My wife and I were driving to Santa Cruz to visit our son and I noticed a very slight engine misfire so naturally, I ignored it. Later it beceme evident ignoring was not a viable stratagy. Interestingly, the check engine light wasn’t on. We get off the freeway and I’m driving down a highway with mini malls, restaurants, a Fred Meyers and gas stations. We’re more realistic now looking for a mechanic or a motel. Its 4:00 in the afternoon, not the best time to find a mechanic.
But a shop appears and the mechanic tells me, “if the check engine light isn’t on you don’t have a misfire.” They can’t look at it till noon tomorrow anyway, so we go on down the road.
My wife says, “maybe its bad gas”. Easy to check. And as we are filling up I notice a “mechanic on duty” sign.
I walk around back. The shop is pretty funky but I notice a jet black lowered ‘58 Chevy in perfect condition and bright orange late ‘40’s Dodge looking sharp, with a for sale sign. The mechanic himself, Juan, is sitting in a rough running old Mustang which he shuts down. He is about 40, short, stocky, tatooed, greasy and would be happy to take a look.
I tell him the engine is misfiring and he listens, but can’t hear it because of the traffic noise. He runs his hands over various engine parts and wiggles the plug wires while the engine is running. He sits in the drivers seat where there is less noise and then he can hear it. He notes the check engine light is not on and comments on the low van mileage. I tell him it took me a long time to find this low mileage van and I feel a little like we are part of the brotherhood who appreciates older, low mileage vehicles.
He pulls out a scanner and plugs it in. The scanner shows no codes, meaning nothing is wrong. Juan wiggles some more stuff, scratches his head and says,“its most likely an electricial misfire.”
I tell him the guy down the street said if the check engine light isn’t on it can’t be electrical. Juan says, “liar”.
I say, “so the check engine light on the last car I has was always on, and nothing was wrong. With this car the check engine light is off, and something is actually wrong.” Juan nods his head and says, “yup”.
He goes around to the engine again and points out that when the air conditioner kicks on the engine misfires a little more. More of a load, more of a misfire.
“When did you last change the plugs?”
“Before the trip.”
“OK, how about the plug wires?”
“Nope, I was too cheap and lazy”. I didn’t actually say that, but it was the truth.
Juan listens some more and pretty soon says,
“I’m pretty sure it’s the wires.There is an auto parts place up the street. You can put them in yourself or I’ll do it for you if you want”. All this has taken maybe 10 minutes. He says, “tell them Juan sent you and they will give a discount.”
We walk up get the wires, and the discount! I accept his offer to put them in. This takes another 5 minutes. While he’s working, I tell him when I was in high school the girls would have really liked his ‘58 Chevy. He smiles and says, “they still do, they still do.” He gives me a big wink, and we both laugh. He gets the wires on and the van seems to have lost the misfire. It hasn’t missed a beat since.
I ask Juan how much I own him. And he says, “ah….whatever.” I figure Juan spent 15 minutes out of a half hour so I gave him 40 bucks, he puts his hand out to shake but hesitates because its greasy, but we shake anyway, and I thank him. We were back on the road and to our camping spot within the hour. I spend a big part of the next day feeling like a cheapskate and wishing I had paid him more.