Adventures in Auto Repairs

I drive a 1990 Toyota Corolla, with over 250,000 miles on it. Yes, it is a sexy car.

Well, driving home from work the other night, at 2 in the morning, I was stopped by the local long arm of the law, who wished to inform me that not only was my right rear tail light out, so was my license plate light. Then the very helpful and kind officer sent me on my way.

I stopped at a local oil change place to get replacement bulbs the next morning...the license plate bulb was $7. The tail light, well that was another matter all together.

Seems there is a hole in the wheel well that has been spraying water, salt and other kinds of Ohio weather road-gook up into my truck and, specifically, onto my right rear tail light assembly. It was all gross and rusty, and a rat's nest of what I could only assume was once a tidy collection of connected wires. So, the cheap bulb was, of course, not the answer to the problem.

I went to a repair shop, and asked if this matter could be rectified before 2 in the afternoon, as I had to be back at work at 3 pm...

After careful inspection, they told me it might just be possible, if they could get the part from the dealer in time.

The part, which is the internal white plastic thing that does nothing but hold four light bulbs in place, sells for the unbelievable price of... and I will write this out...four hundred and fifty dollars.

That's right.

So I said I reckoned I'd just chew this over, and went home and called a junkyard, something I had never done in my life. I made one phone call, based solely on two criteria: I knew where the place was located and it said foreign cars in the ad. I called them (the fine folks at D&L Motors - I love you) and asked if perchance they had parts for a 1990 Corolla. They did, they said. Well, I said, I'll be there directly.

I found the shop which was quite small and featured a hard-packed dirt floor. I was expecting a junkyard: miles of abandoned vehicles, snarly under-fed dogs, and hours spent on a scavenger hunt. Well, D&L appeared to have 5 cars, one of which was, indeed, a 1990 Corolla. We popped the trunk, and the inside was immaculate. The part I needed was sitting there as pristine and fresh as if it came new in a box. I had brought along my trusty wire snips, and snipped a good portion of the wires and within 2 minutes, my junkyard adventure was completed. I went back inside, and laid the proceeds of my hunting and gathering proudly on the plank of wood that was the counter, and the owner (D or L, who knew?) looked at it and said, "Oh, you needed the tail light circuit board!" To which I replied, "Yeah, or the tail light thingy, as I like to call it."
This made me instantly popular with Fess and Lud, workers passing through, and the owner who laughed at my foolish girly ways, and said, "Well, that will be $10 dollars."

Let me spell that: TEN DOLLARS.

I called the repair shop, and asked if they would be so kind as to install it for me. It took 20 minutes, and cost $25.

And so today, I thank my mother and grandmother, who were obviously in the right place, having tea and smiling down on me from above, and the fine folks at D&L, and the fine gentlemen Vince and Mark from my neighborhood repair shop. Y'all rock.