I was working at the local auto parts store on Saturday when a woman entered, 18 month old child in tow. I asked her if there was something I could do and she collapsed into a gush of tears. "My car is leaking...I took it in for an oil change and now it is leaking from the transmission and antifreeze....THEY BROKE MY CAR!" she said.
Now, in the past this particular shop she took her car to has done some shady things to other cars. I won't however name names. Suffice it to know that it wasn't a Perfect Auto. This time. When she cornered them on why the car was leaking they told her it needed an intake gasket and a transmission pan gasket.
I stood there and tried my best to extract as much information as I could to determine what really was wrong. I asked her if she had oil drips on the ground prior to taking it in. I asked her if she had had to add coolant before. She said, yes, she had indeed had to add coolant. Before I could ask how much she had had to put in and over how long of a period of time this had been going on, she melted down into a tale of woe. She explained how she had moved from Minnesota, alienated her family ties, moved in with her boyfriend, he dumped her and now she was practically living out of her car with the daughter she conceived with the boyfriend. She was trying to make money by donating plasma this particular day. However, her friend didn't like being dropped in on at the last minute to watch an 18 month old girl, so she went and got an oil change instead. This all makes sense right?
I volunteered to go out to her car and see what was going on. It was a 1999 Buick Century with a 3.1 liter V6 engine. I observed under the car fresh coolant and that the transmission pan was damp from ATF, but this had to have been going on for some time. On opening to hood I could squeeze the upper radiator hose and hear a light hiss from the intake manifold. The other shop was right. Additionally she admitted to adding coolant, but she said she had never had a visible leak like this.
Truth be told, she has a 3.1 liter GM V6. If your intake manifold gasket isn't leaking now, it soon will. It is worst when you don't regularly replace the coolant. The plastic intake gaskets eventually rot out and no longer are capable of holding the pressurized coolant in the passages and it typically will leak into the engine crankcase. Worst case scenario is from the gasket to outside the head to the ground. Truthfully it happens long after the original factory warranty has expired, so the manufacturer flatly does not care. Fel-Pro makes a "Problem Solver" gasket kit to resolve the problem and with that particular gasket in use, it eliminates a lot of the concerns with that engine.
I had no recourse but to give her a card to the shop and the price of the gaskets and send her down the road. She asked if she could use our restroom to change her daughter's diaper so pointed her to it. After she got out I handed her a quote for the price of the gasket. She asked what it would cost to install it. As I looked up the labor on my phone she went into a rant on how she was unemployed, had little to no money and felt hopeless. Once I had the price looked up I looked at her and said, "I know that things are tough for you right now. Have you thought about going the the unemployment office and seeing what programs are available. I mean you might not qualify for unemployment, but they might be able to help with training or workshops so you could find a job. If you could make some money it would definitely lift you out of this bad place and help you have a steady home, food to eat, a running car, and a good life for your child."
She looked at me with repulsion. She told me that work and a job would not help her. Somebody needed to help her.
I thought about that response for a minute. That thought is absolutely foreign to me. Why would I ever put my family through that type of hell? She was adamant about being saved by the good will of others and free assistance from the government. And folks, race did not play into this story either. This woman was fairer skinned than myself. What played into this was the concept that she was a victim (of her own poor choices) and somehow victims don't need to be accountable for their own poor decisions. I offered the best advice any person in my position could. I told her she had control and with some work she could be made whole again. Her response was pathetic and self indulgent.
I asked her to have a better day and told her she needed to save some money and get her car fixed. I could have torn into her over a number of things, but I declined. She bought a gallon of antifreeze, I put it in for her and she left.
But I still fear for the influence that her daughter lives under.
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