Another Episode of Backyard Mechanics...

Have you ever had the feeling that everyone is staring at you and pointing when you drive your car by them?

Now normally when I say this, you probably envision a ghetto car that barely runs, puffs blue smoke into the air, and has an ear deafening squeaky belt. Let me just tell you though, it happened to Jennifer and I this morning with the Grand Am God has blessed us with.

Driving around Tyler this morning doing errands, we were met by an ear-splitting, metallic grinding sound emanating from our vehicle whenever I slowed down. Now, I'm no mechanic (I only took shop in middle school for one year), but hearing the sound and watching people's faces as we drove by made me realize something was desperately wrong with our car.

Arriving home, I figured it would be appropriate to turn to the Internet to do a little studying before tearing into the car's break system. Thirty minutes later after reading numerous articles on HowStuffWorks.com, I emerged from the apartment a little naive but eager to put my new found brake knowledge into practice.

What ensued over the next few hours might as well be labeled organized chaos. The jack was raised, the lug nuts flew, and a couple trips to Autozone and Walmart occurred. It felt good getting dirty though, and even better when Jennifer's dad arrived a few hours later to give us a few pointers and mechanic tricks on brakes. Disk breaks, calipers, pads, piston, brake lines and fluid...it was an exciting learning adventure for me. After a few hours and hands blackened by grease, our brake job was complete. Yes, I know what you're thinking...THEY WORK!!!

Word of wisdom for the day. Check your break pads often! The brake pad on the left is new. The one on the right came off our car today. Any Questions? I think you can see why the awful metallic noise was occurring!!!

After a hard day's work, we rewarded ourselves by taking a walk at sunset and getting Sonic slushes. I think it made it all worth it!!!