Kristin Cline
learning about cars
2 Comments

Daily Driver Garage with a 2002 Ford Focus

How did I get so greasy? Don’t ask me, I think dirt has a way of finding me sometimes! As is evidenced by the big smile on my face though, I don’t mind too much. Let me tell you what I was up too…

Being mostly unemployed as of late, I’ve started doing numerous side-jobs. One of them was fixing a few things on my friend’s 2002 Ford Focus. She’s getting ready to leave on her second cross-country road trip with the purpose of visiting all of her Facebook friends (read all about it on her blog, Connecting Cross Country.)

First I did a couple of jobs by myself – changing the air filter, flushing the brake fluid, doing an overall check-up, and replacing the worn-out sway bar links. And then my boyfriend replaced her badly squeaking brake pads and rotors while I watched and learned (I’m not about to do someone else’s brakes until I feel fully confident of my skills!)

Read more about what I learned in these two articles over on MyRideisMe.com:

While working on a new car wasn’t quite as exciting for me as an old one – I still had a lot of fun and learned some things along the way. After all, a car is a car is a car, and any opportunity to get some grease under my nails is a welcome one!

Keep Gettin’ Greasy,
Kristin

2 Responses

  1. jameswaterwolf

    Hey Grease Girl, sorry for your job situation, many feel this pain. Some of my friends gave up cable tv and internet connection. It’s good to network friends for working on cars like I used to. But nowadays there is so much wiring and computer moduals, that it’s pretty much impossible for the “Shade-Tree Mechanic” to do many things. Doing your own maintenance gives you more disposable income and the knowledge doesn’t hurt either.

    Keep greasy girl ,
    Jameswaterwolf

    Reply
  2. Spannerbird

    I’ve done some work to other peoples’ cars in the past. The problem is the adage, “No good deed goes unpunished” is very real in my case. I’ve repaired somewhat simple things, and then had people whine at me because something I did, did something it wasn’t supposed to do. I asked a few techs about the issue and the ones whom had experience with it told me that they have similar experiences. I asked out of frustration, and just to make sure I didn’t do something wrong. I’ve since stopped working on other peoples’ cars unless they’re really good friends, and even then I feel like having them sign a disclaimer (yeh, the part where I feel I need to have someone sign one is really sad.)

    I’m happy that your friends are much cooler than ones I had. Nope, I don’t have those friends anymore. Life is too short for that.

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