[speaker001:] all right so what was the last car repair that you had done on your car
[speaker002:] well we have two cars and on our little Honda we had to replace some CV joints and on our bigger car it's a Chevrolet we had to repair
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] the control module
[speaker001:] the control module a mystery box huh
[speaker002:] uh yeah yeah yeah right so we've had just recently a couple of things the CV joints my husband just did himself and I'm glad he can do that because that saves us lots
[speaker001:] yeah that's that's impressive he's able to do a job like that because that requires special tools
[speaker002:] lots of money yes he does and he's lucky in that way too because his his dad lives real close and he has a lot of the tools
[speaker001:] oh that's interesting
[speaker002:] so so he's able to do quite a few things like that and saves quite a bit of money
[speaker001:] that that's great what what kind of jobs would you folks repair refer refer to a garage
[speaker002:] um well we had to have the the Chevrolet had to be repair done by a repair man the you know the control module and even though that that still hasn't been taken of in fact we were driving along the other night and the engine light came back on but
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] the man wouldn't the repair man when he fixed it said that it looks like um the computer panel or or the whatever it was needed to be replaced also and we didn't have it done at the time so it looks like we'll need to go back in and have that done
[speaker001:] wow
[speaker002:] so how about yourself
[speaker001:] well um the last thing that I had to have done to my car uh I wound up doing myself and um that was uh tuning it up
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and um I had been having a a problem where I would be driving along and and I would notice this at night when I'd be sitting at a light I would see smoke in my uh
[speaker002:] oh wow
[speaker001:] my headlights and uh then later on when you know I'd I'd get out wherever I was going I would smell uh something had been burning
[speaker002:] oh um-hum oh
[speaker001:] and I pretty much figured it was oil because I'd looked under the hood a couple of times and there was a a lot more oil sort of floating around than you should have on a Honda which I ironically have too
[speaker002:] uh-huh oh huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] you'd expect the car to be really clean inside
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and it run real well real well and so anyway I I had been thinking about it for a long time and discovered that um uh or I had decided that what had happened is there's a a a little piece of metal that sits there over the top of the valve train called the valve uh uh cover
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh I decided that there must be something wrong with the gasket or perhaps the the whole cover itself hadn't been uh tightened down well or whatever and so
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] when I was doing this tune up I decided it was time for me to explore
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and sure enough that's what the problem was
[speaker002:] my word huh
[speaker001:] and so I went out and I got a new gasket and slipped it in there
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and on on older cars up to I I in fact I have no idea when they started doing this but but on the older cars they used to make the gasket out of a cork like material and on this car they make it out of a rubber like material
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum oh
[speaker001:] so uh
[speaker002:] oh so do you enjoy doing the repairs yourself
[speaker001:] yeah up to a certain point I used to do a lot more of it when I was younger than I do now um and I have to admit that when the weather starts to get cold there's just no fun like a busted knuckle I just uh I just can't even tell you the joy I get from that experience and
[speaker002:] uh-huh right right oh well that's what my husband says too he says when you have the right tools and a good place to do it in it's it's enjoyable and he really likes to be able to to do it but when you don't have the right tools you're out in the weather it's no fun at all
[speaker001:] sure and my finances have always been a little precarious so sometimes repairing the car is a financial necessity
[speaker002:] um-hum right right
[speaker001:] um but it's the the down side of that is that I very rarely always had the right tools and
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] I've
[speaker002:] because yeah you can't afford to buy them so
[speaker001:] yeah exactly yeah yeah it's a sort of a catch twenty two if you're well enough off to buy these exotic tools you need to do the work then you can generally have somebody else do it for you
[speaker002:] um-hum right uh-huh so have you found um one certain type of car needs less repair work than another
[speaker001:] so well um
[speaker002:] have you had that many different cars or
[speaker001:] it's funny I've I've owned a lot of different cars I started out with Volkswagons and then um uh graduated to um a Honda and had that for a long time and then graduated to a Volvo and then wound up with a Honda again
[speaker002:] um-hum hm oh
[speaker001:] and so I've I've had them all and and uh uh have gotten to know the engines in each one of these uh sorts of vehicles and but uh I in the Volkswagon business I I went from you know owning a bug to owning uh one of their cars called a Rabbit
[speaker002:] uh-huh  oh yes uh-huh
[speaker001:] and the and there was a completely different kind of engine in the Rabbit um but I I actually rebuilt a Volkswagon bug engine at one point and uh so I learned an awful lot about cars uh that way and
[speaker002:] oh oh boy I'll say I'll say well we I don't know we're a little bit partial our Honda we have got a hundred and