It's good to know people who know...things.

A few weeks ago, I'd mentioned having a problem with my battery.

I so wish that it could have just ended there, but I guess for nothing else but a blog post...it didn't.

Two days after buying the *brand new* battery, my car did the same thing. I was driving (this time, thank goodness, with Travis) when everything started to dim.

The car fortunately made it down the street to my Grandparents house but after making a few phone calls, *we decided it was the alternator. When on the phone with Midas, they informed me that to check said alternator, it would take at least an hour, and would cost 80 bucks.

*I say "we" because I feel all important and car educated after about the 5th phone call talking about alternators and batteries and connectors and voltage regulators, so I feel like I played a part in deciding what the problem was.

Me, being someone who is not a fan to PAY for someone to tell me
1) Here's the problem, and
2) We can get it fixed for you for the price of your first born, and only one arm... decided to keep checking around to see how one would test an alternator.

I called Checker and they said if we brought the alternator in, they would check it for free.

Can you guess what we did?

My lovely boyfriend who "knows things" spent 3 hours on Saturday, taking out the alternator and changing my oil while he was at it!

He then took it to Checkers, where it tested as a normally funcioning alternator!! :(

Now what?!

I call another Midas and talk about what *we think the problem could be and he informs me that he likes to test the alternator while it's actually in the car, under pressure. (Fans running, radio on, wipers on, etc...etc...) Tells me he'll only charge 80 to look at it and I could bring it in right away.

At that point my Aunt had come over so my Uncle could see what he thought the problem was. My Aunt "knows things" too, so she said to just call Pep Boys...and if she remembered right, they used to do the alt. test for free!

Long(er)story short, Pep Boys did the test for 15 dollars. It took 5 minutes. As it turns out, it was the alternator.

Poor Travis!

After putting the alternator back in, he had to take it out and replace it with a new one, one last time!

The good news though, is we're back in business and I haven't had any more problems!