I think my life is worse than any of those stupid reality-TV shows. For real. Like, people couldn’t even make this shit up. So where I should have a bad-ass tow vehicle, and a nice travel-trailer to tow behind it, I now am without my Jeep, and no luck on finding a travel trailer. It all started about when we got to Michigan. Needless to say, Jason, our cats, and I all made it safely to Michigan. We were able to celebrate my mom and my brother’s birthdays. But after a couple of days, we started hearing this really loud whining, almost grinding sound coming from the front end. Now I have had my share of P.O.S. vehicles, and done plenty of repair work to know the basics of vehicles and their operation. I knew this was something in the drive-train.

Flashback to me buying this Jeep 2 months ago. I took it to a Jeep dealership right away to see if there were any repairs that it needed out the door. There were some. Two being the front and rear pinion seals. The front pinion seal is where the drive shaft plugs into the front differential. The front differential is full of fluid. Think of the front differential as the main gearbox for the front axle. All lubricated parts. Between finding this out, and driving to Michigan, I took it to an ASE Certified mechanic to do the work. A couple of days after taking it to the mechanic, it was all ready to go, and I think it was about $300 worth of work. So we had this new Jeep, all necessary repairs done, we were good as gold.

So back to the whining and grinding sound. I knew it was something in the drive-shaft, which scared me because that is what we just had worked on. Knowing that I couldn’t leave town before having it looked at, I took it to my older brother’s place, who I have made up with since our 6 months of not talking. He checked the fluid in the rear differential, it was good. It had that light reddish color that it should be, and was at the right level. Now to the front differential. One he got to the front of the Jeep, he saw some damage. It was around the front pinion seal, where it looked like the mechanic was beating the hell out of it, to get it out. He checked the fluid, and it didn’t even have a teaspoon of fluid in it, and what was in it was dark, black, and tar-like. Not cool at all. So either they forgot to check the fluid level when they did the seal, or they forgot to refill it with fluid. Either way, checking the level of this fluid is a key part of the repair that they performed.

So I had to towed to the local dealership nearby here in Michigan to be inspected. To see what the current damage is. Luckily for the first time in my life, I ACTUALLY have car insurance, so my insurance company towed it for free to the shop. The dealership mechanic called me, and told me the bad news. ‘Catastrophic Damage’. He told me that first off, they did cause dents and damage by beating the old seal out. They possibly replaced the seal with the wrong seal. Just like I thought, they forgot to check the fluid level on the front differential, or they just didn’t fix the seal correctly and it leaked out. Either way, it was the last mechanics fuck-up. He informed me the repairs are around $2000 parts and labor included.

So I made the uncomfortable call down to the mechanic that messed my Jeep up. I told him what the dealership told me. He told me that there is ‘no way’ they used the wrong seal, and that ‘he knows the fluid was right’. To make a long story short, he was trying to have me call HIS warranty company about doing the repairs. I did it anyway, to speed the process up, and his warranty company told me that his limited warranty doesn’t cover the part he repaired, nor does it cover negligence. So as of now that mechanic is ‘waiting for his warranty rep. to get ahold of him’. I told him if I don’t have an answer by a decent time this afternoon, that I was just going to have the dealership do the work, and we could meet up later in small claims court. He said that he would not authorize any work to be done. I told him that I cannot afford to be stranded in Michigan like this, and that I need the work done now. He said if he ‘ authorize the work, than that breaks any warranty with his repair. Which there isn’t one, so does it really matter? If I don’t hear back from him by tomorrow afternoon, I am going to get the repairs started.

This just sucks. Yes, I enjoy spending a little more time with my family. It just sucks because summer is coming to an end so fast, and I haven’t even found a travel trailer yet. The World just wants to fuck me, constantly. To make things worse for Jason, we found out that since we have been gone, his bearded dragon died. He has been pretty upset about that. This just sucks all around.