As many of you know, my car is 13 years old. It's a 2000 RAV4, and beyond the scheduled maintenance stuff (oil changes, brakes, alternator, batteries) it has been relatively trouble free. The only really big issue I had with it was when a tree fell on it..... and I can't really blame the car for that!But it is 13 --- and as such, problems are bound to start happening. And they have.
Yesterday, when I pulled up to the house, I went to raise the drivers side window. Nothing. Nada. It didn't budge more than a couple centimeters and then stopped. Completely. It wouldn't go. Crap. More rain was coming. I don't even have a driveway, much less a garage to park the in. I tried it again. Another centimeter at most. So, instead of getting out of the car, I put it back in gear, and headed straight to my mechanic. His immediate reaction was "Damn. This isn't going to be cheap." I asked how much and he said that it would run about $250, as the motor is likely shot and the door would have to be opened up so I might want to think about it. But in the meantime, we'd at least get the window up so it wouldn't rain into the car or tempt someone to helping themselves to my stereo. So, after letting the motor reset several times and him guiding it up, we got the window up and secure. He then put a big piece of black duct tape (or whatever kind of tape mechanics use) over the controls so I wouldn't accidentally roll it back down.
Now, I'm certain that most people can live without their windows working. I am not one of those people. For around town driving, I generally have my windows down, even in the summer with the AC blasting. To and from work, the windows down, AC going and music blaring is a good psychological transition for me from home to work and vice versa.
I am not happy about this latest development. Not at all. So, coming off a month that featured paying off my debt, the Princess's birthday, increased vet costs...... now I need to get a repair done. Joy joy joy. The only silver lining I see to this is that it will keep me out of drive through lanes!
Hello Murphy..... would love to see you go back right now to wherever it is you came from. Ugh.
Um. Me and my dad just replaced ALL 4 windows of my car, motor and all, and the parts cost $150 for all 4. Maybe try buying the part separately and have them install it? Taking the door apart isn't that big of a deal, even without the right tools. See if this is something you want to explore. Because my dad's handy, he changed all of the windows himself, but maybe if you can provide the part, they can bring the price down to something reasonable. An hour of work is more than enough to change 1 car window. We did all 4 in about 2hrs.
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