My youngest daughter called me last night asking if she could come over so I could look at her little hoopty, saying it was making a noise when she made turns. I said of course, come over about 11:00 in the morning to give me time to get woke up and have some coffee.
So she shows up a little past 11 this morning. I get in and have her ride shotgun and go to back out of the driveway. Right off the get go I hear some squeal/grinding shit going on in the right front.
We get out on the street and I start zig zagging listening for bad bearings or some other shit and it goes away. As soon as I tapped the brakes, there it is again. I didn’t even get half way down one block. Back into the driveway and I go open the garage door.
I told her it sounds like brakes and she starts protesting that she will take it to some guy she knows who works cheap.
So I give her a glare and start jacking the thing up.
I went and stretched out an air hose, got a big screwdriver for the hub caps and grabbed my 1/2 drive impact and flip socket for lug nuts.
Lemme tell ya, I ain’t moving real fast and every time I go to do something grunting noises escape.
Before I could jack hers up I had to pick up the ass of the Sprite so I could grab a couple of jack stands. Pretty soon I have hers up in the air and get the tire off.
Bigger than shit the brake pads are looking mighty slim.
She is still making noises about taking it to this other guy so I shut that down and told her I was putting brakes on it, period.
I called up and got some brake pads set out, $80 sounded pretty high to me and should have been a clue but off we go and pick them up.
I get a pretty hefty discount at this place so it actually came out to $50 something. We get back and open the box and sure as shit they aren’t right. We go back up there, find out the guy thought I said rear pads and get the right ones.
$30 something, 3 cans of Brake Clean for my fee and back we come.
Of course The Wifely Unit is out there now so I give her a good glare to make sure she ain’t piping up about shit she knows nothing about and I tear into it. I had the girl pull up a folding chair and I start showing and explaining how to do this and why we are doing various parts of the chore. I also gave her a brief explanation of how the hydraulics work in a brake system. When I took the inside pad out, I showed her the little Squealer tab sticking out and explained what it does and how that was what was making the noise she was hearing, letting her know she needed new brakes.
I finally got the passenger side done, we dragged everything over to the other side and then I sat down in the folding chair and started pointing.
I’m not kidding, she knocked it right out!
We wrapped it up, put most of the tools away and I had her get in, start it and hit the brakes. Naturally the pedal went to the floor on the first try so I had her pump them up until she had a good pedal and off we went. I had her drive. No noise when we backed out, I explained how to burnish the new pads and break them in and then we took off on a little test drive.
No noise, no vibration, a good pedal and a job well done. I was just as proud of her as she was of herself.
She is a good girl, all of my kids turned out to be great people and I was glad I could help her save a bunch of money.
At one point she tells me that she remembered standing on my floor jack when she was little, pumping it up and then riding it down when she turned the handle. Of course she had to show me.
I got a chuckle out of that.
The things kids remember from their childhood eh?
Congrats! That knowledge was worth far more than the brake job. That time spent with the daughter was worth far more than the knowledge. You’re a lucky man.
What anon said. You are lucky indeed.
You did good, brother
LOVE, love, love this!!!
-Chi
You raised a good one.
And this you wrote made me laugh a lot, “ Of course The Wifely Unit is out there now so I give her a good glare to make sure she ain’t piping up about shit she knows nothing about”
That’s a real woman. Not afraid to jump in and get her hands dirty.
You should be proud.
Success breeds success. When the back ones are due, she will be willing to tackle them herself.
Good on you both!
Jim_R
My Middle Daughtersaurus is like that, unafraid to get her hand dirty. I stand back and make sure she doesn’t do something dangerous or stupid. She won’t touch electricity, though. Good plumber. Good framer.
My only son? Sigh. Lost cause. Oldest and Youngest Daughtersaurus’s are totally hopeless with tools. Where did I go wrong?
Bravo to both of you.
My dad showed me how to change the brake pads on my little puddle jumper. So the next time they needed changing, I went to the auto parts place, got them, and changed them on my own driveway.
I have offered to teach Powderpuff Mechanics to HS students and other groups that could certainly use the knowledge in times past.
In the case of High Schools, I don’t have a Teaching Certidicate. In the case of other groups, I can’t seem to get more than one or two interested.
I’ve made similar offers for spreadsheet, basic programming, and Computer Operations teaching. Same story.
What a waste of knowledge and experience. I learned a LOT of stuff from knowledge transfer from experienced (and SME!) adults that were willing to pass along valuable knowledge for free !!
Stoopid, stoopid, stoopid.
Well done. I used to have a daughter like that… Thanks for the memories good sir!!
First story of the day for me and Excellent! Someday she’s going to realize how blessed she is to have you for her dad.
I have one stepson who is an absolute artist with tools once he knows what to do. I had to show the other stepson three times how to check oil and I doubt he does it himself even now. The first one [the younger of the two] has his own successful business and the older one works for someone else after getting a high dollar degree that I helped pay for. At least they’re both good dads and take good care of their kids.
Well done sir. My only daughter does her own wrenching on her own truck as well. And she has her own tools to do it with. When she asks me if I know where her 10 mm socket is I’ll remind her it’s in the bathroom medicine cabinet where she left it.
My oldest daughter is just like this. Her sister and brother – not so much.
Hopefully at some point her fiance can take over my having to fix her car all the time. I won’t hold my breath.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
I am surprised though that no one has mentioned she’s an attractive lass and surely got her looks from mom’s side. 😉
I kid, I kid!
Don’t throw a hammer at me!
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
You’re biased. It’s okay.
Good on ya Phil. Loved the little quip about Wifely.
You are a good dad. Congrats!
Things like that are what makes a man a rich man. You have every right to be proud of her.
That’s awesome. As we know… these “Mechanic” places… and tire shops and such see our Wimmes coming a mile away. I had one lady friend call me in TEARS afer an STS Tire Center scared the living HELL out of her telling her that her brakes were SO BAD that they probably should not have allowed her to leave the shop with her car. They presented her with an estimate of $1800 FFS. A litany of things “wrong” with it.
It took me a half hour to asses that she needed pads up front, shoes in the back and the big problem? A minor leak in the one rear cylinder that was causing an intermittent lockup.
Total cost in parts to fix was a little over $200
She literally BEGGED me to not go to that shop and shove the used parts I removed from the car down the “Service Managers” throat.
So glad you were there for they Daughter. GOOD MAN!!!! And a FINE young lady apprentice too!
Good on you Brother. Teaching is a reward all on its own.
God works in many ways, your daughter is the proof of that.
Bless you both.
I’m a cheap bastard wish I knew how to do a brake job, limited knowledge on that task.
Great story, thanks – she is a keeper! As I constantly remind friends who feel their attempts at passing wisdom on are for naught, “The things kids remember from their childhood eh?” – They surprise the hell out of you when they pull the “Hey pop, remember the time…” As they say in the south – God bless your tiny cotton socks Phil.
A good kid there. Same as my daughter, fearless in tackling new things with just a little know how imparted by dad. Well done!
Beautiful, good to see a fine young woman getting stuck in.
My daughter gets her own tools and jacks out and gets on with it too.
Good daughters listen to their daddies.