kareina

 Weeks ago the car didn't pass inspection because of brakes wearing out in back, and a "spindelled" (literally spider-arm, but I have no idea if that is what it is called in English) needing help in front. Keldor tried to deal with the breaks himself, but failed to get them off one evening because he didn't have the correct, special tool for that brand car, and then again some time later, after he borrowed the correct special tool for that brand car, still couldn't get them off. At which point we booked time at a service station, told them we already had the breaks, but we still need the spindelled, and tomorrow was the earliest we could be seen (which meant we went back to the inspection place and said "we tried, now we have an appointment", so they re-inspected it to give us a new deadline by which to have it done.

We called two different workshops--one in town (35 minutes north of here, but if we went there he could drive in on his way to work, and have a colleague pick him up there and take him to work), and one 20 minutes south. The one to the south gave an estimate during the first call and booked us right away, the other said they would get back to us with an estimate, and then never did. You can guess who got our business.

However, they don't open tomorrow till 07:00 , and Keldor is normally at work by 06:30, so there is no point in waiting till they open to drop the car off, since he wouldn't make it to work till around 8:00 at that point. So I called, and they have a place where one can just drop the keys into a thingie where they are out of reach. Therefore this morning I rode in with Keldor to work, and then took the car home again directly, and after work he took the company car home and we both drove down to the workshop, left the car, and came home in his work car.

He was pretty certain he knew were we were going, having once picked up his brother from a workshop in Ånäset, and he didn't think there would be more than one workshop in a town that small. But I had no idea, so I had google maps navigating as I drove. As we approached the right area Google said to take the next left, and then immediately turn right. We were talking on the phone, so I relayed the info, and he was confused, as he thought we should go past that intersection and then turn left into the parking lot. However, he guessed that perhaps we weren't going to where he thought we were, so we listened to Google. 

It turns out that it wanted us to take a small road through forest and the occasional house, then take a very, very sharp right onto a small dirt road, which has been driven on a couple of times since it snowed a couple of weeks ago, but most of the snow is still 20 cm thick, and it has been raining all day on top of the snow. Nope. Not going to risk it, we would get stuck. (The rest of the roads in this area are bare, wet pavement, having been ploughed after snowfall a couple of weeks ago, and temperatures above freezing the last few days having melted what was left, it was only that un-ploughed road which has any snow at all.)

But when we drove past the turn GoogleMaps rerouted, and said to keep going forward, and then take a right back onto the highway. So we did.  Then it suggested we drive forward, past our destination, take the turn we took before, and then that small un-ploughed road back to the destination, which is right on the highway.

I have no idea why it didn't want us to just turn into the driveway of the business, which opens on the highway, but the map was totally convinced it wasn't an option. We ignored it, and turned in to the driveway. It worked beautifully. Keldor looked at the fence around the building and said that he was glad we rejected the un-ploughed road, as we would have wound up on the wrong side of that. I looked, and pointed out that no, the tiny road really does come up to the parking lot--if we had been willing to take the road, and we didn't get stuck in the slush, it would have worked. I am so glad we didn't try it.  I hope that the map noticed that we just turned in where we did, and made a note of it that it is possible.

My car didn't pass its inspection this year, so now I need to decide how much I would be willing to spend to get it back into legal to drive shape. Since I haven't really got points in car repair, nor time to learn just now, I am asking for opinions about what would be reasonable to pay to fix it, or if I should just decide that it is not worth fixing anymore.

The car is a 2002 Volkswagon Sharan, and the problems with it are:

* spindelled 5.3.4, fram vänster, fastsättning lös
* färdbroms bromsskiva 1.1.14, bak höger, skadad
* färdbroms bromskraftfördelning 1.2.1, bak bromsverkan ojäm
* lambda-värde förhöjd tomgång 8.2.1.2, felaktigt
* skyltlyka 4.7, ur funktion
* avgasssystem 6.1.2, läckage

Which Google Translate tells me means:

* spindle joint 5.3.4, front left, attachment loose
* service brake brake disc 1.1.14, rear right, damaged
* service brake braking force distribution 1.2.1, rear braking effect uneven
* lambda value increased idle 8.2.1.2, incorrect
* light over licence plate 4.7, out of order
* exhaust system 6.1.2, leakage

I have an appointment on Wednesday to get an estimate for fixing the list. In addition to the above, we noticed when we changed to summer tires that a sensor cable leading to one of the breaks is broken and needs (at least) soldering back together). There is also some problem, somewhere, which causes the battery to drain if the car sits parked more than a day or so (which means that for the past year or more I just unhook the battery when the car isn't in use (if I won't just be driving home again in a hour or six).

Before I get that estimate I really ought to have an idea in my head of how much it is reasonable to spend to keep an old car running, so that I can just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when they call.

It cost 20,000 SEK for it back in 2016 (around € 2,000, more or less, depending on the day’s exchange rate). Since then, not counting insurance, road tax, and petrol, it has cost us:

In 2016:
* 3,840 SEK for summer tires (May)
* 3,586 SEK for service (May)
* 3,121 SEK for repairs (no record of what needed fixing) (Nov)

in 2017:
* 3,808 SEK for repairs (no record of what needed fixing) (Feb)
* 4,930 SEK for service plus replacing front brake pads (May)
* 2,107 SEK trouble shooting/reset break lamp warning light (Nov)

In 2018:
* 5,945 SEK replaced drivenut and replaced rusty cable to ABS warning light (April)
* 6,865 SEK replaced back brake pads (May)
* 9,482 SEK major repairs to front brakes (May; one week after the other break repairs—this time for emergency repairs when the breaks froze up and overheated during a road trip)
* 8,779 SEK service plus repair rusted-out ABS sensor and another rusted out something (June)

So far this adds up to more than two and a half times what we paid for it in the first place, and breaks are a re-occurring theme here. The 2018 repairs held long enough that we didn’t wind up spending anything on the car in 2019 or 2020 (so far--not even a normal service, oops).

What is a reasonable amount a year to throw at such a car to keep it running? Is this car now old enough/in bad enough shape that it isn’t worth fixing at all? Is it worth fixing so long as it is under a certain cost? If so, what cost? How much does the fact that I don’t yet have a job contract lined up for when my current job ends in December influence the answers to this question?

When I set out from Luleå on Saturday the plan was to head first to the home of Linda and Rikard to give them a bag of Norrskensfest lost and found to take to Double Wars and return to the owner, then head to Hjalmar’s, stay the night, and head to Trondhiem with him the next day, where we would spend the week in the workshop learning to carve Viking Age cooking vessels. It was a good plan.

Pretty before I had even gotten fully out of Luleå the car suddenly started shaking a bit. It did this right around the same time that I passed from one colour/texture of asphalt to another, so I wasn’t clear if the shaking was the car, or the road, so I called David. He suggested pulling over and checking to see if the wheels had been tightened properly after the break work that had just been done. I checked first the right front tire and noticed that there was a fair bit of hot air coming off of the car by that tire, but didn’t notice if it was from the engine or the tire, and even commented something about it being warm to David, with whom I was still talking. Then I went on to the other tires but didn’t really notice at that that they were not also warm.

The tire bolts not being loose I got back into the car and started driving again, this time not noticing any shaking, but I did notice that it wasn’t handling normally—getting up to speed required way more gas pressure than normal. However, it was a weekend and there wasn’t anything I could do about it just then, and once it got up to speed and cruise control was set it returned to normal behaviour.

The first part of the plan went well. I arrived at L&R’s place and got the tour (they recently bought a couple of old houses out in the country near Umeå. They fixed up the smaller to live in now, and they plan to fix up the larger to be their main home, but the plans for that one are a bit more ambitious, so it is good that the smaller house was mostly useable from the beginning.

After visiting briefly with them I was feeling kinda tried and not up for joining Hjalmar at his friend’s birthday party, so instead I called Linda and Markus, who live in the same apartment complex as Hjalmar, and invited myself over. She was delighted to hear from me, and we spent an hour or two cuddling and catching up before I did my yoga and went to sleep on her couch.

Bright and early the next morning I went over to Hjalmar’s and we did the last of his packing and hit the road. An hour or so later, after a short break in driving the car, which had behaved fine for all of the rest of the driving the day before, started shaking again. So we pulled over, and looked at the tires again, and this time Hjalmar noticed that the metal part of the right front tire was really hot (as in don’t touch it), but none of the other four were. He called his friend Ingemar for advice, and I called David and consulted him. Ingemar said that it could be that the break is engaging, but not retracting again after engaging, and thus keeps rubbing against the break pad as we drive, which would cause thing to heat up. He said that one can manually pry it up and then avoid breaking again.

We tried this, and the car didn’t shake when we next drove. However, even if one doesn’t want to use the breaks, sooner or later one must (especially as by this time we had left the E4 (major N-S highway in Sweden) and were one a minor highway heading inland, which means more frequent villages for which there is at least reduced speed limits, and sometimes it was necessary to turn from one highway or the other.

We stopped and checked now and then. On one occasion when I was driving the car never shook, and when we checked the tire temperature it wasn’t at all warm. Then Hjalmar took over and it started shaking again, and the tire got hot. We managed to limp it along till the town of Sollefteå, where Åsa, one of our SCA friends lives, by which point it was having issues every time we tried to drive it.

So, we called Åsa, and she said come on over. When we arrived, we told them the problem, and wondered if they could recommend a car repair shop who could have a look. At which point Jonny, her husband, promptly grabbed his coveralls, and car jack, and took the tire off (it was so hot it was smoking). He cleaned up the breaks, lubricated them, saw that things were retracting, and then put it all back together and we tested it, saw that the breaks worked, and, after visiting a bit longer we set back out. However, soon thereafter it started shaking again, and when we stopped and checked, the tire was once again really hot, so back to Åsa’s we went.

It being a Sunday evening no shops were open, so she made up the guest bed for us and we had a pleasant visit before going to sleep kinda early. I woke up at 02:00 that morning thinking of the fact that I still needed to compile a list of shops to call, so I got up and, with Google’s help, filled in a spreadsheet of numbers and opening times etc. Then I went back to bed, setting an alarm for 6:45 (since the earliest opening time was 07:00).

At 07:15 I woke again, and realized that I hadn’t heard the alarm, so I got up and begun calling. The first several places I called had no time available in the next two weeks, but the next agreed to have a look today. So Åsa led me there in her car, and we transferred the stuff to her car and returned to the house to wait. (Where I took a nap!)

That afternoon the shop called to say that they could fix it, but needed to order a part, which wouldn’t be there till Tuesday morning, and it would cost 9,000 SEK to fix. I wasn’t happy to hear this, especially as I was supposed to have already been in Trondheim, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I called David, and he called the shop and spoke to them to get better details about the work and the need for it than I could get with my not so good Swedish, and then he called to tell me that he had suggested they do yet one more important task while they were at it, which would add yet another 1,000 SEK to the price.

Since we had the day available Åsa took us out for a bit of sight-seeing. First, we went up the hill to get the overview of the area (how nice it was to have a decent sized hill to go up; I really miss topography living in Luleå). Then we went into town to go to the museum, but it was Monday, and museums in Sweden (and, I think, all of Europe) are closed on Mondays. So she called her friend who works at the museum, who was about to be heading past the museum anyway, so she joined us for a quick 20 minute chat about interesting things to see in the area. At her suggestion (and to the delight of both Hjalmar and I) the next stop was some Iron-Age burial mounds, which are located not too far south of town along the river bank.

On the way home we stopped by the store and picked up stuff to do some baking. We made one apple cake for Åsa and Jonny as a thank you for being so kind to host us and take us on adventures etc., and a dairy-free, gluten free apple and sugared ginger pie (almond and millet with coconut crust) that Hjalmar could eat. (I tried both the next day after breakfast and can report that both are yummy.)

When we went to bed Monday night the plan was to sleep in (since the car part wouldn’t arrive till the afternoon anyway), and, when the car was ready that afternoon, we could head on to Trondheim (six more hours driving time, under normal conditions), where we could at least work in the shop on Wednesday before it closed for the holiday on Thursday. However, late Tuesday morning the shop contacted me to say that the part had arrived, but was the wrong size, and that the new part they had ordered wouldn’t be here till Wednesday afternoon.

We sighed at the additional delay, sent messages to everyone who needed to know (the workshop, the Airbnb, David), and then hopped in Åsa’s car to go a bit further from town to see some stone-age rock carvings along the bank of the river. That was a very delightful stop. The river is running quite high just now, with all of the snow melt, so the interaction of the river and rocks would have been reason enough to be there, but the many rock carvings (which have been painted over in red to make them more visible) were also interesting. These carvings were done by a people who hunted moose, and many hundreds of the carvings are of moose.

After playing a while at the river side looking at the rock (a lovely gneissic rock, with lots of folding, and one (that we saw) 20 to 30 cm wide diabase dike cutting through it) and the paintings and the examples of stone age style fish traps, and much more recent example of a water driven mill house, we went back up the hill (Hjalmar and I choosing to go up the steep steps that went half way up the hill to the road, and then stopped, just were the slope gets even steeper, to be replaced by a rope on poles that one can use as a hand rail for the rest of the way up the hill, while she was smart enough to go around the long way and meet us at the top), we went on to the rock painting museum, which was full of interesting information. At this time of the year they aren’t open full time. Instead visitors can ring the bell, and if anyone is there they will let you in. We did. He was, and we had a very nice conversation with him about the geology, the rock carvings, the stone age, etc. I also asked him about soapstone, but he didn’t know anything on that topic, so I pointed him to the new book on the topic.

On the way home from that adventure her “Engine fault” warning light came on. However, hers is a new car, with all the warrantees etc. in place. Therefore she needed only make an appointment, and the next morning they came and picked it up from her house to have a look and see what it was complaining about.

That evening I was finally inspired to work on my Viking coat in progress, and now all of the pieces have been assembled, but much work remains to be done (cutting the neck, seam finishing, adding the tablet weaving plus or minus some fur on the cuffs). That evening I also got an email saying that I didn’t get the grant I had applied for last week (I am impressed at how fast they made the decision), complete with some bullet-points giving feedback as to why they decided to say no.

I kinda ignored the message at the time, not feeling up to dealing with it just then, but this morning I woke up after only five hours of sleep thinking of that, so I got up and added the feedback to the scrivener card for the application, marked it as rejected, and also gave it a “feedback given” key word, then went through the other couple of grants that have also been rejected and labelled them “feedback not given”.

Tuesday evening I had also had a message from David wondering if the workshop was also going to give us a 50% discount because of the extra day. Therefore, this morning (Wednesday) I gave them a call to ask if there is a possibility of a discount, since the delay is costing me extra in hotel costs. She said that she would talk with her boss. She also explained that the reason they had ordered the part that they did was that if they had ordered the official Volkswagen replacement part it would have cost more and taken three days to arrive. Therefore they ordered a “pirate” part, which had been advertised as fitting my car, but it was too small. I am not holding my breath that they will agree to any discount at all, but if one doesn’t ask then the answer is already “no”.

If the car is, in fact done this afternoon (she tells me that it will be dealt with at 13:00 when the shop workers are back from lunch) we will continue on to Trondheim. However, since the workshop will be closed tomorrow, we are considering doing another adventure instead.

Saturday I focused on trying to catch up on thesis work, though, to be different, I tried setting an alarm to take a break at 50 minutes and then do 10 minutes of handstand and other strength training. Only managed two repeats of that cycle in between other stuff, but it was two ten minute sessions of movement that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t tried setting the alarm, so I will use that trick again. Managed that many on Sunday, too, before David came over and we changed to summer tires on Styx. We could have done it earlier, but our driveway only just got clear enough on snow that I was willing to consider it. Not long after we finished that and it was already time to head to Folk Dance for the evening. This week was one of those rare special occasion sessions, where instead of being just the few of us in the Sunday class learning advanced skills to recorded music, it was quite a few people from the local Folk Music and Dance community, with live music (four violins, one guitar, one bass, and one nyckelharpa). They were in the mood to play lively tunes much of the evening, so the dancing was vigorous, and ever so much fun. After dance I managed to refrain from touching the computer again, and just did yoga and had a shower before bed, which resulted in almost 8 hours of sleep (for the first time in quite a while).

On This morning I took the car in to the service place so that they could look and see if the ABS warning light, which had been shining for some weeks now, was something that actually needs attention, or if the light is just triggering over nothing (the car has done that before on some lights). Luckily it is only a 20 minute walk from there to my office, which meant I was at work by 07:40, so I had time to set up a laser experiment before meeting Johan for our acroyoga practice at 11:00, and then hurried back to tell the laser to do the standards, too, while it was at it. (I can’t set it all up in advance, as I change the max movement speed for the laser stage depending on which task it is doing.)

Then I decided to sit in the office and actually do some data processing before going home, which turned out to be a good thing, as our new PostDoc (who officially starts on Monday) stopped by to say hello, and C. brought by a student who is visiting for the week and made an appointment for him to view a laser session next week. I also got a call from the car service place, explaining that the car needs a new "yttre drivknut vä fram", which, I gather is something important (David confirms that it is), but google’s literal translation doesn’t give me any useful information as to what it might be called in English. I do know that it will cost 5000 SEK to replace it, including labour and tax, so I told them to go for it. They tell me they need to keep it over night, as a part they need isn’t in stock.

I happened to finish work at a time compatible with the rare buses to my place, so I took the bus home, which gave me almost an hour to relax with some food and a book before time to head to Nyckelharpa night, where I enjoyed much more beautiful Swedish Folk music while I made some good progress on my new Viking Coat to replace the one which vanished at the Helsinki Airport.

Now I need to go do my yoga, since I need to get up early enough to take a bus into town for a check up for me (I only recently found out that the uni provides regular checkups through a private provider, and so booked one).

I have been quite busy with getting ready for Norrkskensfesten this weekend, getting a new computer at work (which always takes a week or two to get the new one looking right and able to run all the needed programs), helping some of the new members make their first costumes, and even making time for some good conversations about relationships with my loved ones.

Sadly, it warmed up and rained this week, totally melting all of the snow we had had. But there was a bit of snow coming down when the sun was setting this afternoon, so if I am very lucky we will get more and it will cool down enough to keep it. But I am not holding my breath.

The schedule for today and tomorrow is complicated a bit due to the need to take the larger of our two cars to the shop today. They figured out one problem that it has, and say that they can have it fixed by noon tomorrow. If all goes well that problem will turn out to be all that it is wrong with it, and it will be ready to go on time. If it is I will pick up the car, load it full of event stuff and head out to site to set up. If not one of my friends who lives north of here will be driving me and as much as we can load into his car for the first trip to the site. It would have been nice to have the car tonight, too, since I will be attending the Frostheim social night to help a few more people with their first costumes, but lord_kjar needs to use his car to drive the shire hot tub out to the site, which process will take a long time, since the tub can't go faster than 40 kph when being towed. (Site is 20 minutes away if one drives the speed limit, which gets up to 100 kph on the highway.) With luck someone else will be able to drive me and the project supplies home this evening.

Now to go bake those cookies before heading to the project night...