[speaker001:] Well, Tom, just tonight, I was working on my car out of necessity, and I had, uh, uh, had a long age-old problem of my bright lights not working, uh, this is the type of, uh, switch where you flip the, the lever, the turn signal on the column
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and when I would, uh, put it in the bright light position the lights would go out completely, which is even worse than them just not getting bright [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Exactly.
[speaker001:] And I had presumed that it was the switch, and, uh, this is, uh, an older car, it's a seventy-two M G, so I had to mail order the part, uh, which I had done, and tonight I went out and, uh, at least hooked in the new part, only to discover that that apparently is not the problem, it's not in the switch, because it does the same thing with the new switch.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] So I'll be faced with having to return that product and, uh, hoping that, uh, you know, that they will accept it, although it's been removed from the box it's obviously not been really used.
[speaker002:] Did you do the diagnosis, or was it just an assumption that that's probably the part that failed?
[speaker001:] Uh, I had done what diagnosis I could, primarily by looking at a wiring diagram that I did have of the car
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and, uh, pretty much decided that that had to be the problem. I talked to one mechanic about it, and he suspected the switch also. Uh, but I've not, you know, I really don't know what the problem might be. It, it, the other switch could be the main switch itself, uh, that turns the lights on or off, which is on the dashboard
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] uh, it might be tied into the equation somehow, but,
[speaker002:] Yeah, I know, uh, when working with the, uh, flashers, there is, uh, usually a, a special fuse that operates the flashers. Do you have a separate fuse for your high beam
[speaker001:] I
[speaker002:] as opposed to your low beam?
[speaker001:] I don't know, I should look at that. I don't remember seeing one in the, uh, in the diagram
[speaker002:] Diagram.
[speaker001:] so I'll have to go back and look at that.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I don't even know if my current cars have a separate fuse. I know sometimes when you think there are things running while they're at the same unit, like the headlamp
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] you tend to think, well, there's one fuse operating the whole thing, but sometimes the extra amperage that a high beam drives as opposed to a low beam requires, uh, the use of a, of a maybe a higher fuse.
[speaker001:] Yeah, that's a good idea.
[speaker002:] So, that's a possibility.
[speaker001:] What I've typically found when that, uh, companies are pretty good about accepting returns on products like that when they're not needed after all, and I hope that that's the case this time.
[speaker002:] Is this a, a mail order parts house that specializes in, in parts for parts for, uh, old imports?
[speaker001:] Right, exactly
[speaker002:] Who,
[speaker001:] it's out of Kansas
[speaker002:] Um
[speaker001:] somewhere.
[speaker002:] so, it's not J C Whitney or somebody like that.
[speaker001:] No, it's not. I also got a piece of chrome for the, the hood that they had indicated was the right part for this car, but it is not either, it's obviously doesn't quite fit, so it must be for a different year, so I'll have to try to return that as well.
[speaker002:] Yeah, have you found any, uh, uh, reliable import service people in the metroplex?
[speaker001:] Well, I had one person that I used for years and years on this car, because I've owned this car since it was new, and, uh, but it's over like in the Brook Hollow industrial district down on Stemmons and
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] Inwood area
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and I hadn't used him for some years, and the last time I called him back it turned out that he had further specialized instead of, uh, all import cars, he has narrowed it down to where he only works on, uh, German cars and {pause} German cars [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] I'll be darned.
[speaker001:] I'm not sure that he works on much else at all, but he doesn't work on British cars any more, and gave me the name of somebody else to take a look at it. So, uh, uh, I may have to check with that person, as it turns out that one, that shop is near where I now work. So, I'll, uh, I should be able to take it in and check that part out. I've not had to exchange any other parts recently, because they were defective. Now, I've had, had pretty good luck, I just, however, did, uh, have to get a, a, uh, one of these jam box portable dual cassette players, uh, repaired.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] I purchased it at Sam's, and I had assumed that it had a ninety day warranty, and I should have checked more carefully and done a better job of saving the receipt, because I didn't take it in right away, and let a whole year go by. Uh, some of the buttons didn't work right, where you had to actually physically hold them down to get it to record or to play, and as it turned out, it had a full year's warranty, and I could have gotten it repaired for free but
[speaker002:] Oh, my goodness.
[speaker001:] I had to take it in,
[speaker002:] [Throat clearing].
[speaker001:] while it was in the shop I ended up finding the receipt that I thought had long since been lost, uh, but it didn't do me any good, because I had, I had missed the window by about a week or two.
[speaker002:] Oh, no.
[speaker001:] So I didn't even, I didn't really, uh, even bring it up when I went in to pick it up. But, uh, that's really my only experience in the past year where I've had to take a product back because of a defect.
[speaker002:] Well, ours wasn't within the last year. I guess it's been within the last two years, uh, Judy has an Oldsmobile that we bought new, and it's one with the, uh, electronic ignition and the computer controlled mixer, and, uh, I don't know what else it all controls, but the fuel mixture and cruise control and things of that sort, and we found that the, uh, uh, we were having two problems. It was idling fast, when you first started the engine, to the point that we park on a hill, under our car port, and, it, when you first dropped it into geared it would immediately want to back up into the alley, and knowing that, you always had to keep your foot on the brake hard, otherwise it would just wrench control away from you.
[speaker001:] Good grief.
[speaker002:] And the other problem Judy would have is occasionally she would, uh, be driving along, uh, decelerating, like coming to a stop sign, but not yet stopped at the stop sign
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and the engine would just quit.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] So, we took it back to the, uh, Oldsmobile place and asked them to check it out, and at first they thought it was just a matter of timing, so they adjusted timing and the problem didn't go away, so we ended up taking it back again, and I don't know why they don't look at these things the first time around, but the second time around they looked at their, uh, recall service and their service reports from region or headquarters whatever, and, and they had a description of the exact problem we were experiencing that apparently was a programming error
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] in the, uh, computer control unit, which fortunately they replaced under warranty, because it was about a three hundred or three hundred and fifty dollar part
[speaker001:] My goodness.
[speaker002:] and, uh, so once they replaced it, then the, the car seemed to work fine
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] for a considerable period of time, and now it seems to be, we don-, we're not experiencing the stalling, but we're still experiencing a very uneven,