Up The Middle

mood: aggravated

music: "Straight Out of Line" Godsmack

The gremlin car that is Laces 96 Ford Taurus is at it again, only this time its not its fault- its shoddy chinese manufacturing. The car has always had gremlins- all small things- nothing that affects the overall functionality of the car and it has definitely been a great car all those quirks aside. To give you a quick background. Well a few months back we (as in my dad and i) had to pull the engine to replace the freeze plugs that had rusted out (because like all "good" manufacturers Ford found out they could save a penny per car by using steel plugs instead of brass). For those who aren't adepth about cars- when yr freeze plugs rust out your car loses coolant and eventually trys to (or does if yr not paying attention) run hot. So that was a grueling two day job and we thought that had solved the attempted overheating problem. Well it did- for a while. 

And then it started running warm again, we were not happy. It took forever to figure out how it was losing water or even where. Finally i checked right after we parked it one day and after crawiling around up under it, i found that the overflow resevoir (the one we didn't replace when we did everything else but should have) had, what turned out to be, a huge crack in the bottom. This crack consequentially only leaked significantly when the car was warm and the cooling system was pressurized, which forced it open. I was happy that it was an easy part to replace so hiho hiho its off to the autoparts store for a new one which surprisingly only cost $16. And thats where i should have known better. It was chinese aftermarket and i definitely got what i paid for. The car started leaking again today- Lace calls me at work to tell me it dumped all the water at the mail house. Well when i get home i popped the hood, filled the resevoir, started the car, and oh look at that- the whole fucking top of this brand new part has fucking separated and is now spitting coolant all over the ground. Its not two fucking weeks old, the pressure cap is correct for the car, it has not ran hot- could only be one cause- shoddy manufacturing followed by zero pressure testing. I do want to say that i'm not implying that everything made in china is crap or that there aren't crappy things made here in the US, i'm sure everyone has realized theres plenty. But i still am not sold on items being of top quality coming from the developing world. Needless to say the next one is going to be genuine 100% Ford or at the very least a name brand aftermarket replacement. I think i'm more angry that a part i just replaced has failed than i would be if it had been something else. Its bullshit is what it is and just like the saying "If its too good to be true, it probably is." Fucking cheap shit.