Our small contribution to “The Force Awakens”
We’re feeling the same excitement as everyone else surrounding the release of “Star Wars- The Force Awakens”. It’s one of the most highly anticipated movies in decades, with expectations running high for a strong new start for the franchise. But we know something you might not… it almost didn’t happen! We thought now was the time to share a little story with you about our most unusual clients ever, and our own small contribution to the Force…
The day was winding down when we got a call from Han S., a longtime client we hadn’t heard from in a while. He said one of his vehicles we hadn’t seen before, an older-model Correllian freighter, had been having some problems. A service droid at a Quicky Lube had “pulled the codes” on it but they just couldn’t narrow things down any further. He said he had a must-keep business appointment with some moisture farmers, and wanted to make sure his vehicle was up to the trip. We took a look at the vehicle in question and it looked pretty rough. We don’t take on NEW clients with vehicles made a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but we’d been working on Han’s 2008 Camry for a while and had built a relationship with him already. We said we’d take a look, and scheduled an appointment for him later in the week.
Click here to read Han S.’s 5-star review of his experience with Tom Dwyer Automotive!
Han dropped the vehicle off the day before his appointment using our Early Bird night drop off service. He left it in the parking lot and dropped the keys through the door so his Falcon was ready and waiting for us when we opened the next day.
We started by performing our Inspection For Repair to get a mechanical baseline for Han’s vehicle. This is our most in-depth inspection, designed to identify what’s working, what’s broken, and what to keep an eye on coming up. One of our ASE Master-Certified techs had the vehicle for a full day to inspect and evaluate every available system. His ship’s computer had a fairly strange accent so we even had to plug in an older translation droid to get the proper information! We identified several issues with the vehicle, including a short circuit that could cause the cabin lights and computers to fail unexpectedly. We also found the same error code the Quicky droid found, but that one code could have been caused by either the alluvial dampers or his hyperdrive motivator. We’d have to do a little more digging.
We called Han to discuss the results of our inspection and told him we’d need a little more time to determine which failure was causing his fault code. He authorized another hour and we put one of our diagnostic Techs on it. Sure enough, the problem was in the hyperdrive motivator… the positronic flow regulator was jammed so the ion stream couldn’t polarize properly. We replaced the flow regulator and cleaned the ionic polarization jets, and the motivator was good as new. Unfortunately, the particle stream from the leaking regulator had ionized the alluvial dampeners… it wasn’t a problem now, but could become a problem later if it got worse.
During the afternoon, Han called to say he wouldn’t be able to pick up the vehicle by the time we closed. We told him we could lock it out and he could pick it up after closing, but he wanted his partner, Chewie B., to pick it up for him instead. Han paid us over the phone and we sent our Free Courtesy Shuttle to pick up Chewie downtown. (Note from the future: Unfortunately, we had to end our Shuttle service in the wake of Covid.)
While the Shuttle was gone for Chewie, the Falcon was undergoing the final Post-Service check we do on all vehicles, checking things like fluid levels, air pressures, and signal lights. We even found a deceleration light that had been shot out damaged that Han wasn’t aware of. We found and fixed it for the cost of the bulb… little things like that can easily draw the attention of Imperial patrols!
Two more Dwyer clients leave happily, if a little hurriedly
Back to the shop, we explained the results of our inspection and repairs and gave a prioritized list of items to watch out for in the future. Chewie said “RAUUuuGGH. nnNNARugh AARRRRoohhHHH, NNAAarraugGGHH! GRf GGGRRrrroooaaahhHH” which (roughly translated) means “Thanks for fixing that hyperdrive motivator! It’s been giving us headaches for a long time. We’ll live with the short in the cabin lights… hitting it above the doorway seems to fix it. Didn’t know about that other problem with the dampeners. Thanks for telling me! I’ll keep an eye on it and start saving now for repairs later.”
Chewie chatted with our friendly, non-commissioned Service Advisors a while and was looking over our Book and Bumper Sticker library when Han burst through the door and said it was time to leave… right now. Han and Chewie rushed into the parking lot and into their waiting vehicle, where they blasted off to their moisture-farmer meeting just as a man in a strange black costume accompanied by a horde of white-armored thugs pulled into the lot. But that’s ANOTHER story….
