PN: 12335587
My car has been giving me a little grief recently. A shimmy going around a corner here, a little spot of oil on the ground there, you can tell that this six year old can feel the four hundred thousand kilometers she's already travelled over.
Since some of the repairs aren't out of my control, I decided to fix a couple on Sunday. After I managed to get my hood latch working properly, I tackled the quickly blinking right hand blinker. I knew that the problem was going to be that something wasn't working on the circuit, which was causing the blink time to decrease. So I flipped on the signal light and quickly found the offender.
After I layed out on the ground and grunted and groaned to get the light out of it's little abode, I pulled the bulb out and noticed that there was oxidization everywhere. It would appear that the seal wasn't quite waterproof and the metal tongues through which the bulb would get it's daily fixin' of electrons, were rusted right out. Well, that just won't do.
I hopped in the car, and travelled to most of the major part stores: Auto Value, Princess Auto and Part Source. Each venue was the same "I'm sorry buddy, we don't stock that, you could try the dealership". Given that Auto Value's tagline is We've got it, I knew the kid behind the counter didn't have anything to do with it, so I put on my jock strap and proceeded to the stealership.
Even after I made the decision to take a kick in the junk to get my part, the pain did not stop. I started out going to Carter's. Cahrter's brags about being the largest warehouse of parts for GM make vehicles in western Canada. Well, they didn't have it, but they told me that McKay did. So I drove down to McKay Pontiac/Buick, and they didn't have it, but they told me that Shaw did. So I continued driving about, sucking back more than my fair share of $1.10/liter gasoline, until I finally had the hot little part in my hand. $45.90 later, I started to ponder how society has evolved to a state where a peice of molded plastic with copper running through it can cost more than a week's worth of food. Nevertheless, I had it now.
Right in the stealership parking lot, I layed down on my back, plugged in the socket, pushed in a bulb and cursed and cussed as I put the socket back into the pot. After a couple of nasty cuts and pinched fingers, I finally had the whole thing back together.
Although, when I tried it out, it still didn't work.
