Unsuccessful Vehicle Swap
This afternoon after I got off work, Lisa and I saddled up in the Rolling Stone and went to Reno to swap the RV for the minivan, which they reported had been repaired. There was some confusion about them taking the RV — they seemed to think I meant a gigantic Madden-cruiser bus and they won't work on those, but when they saw it, they agreed it was just a big van. I paid the $764, we traded keys, and Lisa and I set off on other errands.
Except that the AC wouldn't cool. We drove as far as the camera shop where Lisa wanted to buy a roll of gaffing tape, and while we were there, the AC shop called to tell me news of the Rolling Stone. I explained that we weren't getting any cool air and they told me to bring it back. We bought the tape and headed back to the shop.
It was cooler in the shade outside their shop than in their waiting room (and nobody but the three of us including Kuma Bear were wearing masks), so we stayed outside. About 30 minutes later, they reported that the replacement part had failed in almost the same way as what it had replaced. That's bad, but there was a ray of hope. The difficulty getting the part replaced (that model of auto air conditioning isn't manufactured anymore) meant that they ended up with two replacement parts, and they can try again. The alternative would be to shut off the rear air conditioning ducts on the minivan, which is feasible, but not desirable. We told them to give it another try.
Of course, we needed to be able to get home, so we swapped keys again. They can work on the RV's air conditioning when we get a working minivan. We drove to get groceries in the RV, then went home to Fernley.
The shop also confirmed what we feared regarding the roar coming from the Rolling Stone — someone had stolen our catalytic converter. They sawed it right off, probably for the valuable metal it contains, not for the part itself. We speculate that this might have happened while we were away at Worldcon, as they would have had an entire month to do it. We'll deal with trying to get that replaced at an exhaust system specialty shop after we deal with the air conditioning system issues on both the Astro and the RV.
Except that the AC wouldn't cool. We drove as far as the camera shop where Lisa wanted to buy a roll of gaffing tape, and while we were there, the AC shop called to tell me news of the Rolling Stone. I explained that we weren't getting any cool air and they told me to bring it back. We bought the tape and headed back to the shop.
It was cooler in the shade outside their shop than in their waiting room (and nobody but the three of us including Kuma Bear were wearing masks), so we stayed outside. About 30 minutes later, they reported that the replacement part had failed in almost the same way as what it had replaced. That's bad, but there was a ray of hope. The difficulty getting the part replaced (that model of auto air conditioning isn't manufactured anymore) meant that they ended up with two replacement parts, and they can try again. The alternative would be to shut off the rear air conditioning ducts on the minivan, which is feasible, but not desirable. We told them to give it another try.
Of course, we needed to be able to get home, so we swapped keys again. They can work on the RV's air conditioning when we get a working minivan. We drove to get groceries in the RV, then went home to Fernley.
The shop also confirmed what we feared regarding the roar coming from the Rolling Stone — someone had stolen our catalytic converter. They sawed it right off, probably for the valuable metal it contains, not for the part itself. We speculate that this might have happened while we were away at Worldcon, as they would have had an entire month to do it. We'll deal with trying to get that replaced at an exhaust system specialty shop after we deal with the air conditioning system issues on both the Astro and the RV.