The Honda Odyssey

Several weeks ago I noticed that the van sounded a little loud when Cameron started it in the morning.  The noise that I heard was best described as a ticking sound.  As we had had some extremely low temperatures during that time period, I hoped that it was the cold weather causing the noise.  When Cameron and Meg got home from shopping in Fort Wayne last Sunday, they both told me that they thought that something was wrong with the van.  The noise had increased and Cameron described it as a machine gun under his hood.

We took the van to Monteith on Tuesday.  They listened to it and looked at what they could before calling Doug with the bad news - complete motor replacement with an estimated cost of $4000 to $5000.  We were all disappointed to hear that.  We have really enjoyed the van and weren't ready to say goodbye to it.  We also didn't think that it was worth the money to fix it.  Once Doug let me know what Monteith had said, we made plans to let Cameron drive the Civic for the next few weeks while we decided what to do.  I began online searching for a used vehicle for Cameron.  In only a few minutes I realized that the news I had been hearing was correct, used car prices were out of control.  I found the exact same CR-V that Brett bought in October of 2020 for $7000 more than he paid for it then.  Same year, same mileage - I couldn't believe it.

I shared my thoughts with Doug and we decided that maybe fixing the van wasn't the worst idea.  Monteith suggested their Warsaw service department.  Doug wasn't crazy about that idea, so I reached out to my friends to see if they had a mechanic locally that they trusted.  Wendy responded immediately with a name in New Paris, but said that they were a month out in their appointment book.  Cherie texted that they loved Jake's Automotive in Milford.  She found them reasonably priced and trustworthy.  Betsy also had a name for us, but it was in Warsaw.  I gave all of the information to Doug and he decided to try Jake's.  He was please to hear that they could look at the van sometime in the next week.  Brett and I dropped it off last Tuesday afternoon and I crossed my fingers that it would be better news than we had received earlier that day.  

Jake's called on Thursday to give us their thoughts on the van.  They definitely did not think that it was a complete engine failure.  Instead they believed that it was the water pump/timing belt causing the noise and estimated that it would be $750 to fix it.  Jake's also said that it would be finished by Tuesday.  I was still a little nervous, but happy that we had a plan.  They called today (a day early) to let me know that it was finished.  Grandma and Grandpa drove me over this morning.  Jake's explained exactly what was making the noise, confirmed that it was only $750, said that it was a great van, and told me to thank Mrs. Sweatland for the referral.  What a relief!