Dedication

I’d like to dedicate this post to my dad, and to my grandpa, and to all the Royal men throughout history who always had to fix their own cars because they were poor.

The Symptoms

1. It had been a couple years since I changed my spark plugs, so I’d been planning on changing them for a while. In fact, I actually bought new plugs and wires when I wrote Is It Worth It: The Oil Change.
2. My car had been a bit sluggish for a while. Granted my car is 13 years old, but it’s a Toyota, and it’s hasn’t quit on me, so I’m not giving up on it.

Assemble the right tools

If you’re new to my blog, you should know these three tools are a long standing tradition in my house. See my Proof that washing machines eat socks for another experience the good Dr. got me through.

And, if you’ve achieved “SuperDad” status, don’t forget to strut.

You’ll notice that I went with the two-liter Dr. Pepper this time. That’s because auto repairs usually turn out to be a bigger job than you originally planned on. The book I chose was Burning Angel by James Lee Burke.

Burning Angel by James Lee Burke

Side Note on James Lee Burke

Any writer who wants to see a brilliant example of how to create Setting should read Burke. I’ve read about a dozen books by him, and I’m almost ready to believe that Louisiana really exists.

Honestly, he’s good. I usually enjoy his mysteries, but Burning Angel is not one of his best.

Car Repair Gets Ugly

The first 3 plugs came out without any problems. And the plugs were all worn out, which was encouraging because that meant my diagnosis was correct. But when I pulled the fourth plug out, it was covered in oil. Crap. Time to refill my soda.

I pulled my valve cover off (four nuts and two bolts all right on top of the cover, so pretty easy), and saw the rubber ring on that plug’s tube was cracked. $3 at Autozone. Awesome. Time to refill my soda (a celebratory glass this time).

The Only Useful Part of This Post:

If you take your valve cover off, one helpful hint is that the washers under the nuts have a rubber center. The rubber fits snugly over the bolt, so they help keep the oil in . . . they also make it almost impossible to remove the valve cover while they are still on the bolts. I didn’t realized this, and since my valve cover was covered in dirt, I couldn’t tell the washers were any different than the cover. So I wasted a lot of time trying to pull the valve cover off before I discovered the rubber washers.

The Explosion

Well . . . I hope not. But I have to wait 24 hours for the RTV sealant to cure before I can start my car. If you don’t hear from me by of the end of the week I might be chatting with some of my poor Royal ancestors.

Before and After