Sally just called and told me that her van (which has been in the shop since yesterday morning) will be done at 4:00. The dealer had to replace the power steering unit because it had apparently developed a leak and lost all of its fluid. They also fixed the power locks that weren't locking or unlocking. (Apparently the latter was a software update issue and not anything mechanical or electrical.) And there was something about the water pump gasket leaking so they fixed that, too.
This is costing us a grand total of $190 + a gallon of antifreeze.
When they sold Sally the van (it's an '05 Caravan) back in February of '08, they asked if she wanted the insurance policy that covered the car pretty much front to back for all costs except a $100 deductible for each repair visit (not for each item repaired but for everything done in the same visit). She sort of balked because it was not exactly cheap; I think the premium was about $25/month or something like that. I talked her into getting the insurance by reminding her that we paid $1800 to get the previous van's transaxle rebuilt once (140K+ miles on it at the time), and the reason we were buying another van was because the transaxle had failed again after another 30K miles.
Well, the repair advisor told her that if she hadn't had the insurance, today's bill would have been more like $1600 or more. The only reason it's $190 plus a gallon of anti-freeze is that software updates and expendibles like fluids aren't covered. (And yes, I realize she's paid nearly $600 in premiums to date. It's still only $190 out of pocket today.)
So she is now officially happy, and we won't need to worry when we drive 600 miles to her folks' in a few weeks.
But I am going to have to ask my mechanic why, after being asked to look at that steering unit twice because it was making a frightening noise, he never seemed to notice that it was running dry...
UPDATE now that my non-technical wife is home and I actually have the invoice and trouble report in my hands.
1) The water pump gasket was not leaking; the water pump was leaking. Which in my experience means "bad water pump" and it did to them, too, so they replaced it.
2) The steering gear was leaking and had not lost all of its fluid, but most of it, which is to say it made little or no difference. The steering gear was replaced.
3) The power locks were fixed as soon as the software update was applied. Which makes me wonder exactly WTF was wrong with the software, since it worked just fine for 4+ years. Sounds like a $90 handwave to me, but what do I know.
4) The $1600 would have been if she had the automatic transmission serviced. It was more like $1100 without that. Actually I think there were some other small things like a recommended oil change et al. that took it to $1600. But it still only cost $100 plus the software update plus the antifreeze. She is going to have to have the autotrans serviced, though, because it is after all a fucking Chysler product. We'll discuss that with our mechanic.
5) Next time her van goes in for service, I'm going with her so I can talk to the mechanic myself :)
