/dev/zero

I’m sitting in my car at a Chevron station waiting for a tow truck. They estimate it’ll be about an hour before the flatbed truck can get here, so I Have some time to kill. I don’t have anything else to do and I have the laptop with me, so I can take some time to catch up with my journal.

Why am I waiting for a tow truck?
Several months ago, shortly after I arrived here in Texas, Dad observed that my left front tire was starting to come apart. It was cracked and the tread was starting to separate from the rest of the tire. We took the car to a discount tire shop and had a “new” used tire mounted on the wheel. Dad also bought me a used spare rim, since I didn’t have a spare tire, and mounted a “new” tire on it as well.
When the shop people went to mount the wheel on the car, they cross-threaded one of the lug bolts. Attempting to fix it, they ended up stripping the hole. (My car, a 1990 BMW, is one of the type where the bolt passes through the wheel into the hub, rather than having bolts sticking out from the hub, on which you put nuts.) The shop had to tap new threads into the hole, then struggled to get the bolt in. We had them make a notation to that effect on the receipt.
Two days ago I took my car to Sears to have the breaks serviced. They told me they couldn’t do it, as it requires a special procedure and recommended I take it to a dealer or BMW specialist. While I was there the mechanic observed that the “new” tire I got at the discount place was a directional tire, and it was mounted in the wrong direction. It was rolling backwards. So I had them rotate my tires so it would be rolling the right way. I had them change the oil while I was at it.
While they worked on my car, I went shopping. They called to let me know they had some trouble with the lug bolts on that wheel and would be unable to rotate my tire. They were afraid if they twisted any harder, one of the bolts would snap before it came off, and that would require sending out for replacement parts. At that hour they wouldn’t be able to get them from their supplier and it would be costly anyway. I told them I understood and just leave it be then.
When I got back to Sears, they decided to try it anyway and the bolt had in fact snapped. The wheel was now held on by only 3 bolts. I told them I’d take it to the discount tire shop and have them fix it.
Last night, I was driving to the grocery store when the car started behaving badly. At first I thought I had a flat tire (I’d observed that one tire was low and was going to stop at a gas station at the first opportunity to fill it up.) It got progressively worse as I drove (I was about a block from the station). As I pulled into the station, the wheel was jerking pretty hard and it was making bad noises. I got out and checked the tire. No, it was fine. Curious, I looked at the left front wheel to check it’s bolts.
There was only 1 bolt left, and the wheel was at an odd angle to the hub. The wheel had nearly come off while I was driving!
So this morning I’m having it towed to that “discount” tire place to demand they fix it and pay all the costs. This probably means they’ll have to have it sent to a dealer, as I doubt this tire shop can properly fix a stripped lug hole (probably more than one at this point)
I’m lucky the wheel didn’t actually come off while I was driving. Also lucky it didn’t happen while Han Sol, an 11 year old family friend, was in the car yesterday. I just hope the people at the tire shop don’t try to argue their way out of this too hard.
This is a pain in the ass. I’ll make Sears cover whatever part of the repair the tire shop won’t cover, since obviously they didn’t tighten those remaining bolts down properly when they put the wheel back on.