What are the Odds?

So every February we have the honor of paying the state money so we can drive our car legally on the streets. They call this act "Registering" your vehicle. Since our car isn't brand new, we have to get a safety inspection, and since we live along the Wasatch Front, we get to have an emissions inspection too.

I really didn't want to take Miles to a car place and entertain him while the inspections were done, so Tyson was kind enough to go instead.

Tyson's Story (Written by Tyson): I should have taken Miles with me...I think he needs an emissions inspection...But alas, I went there straight from work. I was there only about a half hour, and was notified that we had failed the safety inspection because of two little burned out light bulbs, one on each side of the car (Those are lights?! I thought they were reflectors.). I would need to go back once we changed them out.

Meanwhile...Kristen is at home, puttering about...

Kristen: Miles wanted to play the ABC game on the computer, and while I was sitting there with him, I started going through some of our files that I hadn't looked at in a while. Some of it just needed to be organized (life insurance, etc.) and other things needed to be purged (old associate guide from Tyson's PT job when we were first married, etc.)

One of the files had car stuff in it, such as the title, and purchase paperwork, etc. One of the items was a letter Ford Motor Company had sent out in November 2004 about an issue with the front coil springs on certain years of their Focus (which we own). It said that the coil springs weren't sufficiently protected and that it could cause the springs to crack and fail. The letter outlined an extended warranty on the springs to 10 years or 150,000 miles. The warranty included replacement of both springs, alignment check, and realignment. The letter said most vehicles wouldn't be affected by this, but I figured we should probably hold on to the letter until the extended warranty is up. So, back in our now tidy files the letter went.

Tyson: After failing the inspection, I backed out of the bay to drive home, and as I was turning the wheel, I would hear a loud "CLANG! CLANG!" "What the...?!?" So I honked my horn for the guy to come out and listen. He had me pull the car back in so they could investigate. Long story short, there's a rubber sheath about five inches long covering the bottom part of the large coil spring, located in both front wheel wells, that essentially supports the weight of the front of the car. It's possible that moisture got in there and sat, rusting the part of the spring under the sheath. When they would jack up one side of the car during the inspection, it would put additional pressure on one spring and SNAP! Broken. You could tell it was distorted under the sheath, and the one spring was sitting funny, so it would rub on the car body, making the CLANG sound when I turned the wheel.

So I call Kristen to tell her the news...over $700 parts & labor. As I explained about the broken coil springs, she said, "Hold on." She shuffled around for a moment to find the letter from Ford, and read the whole thing to me. Apparently, this was the exact problem the letter was referring to. The next day we got everything replaced at a Ford dealer...for FREE!

Kristen: I had completely forgotten about the whole coil springs thing until I saw that letter again. I'm sure glad it came up in my cleaning so we didn't go ahead and fork over all that money for the repairs.

Nothing like a little divinely guided spring cleaning! :)