Tires and Brakes

On April 4 2018 i bought at an online auction a 2013 Hyundai Elantra. I didn't know it has been in a wreck, was hit in right front, fender, door, washer reservoir, headlight were damaged, was partially fixed. Previous owner used the fix a flat kit that came with the car in lieu of spare to fix the right front tire that has been in flat. I went at Les Schwab in Aloha to fix the flat. They didn't give me any paperwork, they said it was free, and there is no record under my name in their computer (most likely they misspelled my name).

Around 10 AM today somebody knocked on the door and woke me up. It was FedEx with the tires i ordered about a week ago in the same time with the pads (got to check the the exact date).

I went at Angela's work, took the car and went to Tires Pros here in Tualatin, a shop where i've been 2 years ago for an alignment, when i met the owner, Ralph. This is when i left.

Ralph, the owner, looks like an engineer from Hyundai. When i first went there 2  years ago he looked at the car, knocked on the door that's been damaged, asked if i got a good deal on it then when i left he said something really interesting:"We are here to make sure you keep the car for as long as you want". He knew i will sooner or later find the problems and i will write about. Back then one of the problems was the ammonia smell in the exhaust. Due to the fact that these engines run so lean, to achieve better mileage, the temperature inside the engine is higher and the wear out of cast iron cylinder sleeves (aluminum block) is higher thus blow out gets higher, sooner than for other cars resulting in more oil vapor passing through PCV valves and condensing on the valves. Also because of less fuel, (injectors right before the valves) the valves do not get cleaned enough and start sticking, squishing the lifters and producing the (in)famous Hyundai tick. Also the high temperature creates more NOx that combines with hydrogen from water inside the catalytic, resulting in significant amounts of ammonia in the exhaust. So back then he drove after me in his Mercedes, really close behind, i was thinking, maybe he had an analyzer hid under the hood. I think somewhere where i went, maybe at Reno also, they took care of my catalytic also running something through the engine so it won't be "so good" anymore and do not produce so much ammonia anymore (can still smell some).

He came today also i and could talk to him before i left. I mainly told him the whole story with the problems i had. Briefly. At first did not recognize him cause he looked older (2 years included) and had sunglasses but i thought i recognized his voice and German accent. He dismissed all the problems.

I told the guy at the counter the story (could had been him, with a fresh beard), about tires and brakes, as i knew it at that moment. I told him i've been driving in that car for 30 thousand miles with the brakes in the rear stuck and he asked me if i wanted to do brakes too and i said no, done that myself. I asked him for wi-fi details and he said there should be an unsecured one. It was Tire Factory, but there was also one that said "Tire Pros" and that one was secured but they didn't give me the password. So i could not access the internet to look at the market or upload pictures with the tires or anything.

I had the feeling that we could not communicate well so i went in the back to talk to the mechanic also. He stroke me as too distinctive for a mechanic. I was briefly looking right now at pictures on a google search on "Mexican actors" for his face when i found something else. The face of the mechanic who did the alignment in the same shop 2 years ago.

Ok after some searches i think i found the guy but don't know his name yet. One on the left in this picture

He later confirmed i had bought the same tires as the ones on the car. For some reason i believed the tires on the car were installed the other way around, because of the pictures on Amazon, but he showed to me the writing saying "This side up".

There was a black guy working at a van with a diesel engine right outside the bays so it was probably covering much of the conversations, also making some smoke.

2 years ago i went to Les Schwab in Aloha to fix a flat that came with the car. They said they did, didn't give me any paperwork, they misspelled my name in the computer, whatever. I asked them to move the wheel from front to right rear. But that wheel lately had a valve leak and there was something inside, i don't know what that was making a noise when rotating the tire (first discovered a couple of days ago when i did brakes). Today i figured they just put the wheel in the water, didn't see a leak, gave it back to me the way it was though i told them it was fixed with a fix a flat type of can and the compressor that came with the car and needed a real fix.

To be continued here

Last thing. When i paid they said the cred card machine isn't working, counter guy called "the other store" and did the card by phone. I vaguely remember they've done the same thing two years ago when i paid for the alignment.