Adventures in car repair

A couple of weeks ago, one of my car headlights, a Wagner H6545, went out. I've been putting off taking care of it because I hate wasting time on things like this.

Last weekend I finally made it to Pep Boys. They had a replacement headlight (a Sylvania H4666 IIRC) for $21. When I went to the aisle to get one, I found that the two lights in stock had had their boxes opened. On one, the connectors in back were bent. Irritated, I decided not to buy.

Later in the week, I went to a nearby independent auto parts dealer, the type of place where you tell them the part you need, they look it up, and bring it to you from aisles and aisles of stuff in the back. Here, it was a GE H4666. Unit price: $9.29. List price: $17.94. Presumably the latter is what I'd be charged for the part if I had the repair done at my mechanic's. The first time I bought this light, years ago, I got it from a dealer for $35! I rubbed my hands in glee over the savings, even compared to Pep Boys.

Since it's forbidden to do car work in the parking lot of my apartment complex (raspberries to the management), I went to work this morning to do the job there. There are loads of tools at work, so I figured I'd grab something there if my screwdrivers didn't fit. When I arrived, I saw that one of my coworkers was at the office. In one sense that was good timing, it was one of the guys who does hardware work. In another way, it was bad timing because I deliberately wanted to do the work on Saturday with no one around.

When it turned out that the screws for the light were rusty and stuck, I asked said coworker if we had something to loosen the screws; he got me some WD-40 and instantly volunteered to help. I like doing little repairs like this, but I know from past experience that the headlights on my car can be a real pain, so I agreed. He got out his torque screwdrivers and did the whole job while I looked on. I appreciate his help, but it had the side effect of making me feel like a weak damsel-in-distress. Damn, I hate that!