Something’s Fishy

One night a couple weeks ago, I came back to my car after spending a couple hours with friends and I found the driver’s side mirror had been busted.

It really served as a bit of a mystery, for me, because there was no other evidence of damage to the car. I wondered if someone had just done a little random vandalism because of the way the car was parked and the fact there was no other damage. In any case, I’ve ordered a replacement glass. No harm/No foul.

And, since I didn’t break the glass, the bad luck is on someone else, right?

A day after finding the broken mirror, I noticed an odd fishy smell in the car. In a suspicious moment, I wondered if the mirror-breaker also did some other doctoring to my car. But, after driving it for another day or two, I got past that momentary thought.

Still, though, the fishy smell remained.

So, on Friday, I treated myself (and the Jeep) to a visit to one of these advance detailing operations (the one up near the mall).

Honestly, I used to spring for this sort of treatment much more often back when we were driving toddlers around town. You know how it is, after a couple of days of drop-offs and pick-ups, the back seat of your car (Jeep) is littered with crunched up animal crackers, fruit snacks and assorted other food debris. The back seat would look like a hazardous waste zone!

Believe me, I got my money’s worth (and I tipped well) after getting the cars cleaned in those days.

A few years later, I’d also treat my vehicles to a mid-November cleaning after fall baseball season ended. The culprit, there, was usually a fine coating of red clay dirt/mud all over the inside of the vehicle. We could get it cleaned up, but when I sold Big Blue last winter, I suspect it still had a bit of a reddish tinge inside the back compartment.

So, it had been a few years since I had gone back to the detailing shop. It would be hard to tell we were suffering any sort of economic downturn when I took the Jeep in on Friday. The place was packed!

Really, the business more closely resembled a used car lot than it did a car wash! There were cars all over – at the vacuuming station, at the window washing station, at the place where they wiped the cars down.

I watched the guy work very hard on finishing up the Jeep. He towel-dried it. He cleaned mirrors. He swooshed the dash. He earned a good tip. And when I picked up my car and took it for a spin, it looked sparking clean inside.

I was very pleased.

Then, when I went to crank it up Saturday morning, the fishy smell was back. I started thinking of ways to mask the odor when I got the brainstorm of going online and typing: “What causes a car to have a fishy smell?”

Answer: Coolant gone bad. (Nothing about broken mirrors).

Solution: Flush the old coolant and replace it with new. (Consider it done…soon).

So, the end result. I will get rid of the fishy smell; I’ll have a new mirror; I’ve got a sparking clean Jeep.

And no gummy bears in sight!

JG  

(Source: jeep.com)

Originally posted 10/8/2012