Sunday, November 7, 2010

Action Auto Medicine

I just saw a potential way to fix our medical system by watching a young 20 year old man at Action Auto. He was amazing and far ahead in wisdom and insight. I was there trying to get a idle air control valve. When I went to the counter and told him what I thought I needed, he looked at me and asked why I thought I needed it. I explained what the car was doing and when it was doing it. It would stall at idle so I had to drive with one foot on the brake and one on the gas. He said, we can put it on the computer and run all the tests and then check the mass airflow sensor, the down stream O2 sensor and change the fuel filter, or we can go with the most likely and blame the idle air valve. He then said, there are a bunch of ways to fix a problem. If you want it fixed permanently, you can pay $80 bucks for a new valve. If you want it fixed for awhile, you can just go hit the one in your car with a hammer as it is most likely just stuck. If you want you can try to clean it out, but just keep a small hammer in the car so every six months or so you can just whack it. I thought about it, walked outside to the car. I didnt have a hammer but I did have the baseball bat that cracked at the last game. I whopped the valve and the car ran just fine.

I bet if I had insurance and did not have to pay out of pocket I would have said run all the tests and then I want a new gold plated top of the line valve. Since everything was out of my pocket, I went with the cheapest, fasted way. Of course the Action Auto guy was not responsible if I did something stupid or if my car died and I got into or caused an accident.

1 comment:

SeaSpray said...

So true!

We did that to the top of our well pump for a couple of years ...until whatever was sticking ..wouldn't respond to the hammer anymore.

It's such a good feeling when you know you are getting the best done ...but at least a relief when the lesser methods still work.

As I'm sure you know,it's recently been stated that CT's can cut lung cancer deaths. I am thinking of asking our pcp if Mr SeaSpray could have a CT to r/o anything a routine x-ray could've missed. he was cleared with the X-ray. I would not do that now if it weren't for insurance ..and I still hesitate because of the 10% copay on such an expensive test... but definitely wouldn't even think of asking w/o ins.

But, after smoking for about 42 years ...I'd feel better with a good report. Using only Nicorette lozenges ...he quit 2 days after hearing my close friend was recently diagnosed with stage III lung cancer in the spring.