There’s a Poltergeist in My Toyota!

I’ve had terrible luck whenever I had to bring my Toyota to my mechanic. I can’t count the times that I’ve had a specific complaint, but for some strange reason, the mechanic couldn’t locate the problem. It’s pitiful watching me describing to him what the problem is. That’s especially the case when there’s a noise that’s the culprit. I’ll tell him that the car’s making a grinding noise and he’ll look at me like I’m speaking Chinese. I even go far as to make hand gestures to further confuse the poor mechanic. The bottom line, he tells me that he’ll  check everything out. When you hear that, it’s either one of two things. It’ll cost you an arm or a leg, or he’ll find nothing and you completely wasted yours, and his, valuable time.

When he first test runs the car, he doesn’t hear the noise once. Well, that’s par for the course. Still, he assures me that he’ll check it out.

I received a call a few hours later, telling me that everything seems to be okay. I didn’t know whether to cry or celebrate. It’s one of those times where one has mixed emotions. It might seem cynical, but I still had my doubts about what transpired. I knew I wasn’t going crazy when I heard that grinding noise under the car.

When I went to pick up the car, I kept trying to convince my mechanic that I wasn’t hearing things. He would tell me that I could bring it in again, if I hear that same noise. I’m sure he was trying to humor me.

I no sooner drove the car out of the shop, that I heard that God awful sound under my car again. There didn’t seem to be an explanation for it. Perhaps it’s a poltergeist in my Toyota?? What other explanation can there be??

I turned the car back and had my mechanic check it out, once again. This time he was going to keep it over night and start it in the morning.

That night I didn’t get much sleep. I had so many butterflies in my stomach I didn’t have a big enough net to catch them all. It was one of those situations where there would be no happy ending.

As I got to the shop, he smiled and gave me the wonderful news. “Well. It seems one of the brake pads was completely worn out.” Now you would’ve thought something like that, a mechanic could’ve found pretty easily, right?? I gather it’s like a doctor who says you’re okay, only to find something serious. Those types of things you would think, would stand out, right?? NOPE!! I wonder what they did back in the stone age. Should I turn in my Toyota for the Flintstones Flintmobile? I don’t think there was such a thing as brake pads.