Fix YOur Oil Leak First

The only problem with driving an old car is that there will be times that you need a good mechanic.

With that taken care of, you can save a lot of money, but you do occasionally have an interesting story to tell.

Here is one of mine.  Susan’s car had a small oil leak.  At first, I would check the oil every month and make sure it always had the right amount.  However, over time I started to notice that every time her AC would stop blowing cold, I would need to add oil as well.  

So instead of checking the oil on a regular basis, I got to the point where I just waited till the AC would stop working, then I would check the oil.  Sure enough, it always needed oil.  A little oil and a little freon and all was well till the next oil change.  We drove the car like this for several years.  

It happened so many times, I had become convinced that somehow the oil level affected the AC, such that I could trust the AC to tell me when the car needed more oil.      

It was only this past summer when the car told us a different story.  This past summer something different happened.  The AC went out and the oil was fine.  This is when my mechanic got the call.  The system no longer worked, there had to be something else taking place.  

Sure enough there was.  The AC needed some work to get it fixed and while it was at the shop the mechanic found the oil leak and now both are fixed and running fine.

I hope you know that a car without oil will not run for long and most of you are probably thinking how lucky or blessed we were that we did not blow the engine up by following this backwards logic to automobiles.  

In fact, an AC that runs perfectly is no good in a car without oil, why? Because if you run a car without oil you will blow the engine up and then you will not even be able to turn the engine on to run the compressors that make the air condition work.  

So if I was to ask you, which one is more important to pay attention too, I would hope you would say the oil.  And even though I know this and knew this back then, my experience convinced me to think I could allow the AC to tell me about the oil.  Instead of taking care of the oil and then realizing there was an even more effective way to keep my AC running smoothly.