Things I learned today

1. Ice is slippery

2. Rubber slides on ice

3. Alloy breaks easily  when sliding inside a rubber tyre and hitting a curb stone

4. Wheels made of alloy are expensive at £200 each.

Can you guessed I slid on the ice in my car. I wasn’t going fast at all turning into the my own road off the lane after dropping Charito off at work at 7am in the morning.  Aren’t I considerate and getting up early to take Charito to work rather than letting her ride her bike in! Anyway ….  on the way I just turned into the corner approximately 5 or so miles an hour, if that as I knew it was a bit icy. The car started to turn into the road but then decided it wasn’t going to go all of the way around and slid into the curb with a hefty bang (even though it was slow). The engine cut out (no I didn’t stall it) and the airbag light came on. It must be an automatic thing for the engine to cut off when you have a bump. Fortunately the airbag didn’t deploy. So I turned the engine over and it started ok and the light went out.

Parked up on my drive and went out to a meeting at work later on at 10am. As I drove off I notice that the steering wheel was shaking as I moved onto the lane. I drove it to work but it was shaking quite a bit and I thought ‘I need to get this checked out’ maybe I had knocked the balance or tracking out (not that I know anything about cars, they could tell me the billybingbong needs replacing and I wouldn’t question them).  Anyway after the meeting I thought I would stop off at the Toyota Dealership (where they do all the work on my car) and asked them to have a look at it for me. I told them what had happened and he got one of his guys to take it out for a run as they had cars already on the ramps and already had three people drop in with similar bumps due to the snow and ice. He thought it sound like the maybe one of the balance leads had fallen off (are they next to the billybingbongs I wondered). An the mechanics return I was told that the Wheel was cracked it was unsafe to drive and I would need a new wheel, tyre and possible there more damage but they would have to get it on the ramps for that.

30 minutes later they came back and said there was no damage underneath (phew – I could see the pounds signs mount up there!) and the other good news is that the tyre was fine as well. They had put a temporary wheel on for me and would I like them to order a new one in for me. So hence the two hundred pounds for a new alloy. I’d hate to see the damage done in a proper bump if that was only at low speeds. That £200 pounds is the same price I paid for the car before this one. OK it only lasted me a year, but now I have a good car it cost more for one wheel than a whole car, surely there is something wrong there!!!

 

The meeting at work was about when I am returning – I’m going back to work on Monday part time, finishing at 1pm each day and only doing three days in the first week and then 4 days for the next couple leading up to Christmas. This will see how I go and it will be reviewed starting in January.