So...I came home a couple of nights ago and my DW says that her lights are blinking on her 2003 Honda with just over 200,000 miles. She says that her dash is blinking, her headlights are blinking, and her battery light is blinking. So we searched the internet and it seems that the culprit may be the alternator. My DW is very supportive of our mustachian ways and knows that neither I (cop) nor she (customer service manager) know that much about cars. We have been lucky with her 2003 Honda and my 2003 Dodge pickup (85K miles). So the following day she leaves her car parked in the garage and takes my truck to work. This is the call I get:
Her: hey, what time you getting off?
Me: 7pm, I have a part time job.
Her: Guess I will run a few errands and take care of some stuff.
Well, on the way home at 7:15 I get a text that she needs an OFFSET 14mm wrench. LOL. So without questioning I stop by the auto store and get what she asks for. When I get home, my DW takes the wrench and heads toward the garage. I take my gun belt and vest off and follow too interested in seeing what she is doing to take the rest of my uniform off. So I enter the garage....ok we are in Texas and right then its 92 degrees in the garage. My DW proceeds to go to her Honda where the hood is already up and gives me the following directions after pointing out how mad she is that we don't have all the proper tools and she could have had this finished "the job" by the time I got home. The DW tells me to hold this and hold that and says that she just needs to get enough "torque on the tensioner to get the belt off." Ok, who are you, and where is my wife.
My DW proceeds to take out her alternator, replace it with a new one, and then test the cables with a meter to make sure they are getting enough juice because "that's what it said to do on the internet." Starts the car, and drives it around to make sure it's A O.K. Done. New alternator installed by my DW. Comes back to apt and says that it works perfect. No lights blinking.
I sure got lucky that she picked me.
Oh, did I mention we are both chicks. I mean we didn't rebuild the engine or anything like that, but it was a giant confidence builder for us. We saved a couple hundred bucks and it took us less than an hour. My DW is still mad because she wanted to have it done by the time I got home. I still have a grin on my face.
