Since their senior year of high school was effectively ruined by Covid, the plan was for the eight friends to head to the sunny desert southwest for a week in an Airbnb. Plans were made, two cars were sourced from surprisingly supportive parents, and the schedule was adjusted to leave a day early to get ahead of the snowstorm of the decade that’s in full force right now. The drive would be about 1,000 miles each way, and the girls’ Subaru Outback was volunteered for the trip by one of the moms after getting a full service at the dealer, while the boys went slightly ahead in an SUV.
Eight hours after they left, my phone rang (and I knew immediately there was a problem since it wasn’t a text…) with the fateful call from Piper – “Dad, it’s me, the car broke down. A light came on and then ALL the lights came on and we decided to pull over. The boys kept going but are going to turn around, I tried to figure out the problem but can’t.” Me: “OK, so explain to me what’s going on and what you’ve done so far.”
Piper: “Well, I remembered what you showed me and decided to check the oil after we stopped the engine. I think it looks ok, there is oil on the dipstick.”
Me: “Ok, it’s between the empty and full marks, right?”
Piper: “No, it seems like there’s more than that, I’ll have someone text you a picture.” Ding.
Looking at it is seems like it’s overfilled a bit, going well past the full mark (the little circles at the left are the target area).
Me: “OK, it seems a bit overly full but what exactly was the warning light?”
Piper: “It was the AT Oil Temp light, it came on and then a little bit afterward everything came on, it was like Christmas, but it still drove ok, but we thought maybe we should stop, so we pulled off. I also looked at the coolant and it seems like there is at least a little bit of fluid in the clear bottle thingy but it’s not full, is that the problem? What’s AT, I know what oil is and that temp might mean coolant.”
Me: “Yeah, that clear bottle is your coolant overflow tank, if the engine is hot, it can fill it as the coolant expands, but pulls it back out as it cools down. If that was a big problem the regular engine temperature gauge would go up and/or a light for that should come on. Anyway, the AT Oil Temp light means the automatic transmission is hot, not the engine, that’s a different part of the car. ATF is Automatic Transmission Fluid, a different oil than what’s in the engine. But good job checking!”
Piper: “OK, yeah, the boys are turning around and coming back. Should we drive it? It’s currently turned off.”
I google frantically and see that if the light is on but not flashing then the car should be stopped but left running in “Park” to cool the fluid down and advise as such. That gets done but then the light apparently starts flashing. More googling shows the flashing light to be an even worse bad thing and driving should be avoided if possible. I ask and ascertain that the car is a 2014 Outback with the 4-cylinder and CVT with 101,142 miles on it. Also that they are well out of the mountains and on more or less flat ground maybe an hour north of Albuquerque.
Piper: “The boys just came back and tried to mansplain to me that I checked the brake fluid. I told them to go away and I know what I’m doing, I know how to check the oil and coolant. They think it’s just a sensor and the engine looks fine and the transmission doesn’t need to cool down, they say we should keep going.”
I explain that it could be a big problem and driving could cause more damage. In the meantime googling shows that these cars had their transmission warranty extended to ten years and 100,000 miles due to issues, but the car is already over the mileage limit and there are other limitations to the extension.
While I try to explain how to check the ATF level, the girls eventually decide that the car is running, it’s 4pm, and they are going to make an executive decision and make a careful run for the Albuquerque Subaru dealer, which is 50 or so miles away, with the boys close behind. I suggest they at least apprise the mom that owns the car of the decision and this gets done. They also call the dealer who says they will wait for them.
An hour later they get there, the car goes right in and gets its codes checked. The verdict is that it’s likely a pressure sensor that’s bad. The lounge apparently has good snacks and undoubtedly things were sped up with nobody at the dealership wanting eight teenagers eating everything in sight. Eventually the good news is it can be fixed, the bad news is it’ll have to be the next morning, it could take up to six hours. Since there was an overnight stop planned for Albuquerque already, this works for everyone.
The next morning (Saturday) the kids return at opening time. The car gets pulled into the service bay bright and early and everything is done by noon. I had suggested they try to get a goodwill repair done or at least ask to try to get a discount since while the car was over the warranty mileage limit the age was well within the parameter and it seems to have been dealer serviced. Apparently the owner of the car spoke to someone at Subaru corporate and Subaru in the end agreed to pay for the entire repair (!)
It turned out that the transmission valve body needed to be replaced and the transmission reprogrammed afterward. The total for the repair came to $1,996.24, which would have put a serious damper on the festivities.
However, Subaru stepped up and saved the day (week), along with Garcia Subaru of Albuquerque who got the car in and repaired as fast as would seem possible. While it’s unfortunate that a repair was needed in the first place, this is the type of corporate action that builds owner loyalty, never mind the eight young adults who are now enjoying their break after a quick glance back at the dealer out of the back window…
All photos by Piper except for the dipstick one, taken by Jenna.
Smart long-term thinking by Subaru to pay for the repairs. In addition to owner loyalty they will get much more than two grand worth of good press if just from this write-up. I wish more companies had that wisdom.
Glad it worked out and they had a good trip.
Good for Piper standing her ground, and good for Subaru to step up.
The only call we’ve had so far is daughter going to drop something off at a friends house, shutting the van off in drive, and of course it won’t restart. But we were able to figure it out over the phone.
I hope the kids enjoy the rest of the trip!
It depends on the kid.
One kid did break down a long way away. The hardest part was convincing him to stay there.
One query, any idea why a CVT has a valve body?
You do have to move from forward to reverse, plus modern CVTs have “gear” settings to somewhat replicate a regular Automatic.
And neutral!
CVTs have pulleys that expand and contract to vary the gear ratio, those are controlled by Hydraulics.
Troubleshot a failing alternator on the phone in Houston from my couch near Norfolk, VA. She doubted me (“but it’s the battery light, isn’t the battery going bad?” “No, you wouldn’t get this light while it’s running if that’s the case. Now turn everything electrical you can off; yes that means the radio. It sounds like you have just enough to get home.”) Ordered an alternator from her local Advance Auto, and her boyfriend put it in.
The troublesome Subaru CVTs were why we ultimately decided against buying one for your son.
Glad everything worked out, Jim, and good for Subaru to step up. The free PR and goodwill they netted here was certainly more than worth it.
This is why I usually recommend that people going on long-distance driving trips with iffy high mileage cars consider getting a rental. The many hours of high-speed operation can cause things that are on the verge of failing to crap out.
I realize that this isn’t always feasible (minimum age requirements, budgetary concerns), but to me it is worth the piece of mind to drive a low mileage, late-model car on my trip and to know if I have as problem you can just stop in the nearest Hertz and swap it out for another car.
This is why I usually recommend that people going on long-distance driving trips with iffy high mileage cars consider getting a rental.
Good luck renting a car if you’re under 25!
And 100k is hardly “high mileage” in this day and age. A sensor could crap out at any time, as it was obviously faulty and the number of miles on it had nothing to do with it crapping out.
I had this issue when my car was in for service and I was 19 or 20. I found out that the only one who would rent to me was Enterprise. By doing this and not sticking it to me with fees, they gained a customer for life. Every time I’ve gone on vacation, I’ve always rented a car from them unless they are way out of line on their price compared to everyone else.
Agreed. Anything can die at any time. My brother had the powertrain computer in his ’18 RAM limited he bought new, die at 3400 miles. Took over a week to replace it.
Glad everything worked out well. Fortunately my kid’s breakdowns have all been local and only involved a dead key battery…I’ve encouraged them to buy Toyotas….:-)
One time a few years ago, my son was driving in the Buffalo area, after landing at that airport, (work trip) and on his way home (in Canada). His brakes seized, and after a large amount of smoke was produced, he was on the side of the Interstate. A quick call to AAA was placed to get a tow home. Thank God for cell phones. Well almost.
The AAA driver could only take him to the border, since he had a conviction for DUI on his record, and could not cross into Canada. So at the border, the car was dropped, and another call to CAA to arrange for another tow truck for the rest of the journey. What should have been a 90-120 minute drive home ended up taking him the better part of six hours with all the delays, customs, and such.
I could have gone to pick him up in the US, but he wanted to see that his car was taken care of.
If I found out my kid broke down far from home, my first thought would be, “oh, crap, I have a kid?”
Good to see that the dealer took care of things. Usually they say no good deed goes unpunished, but in this case Subaru and the dealer at least got a modicum of good press from this.
I’m with Tom on the rental car idea, even for my low-mile regular car. Why put miles on and risk damage to your car when you can risk someone else’s? One time we took a trip to southern Illinois with a friend who was from down there, and they gave me all these wacky state route directions that bypassed about an hour of travel on the Interstate. When I got back to Chicago, I realized that driving down those routes had kicked up enough gravel to severely pit the hood of the rental car. I would have been livid if that was my own personal car, but all I had to do was drop it off… “normal wear and tear.”
I’m with Tom on the rental car idea, even for my low-mile regular car.
Who’s going to rent to high school kids?
Isn’t that why we buy cars, to use them?
A. I somehow managed to make it out of high school without a car, or going on a road trip. Bought my first car after graduating college.
B. I buy mine to win arguments on the Internet. We’re supposed to USE these things? 🙂
I’ve had to rescue Son No. 1 once, when the alternator went out on the ’98 Grand Caravan we gave him after it rolled 200K. That required a 4 hour one-way trip with the truck and flat trailer, not returning until well after midnight. The GC would soldier on for a total of 278,727 miles before the transmission bought it.
Son No. 2 chose to purchase a 1984 Mustang L (2.3l, 4sp.) as his first car from a homeschooling family with five daughters, all who learned to drive in this vehicle. The car was worn out when he got it, and things didn’t improve. No. 2 was also going through a phase in his life where he was making poor decisions about a lot of things, vehicle maintenance being one. That poor little Mustang accumulated more miles, it seems, on my trailer than it did under its own power.
I have to confess, however, that I was on the receiving end of a tow rope a number of times myself in my younger days.
This would have been an awful phone call to receive. That feeling of helplessness isn’t pleasant. Thankfully, we have avoided such calls so far but there will be such a day, undoubtedly.
It’s good to see it all worked out well plus Subaru going the extra distance in customer service.
On an unrelated note, I’m glad to see Piper and the others are making the most of a crummy situation in regard to their senior year. I, too, had a senior whose year was seriously compromised and we are finally getting some wrinkles ironed out.
Great story, great outcome. I’m still hesitant to get a car with a CVT. Around town would be fine but not out in the middle of nowhere.
Since our kids are 11 and 13 now, we haven’t had this type of experience yet. But I started thinking whether a similar thing had ever happened to me.
My closest experience was when I was 20 and was involved in an accident while driving home from college in North Carolina, about 500 mi. away from home. After the wreck, which was on I-40 (it was just me, no other cars involved) I walked back to the nearest exit to find a pay phone, to call the police and to call dad. I wanted Dad, not Mom, because I feared that Mom would get hysterical, and thought Dad would be calm… and right then, I needed calm, Dad-type advice.
Unfortunately, no one was answering their phones… not Dad, Mom or the handful of friends who I called. By that point, I just wanted to talk, even if it was into an answering machine, so I left a voicemail at Mom’s office saying that I was in an accident.
Eventually, the state police responded, and my car was towed to a gas station in Burlington. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the gas station office, and the owner said he’d just spoken to my mom (I was trying desperately to appear calm and mature, and that sort of burst my bubble). Turns out Mom got the message, assumed the worst, called the NC Highway Patrol, who forwarded her to the local office, who put her in touch with the responding trooper, who gave her the number of the place where I was being towed to. Mom was relentless.
What a great example of good parenting on the automotive front. Not only does Piper know enough to stop, she knows about basic troubleshooting and when to call for more resources. Nice job on both of your parts!
I’m super impressed with your daughter. Well done, father.
Not surprised it was a bad senor, since there’s no obvious reason for the fluid to get so hot on an easy drive.
This is a common issue with modern cars: is it a bad sensor or is there really something wrong?
Ah, the sensor question. I get that a lot, specifically, with the oil pressure light on VWs.
“Isn’t it just a bad sensor?”
“An oil pressure warning at freeway speed, with a normal temp gauge reading, that happens now and then, is a bad sensor. An oil pressure warning that only shows up on hot days, idling at stop lights, is low oil pressure!”
The days of fixing a car on the side of the road are long gone, but then modern cars are generally more reliable anyway.
Credit to Piper for taking control of the situation and standing her ground!
I came across a great thread on the Outback forums of a guy who did this exact repair himself with great step by step pictures. In a Walmart parking lot!
https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/repair-transmission-control-valve-body-gen-4-cvt.516884/
I got a call one night from my son saying his car wouldn’t start. He was at a Wal-Mart in Florida and I was in New York. Since he was just getting a click when starting I had him run into the Wal-Mart, buy an adjustable wrench, and tighten up the battery cables. This worked, which made us both happy.
Well done daughter to calmly assess the situation and assert herself in responding. I have one I think would do likewise and one who wouldn’t even notice the warning lamp…
Shortly after we got married my wife and I flew from Kansas City down to Miami to buy a 2003 BMW 330i ZHP and drive it home as a semi-honeymoon vacation since we were both working and didn’t get a more traditional opportunity.
Flight down went fine, car owner met us and was great – had the car all ready to go, loaded with all the spares and manuals he had collected, so we settled up and set off to overnight in Nashville on our drive home. We had a great time riding together and enjoying the journey, found a nice place to have dinner, and then arose early and set out for the last leg home. Day 2 started off just as well until shortly after we crossed the Kentucky-Illinois border.
We were cruising right along, then there was a puff of smoke through the vents. Odd, I thought, and looked over the gauges but all indicated normalcy. A mile or 3 after that the car started slowing down, losing speed no matter how much throttle I fed in until I realized it wasn’t going to keep going and pulled off to the shoulder. As I rolled to a stop the engine lurched still and every seemingly every warning light on the dash suddenly erupted. Better late than never, I guess. I got out and opened the hood where I found all the rest of the steam, and felt heat like I have never before under the hood of a car.
By now it’s 8am in the middle of nowhere, so we call the roadside assist number and wait. About an hour and a half later the recovery truck arrives and asks where we want him to take us. Through our negotiation it becomes quickly apparent that Kansas City certainly isn’t an option, nor even Saint Louis, or even a town with a car rental office. In fact he finally decides he’ll take us as far as the closest town that has auto repair shop and a motel because the shop won’t be open on Sunday, which ironically happens to be Nashville, IL.
He dumps us and the seized car off in the parking lot of a non-descript car repair shop surrounded by old pickup trucks and Panthers, across the street from a McDonalds and a Best Western. We gather ourselves and hike over to Micky Ds to ascertain our situation: we’re both supposed to be at work the next morning, we still have to pick up our kids from their grandma and bring them back home to get them ready for school and we’re stuck in another state with no car, no rentals and no airport.
That’s when we decided it was time to call Pop…
Subaru won me as a customer when the transmission for my then-wife’s new ’90 Loyale crapped out. It wouldn’t move. The car hadn’t even made it to the first oil change. “Oh crap!” Well, they put her in a Nissan Altima demo and fixed the Subaru. We got it back 4 months later. Apparently a new replacement transmission had to be shipped on a freighter (how come they didn’t use air freight?) from Japan as the original was unserviceable. We enjoyed that Nissan (leather, sunroof, etc) for quite a few thousand miles before swapping it for the Subie.
I wonder how a domestic dealer would have treated us in the early 90s?
Subaru would have lost me as a customer forever if my transmission crapped out and it took four months to get it fixed.
Speaking of long waits, my neighbor bought a new, fully loaded Hyundai Pallisade in September; the next day something got crosswise in the wiring harness and there was a serious fire. Hyundai immediately gave him a fully loaded Santa Fe to use, and searched extensively for a new exact replacement. After 2 months of fruitless searching and bargaining for an inventory swap by the dealership to no avail, they finally gave him an incredible deal on a Genesis SUV. Quite nicer than his Pallisade; I think he was charged $5k more.
I had a few incidents as a fleet manager. The state had a policy that there was zero out of state travel with a state owned vehicle. But of course you have those people that buck the rules. Better to ask for forgiveness that permission, right? One fool has driven his very high mileage Taurus down to Chicago, about 8-10 hours away. Alternator has crapped out. The driver is pleading, “what do I do?” Tow it to the nearest Ford dealer. “How do I get around” rent a car. “How do I pay for all this?” call your boss.
Another person was again 8-10 hrs away in the middle of South Dakota, hit a deer. Same story all over again.
The state had a contract with Enterprise for car rentals, including insurance. The reason for this is a state can “cap” liability payments in its own territory but they are wide open once you cross the border. Cover your butt.
Love Piper telling the boys to “go away” when they tried to do the “you’re just a girl” bit on her.
She may be daddies girl but daddy obviously raised her right when it comes to putting we men in our place!
My oldest daughter is in medical school, so I still kick-in financially on her car. The car is still in my name due to inertia.
So, in the fall of 2019 she drove her 2015 Dodge Dart from Omaha to a Denver suburb to catch up with a high school friend. Nope, this is not a tale of FCA woe. In fact, the Dart has proven a faithful companion.
A few weeks before the trip, I noticed her OEM tires were looking tired, so I offered to put on a full set of Michelin Defenders from Costco. A medical school student does not turn down a set of paid for Defenders.
The subdivision she visited still had a lot of new construction, and she managed to pick up nails in TWO tires, and found two flats her first morning there!
She called home and my wife recommended she take the car to Costco and see what they would do. My daughter’s friend’s dad had an inflator, and the tires held long enough to get to a local Costco.
Don’t quote me on the exact warranty terms at Costco, but for at least the first 90 days they will replace tires with few questions asked. We may have paid a nominal fee, but she drove out with two new Defenders!
Whew!
This actually happened to me a few years back on a spring break road trip with some friends. In late 2015 I had picked up a ’96 Lincoln Town Car Executive series for about $1000. It was a solid car but had a ton of deferred maintenance. The car gradually transitioned from a project car to a daily driver as I worked it into acceptable shape. In my repairs, I replaced most items preventively including what I *thought* were all of the cooling hoses in the vehicle.
Fast forward 6 months to spring break of 2016. We had planned a trip out to Death Valley. I was to drive from my college in the Bay Area to Death Valley and then continue afterwards back home to SoCal for the rest of the break. The old Lincoln made the drive from Berkeley to Death Valley just fine, but I noticed that on some of the grades the temperature would spike a little on the dash. Nothing too concerning but a bar or two higher than normal. Well, on day 2 of the trip we left our campsite and went to a trailhead for a short hike. As soon as I parked, I could smell the coolant wafting out from under the hood. Shit.
Unfortunately, some closer examination revealed that there’s a mostly metal hose that runs through the V of the 4.6L V8. There’s about a 3” segment of said hose that’s made out of rubber, and the Panamint Range had caused enough stress for it to give way.
So here we were in Death Valley, several hours from civilization/home/a mechanic and with no tools and no cell service. Fortunately, we had a second vehicle so we were able to squeeze our group into that sole remaining car and head down the road until I had enough signal to make a call home.
I called my parents and explained the situation. It was quickly decided that replacing that hose in the field was unlikely to be successful. Instead, my parents and a good family friend managed to source a U-Haul trailer, hitch it up to the family Suburban and then head off from LA to Death Valley.
They left at around 3PM from LA and got to Death Valley around 9PM. After quickly loading up the stricken Lincoln, they headed back home arriving at sometime past 3AM. Amazingly, my parents never gave me a bit of trouble for any of this. They had a whole “It happens” mentality.
Not only did they drive 12 hours to recover their son’s car, they also brought the spare family Acura MDX out to us so that we could finish our trip.
Without a doubt, my parents are amazing.
Parents are amazing and great people. I was already thinking about if I could or would need to figure out how to tow an Outback back up here with the truck.
Good job on teaching your daughter!
There were a couple of incidents when the kids were in college, so while they were 100+ mi from me they were near their home at the time.
The alternator light came on in the daughter’s car, she called and we verified that the power steering was still working and the temp wasn’t rising so given the distance I told her to drive home and have her brother bring over the multi meter and report the results.
The next wasn’t quite so simple. She said she had noticed it didn’t quite have the power it used to but not enough that it really mattered. Well at least until she was heading to school one day and it was struggling to do 25mph on a neighborhood street. She pulled over and it died as she came to a stop. It didn’t restart. Since it was parked safely she got an uber coming while we did a little troubleshooting and she shared that it had seemed a little weak ocassionally. When her brother brought her back it started and drove home fine. No codes were found once at home. I went up that weekend and looked at the live data and mode $6 and found a higher that expected historical miss count on a couple of cylinders and I was able to push it hard enough that it had a pending adaptive limit code. Long story short it was that a mouse or something had built a nest in the air cleaner and when the conditions were right all the fluff and stuff would plug up the air filter.
The other with my daughter wasn’t actually her car but her boyfriend’s which wouldn’t start when he went to go back to his place. I talked her though the diagnosis and later replacing the fuel pump. Thankfully it was one of those cars that had an access panel under the rear seat and the tank wasn’t overly full. Yes, she did a lot of the work and gave him instructions for some of it.
For my son it was also a fuel pump but it failed sitting in the garage. Unfortunately he had an almost full tank of gas, the pump/sender assembly opening is in the side and the roll over valve in the filler pipe prevents siphoning too. So I went up to help out with that one.
Now while it was not her car I do suggest getting a cheap OBDII dongle for the kid’s car and have them put an app on their phones. The one I got for my Daughter was $8 and even the better apps aren’t much. Cheap insurance to be able to see if driving on will be OK.
It happens I got a message from my daughter that she had to be towed back from work last night the radiator is leaking and the low coolant light and the big STOP light keep coming on, Ive been phoning wreckers trying to find a good used radiator for her car today an easy swap if I can find one but she lives about 600km away and Id have to take leave to do the job One specialty wrecker 80km away thinks he might have one if so Ill collect it and courier it to her
I did remind her I drove that car for several years with white pepper in the cooling system and the cap on the fist notch so no pressure because of leaks, told her to get some cooling system clag and see it that works as a temporary fix or long term fix depending.
Glad everything panned out so well. A drivetrain component failure hundreds of miles from home is, essentially, every road-tripper’s little nightmare, and would have spelled the end of the trip in many cases. More details on the parent’s call to corporate would be interesting, but good for Subaru for making a next-day goodwill repair on a 100K mile transmission. If such a thing had been done in my case, I wouldn’t be nearly as distrustful of Nissan right now.
The differences in approach between your daughter and the boys is interesting to note. “It’s fine, just keep driving it, nothing needs to cool down, transmission warning lights don’t mean anything…wait, the dealership has snacks? Sure, better take it in. Can’t be too careful, you know”.
I’m not sure of all the details but the first call was to the local dealer who did the pre-trip service, perhaps they got involved too.
The kids all seemed to handle it pretty well, now they are at their destination, hanging out poolside. In the meantime my neighbor here four doors down dug out his driveway this morning and proceeded to launch his BMW 3series into the middle of the street with 18″ of unplowed snow. And then he spent an hour with two other neighbors digging a path back to dry land…
Great job by your daughter. Kudos to your parenting. Nice of Subaru to step up as well, shrewd marketing right there. What I find a bit puzzling, and doesn’t speak well for the CVT, is that the dealer had a valve body in stock.
My Outback’s CVT blew out at 75k; as irritating as that was, Subaru replaced it for free even though it was out of warranty. That’s about when they extended the warranty to 100k company-wide.
Last summer in the Rogue (6k miles), while on a road trip we got a bad tank of fuel and the car just shuddered to a stop in west Texas. Had it towed to the dealership in Amarillo, where the next morning they evacuated the fuel system and we were on out way. The corporate parent of the gas station paid for the tow, the repair, the hotel and 2 meals (about $800 total), which certainly eased the aggravation somewhat.
That’s great the petrol company owned up, but I’m curious how did you pursue that claim? Especially traveling through a different area I’d be hard-pressed to even recall where I’d stopped for fuel…
My oldest got her license last November. I bought her a Ford with full warranties, oil changes, and bumper to bumper coverage from any Ford dealer. Then I filled her trunk with emergency supplies and showed her how to use them. It wasn’t cheap, but I had to have peace of mind.
For my girls – new cars, full warranties and maintenance. For my boys – used trucks, tool boxes and auto parts stores. That is my plan when my younger children grow up and hit the road.
I’ve found that a girl can do anything a boy can do and doesn’t need to rely on (and pay) a man for the rest of her life to get something fixed. Nice that she got a new car with a full warranty, hopefully she stays home outside of business hours and doesn’t attempt any long trips with hundreds of miles between dealers. 🙂
If you teach them females can take care of themselves as good or better than males. My Daughter is the one he did most of the work of changing the fuel pump in her boyfriend’s car because I taught her how to use tools and that taking care of yourself and fixing things yourself is what we do. While his dad was the type to just take it in or call the guy. She has also used the jumper cables that were put in the trunk to jump start her roommate’s truck.
Additionally in my work with coaching and mentoring HS robotics teams and their students that in fact the females are often better at fabrication and assembly. Take two students with equal training on the lathe and have them create a shaft 2.00″ long +/- .02. The boy will come back with a 1.94″ shaft and ask if it is good enough, then complain that they have to make another one. The girl on the other hand will toss that one that is 1.97″ and start over.
I also saw more than one case where boys would take over a project that a girl was competently working on. Something I tell the girls to say, only partially in jest, if they encounter a boy that tries to take over. “I can do this just as good as you ….. and I’ll look and smell better doing it!”
Regarding my own daughter, I’ve taught her a thing or two about home repairs as well. So when the sink started leaking at my house she was living in while in college I talked her though figuring out where the leak was coming from, exactly the parts she needed to buy and she did it herself.
When she got out of school and started working she wanted to move into the house we lived in when she was born, which has been a rental for over a decade. Since it was a long term tenant and a lot of the things hadn’t been touched since we had last lived there it got a serious refresh. She put in more hours than me and she helped at least some with almost all of the projects, landscaping, fence replacement exterior painting, flooring and she did the majority of the interior painting. That boyfriend is now the fiance, put in time too, and thankfully is a willing student and a hard worker. Yes they are paying rent.
I was in the UK on business and my daughter’s car broke down and wouldn’t start. She wanted to call my dad who was two hours from where she was in college. I told her to call the dealer and have them tow it in. Her first question to me was “Are they open?” I told her I had no idea as there was a 6 hour time difference. Fortunately, the dealer got it all resolved before I flew home.
I make irregular but frequent trips to Spain, and invariably within a couple of days of departure *something* (car/house/etc.) goes wrong and I have to troubleshoot it from across the Atlantic Ocean.
That was some first-rate Dad-ing, not the least of which was in the formation years, showing her how to do all that stuff. And yes, it is always a treat to watch an informed woman shut down an uninformed mansplainer.
I have gotten several such calls over the years, but I believe all of them have been local. And, of course, the problem with the local calls is that you don’t get to just hang up and wait on the outcome. 🙂
Reading this it occurred to me that our bad experiences tend to get remembered and repeated a lot more than the good ones. That’s understandable psychologically, but perhaps somewhat counterproductive. Maybe if we could make it a thing to talk up and share positive experiences with customer service and warranty work it would make companies more likely to go the extra mile. Would have to happen on more than an individual level to really make a difference, but it’s something to think about…
Back in 87 or so my sister and her room mate were driving from roomie’s home in Colorado back to NY and the 67 Mustang, (6 cyl 3 speed because 80 college girls could drive stick shift) blew its engine in Indiana. Since both were under 21 the drove home in a U-Haul while her room mat’s father negotiated repair and recovery.
The worst I’ve had was when our son was due to drive from Corvallis to Bend and his Buick’s V6 turned into a V5. I drove over, we found no compression on one cylinder and decided to deal with it after the family trip. Fortunately for all concerned the loss of compression was due to a loose intake rocker bolt and it was running on all 6 a few minutes later.