Auto Maintenance and Watch Batteries

Here I am on a Saturday morning at a local Firestone Complete Auto Care shop.  The odor of rubber with a hint of oil permeates the waiting area.  Lackadaisical customers trade glances between their electronic devices, the TV (showing a competitive round of women's professional golf), and the bustling highway just outside a huge plate glass window on this bright and sunny day.

     

     Today's service is a TPMS diagnostic. Never had one of those, even at the ripened age of 56. Tire Pressure Monitor System, coming soon to an already long list of maintenance duties near you. Not to be confused with the time honored Honey-Do List.

      With no knowledge of this NASA sounding acronym, I summon the all knowing Google machine, disguised as my cell phone. Suppressing an urge to explain the phenomenon, suffice it to say a warning light has appeared on the dashboard of my beloved 2007 Chevy Silverado pickup.

     Tire Pressure Maintenance Required it says. There's even a little symbol for those of us who can't be bothered with reading. Gazing upon the symbol eventually renders recognition. It's a little half flat tire! General Motors ingenuity at work. You may be wondering why the pickup is not at a GM service department, but instead, a facility known primarily for selling tires. Could be a post for another day, maybe not. My wife says you must save some things to tell Jesus.
      

     The warning light makes me uneasy. It looks ominous. TIRE PRESSURE MAINTENANCE REQUIRED. Like a ransom note..."if ya eva wanna to see ya tires workin' again." Checked the pressure in the tires and they all seem good.  Why is it on? Google provides several answers though none to my liking. Probably a bad sensor and not something a regular Joe is going to want to tackle.  So here I sit, like a man in a hospital waiting room waiting for some test results. Out comes the mechanic. I half expect him to be wearing a surgical mask. 

"Yeah the  driver's side rear tire has a bad TPM sensor" said the mechanic, wiping his hands on a greasy towel. "Around eighty bucks."  

Wonderful, I think to myself. To the mechanic I ask "What could have caused it? Was it damaged?"  

"Oh no, it's not damaged" he replies. "The little watch battery in it has run down."

 

"Dang!" I exclaim, (I say that sometimes, guess this was a "dang" moment),  "Eighty bucks for a watch battery?"

A clerk behind the counter across the room chimes in, "The sensor and valve stem is a sealed unit so the entire piece has to be replaced."

"But why didn't the engineers just design it so the batt......"  and I trail off as faint wry grins appear on both the clerk and mechanic. 

"Thank you," I say with a sigh of resignation.  "Will it take long"?

And so goes the everyday adventures of an everyday Joe, on a bright and sunny Saturday morning.