I was driving a 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis that had a good drive line but it had quite a bit of rust on it.
So I saved for several years to get $3000 and started looking. Well any thing that was better cost $5000 with used car prices the way they were. But then I found a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis for the $3000. Everyone wanted $5000 for a car like this at the time.
It only had 82,000 miles on it and was in pretty unbelievable shape. It could have passed for a 5 year old car. It drove like new and I looked it over very carefully. I took it on a hour test drive and checked to see that everything worked. I did not have a hoist to put it on, so I hired a mechanic to check it for me. He was very impressed with the car so I bought it. BTW, after he had looked it over very carefully, he told me no charge. I was shocked and gave him $50.
Several days after I bought it the A/C started to not work and then work again. Then it stopped completely. I felt like a failure and thought I must have done something wrong. Either I was greedy in wanting this one because it was a model called The Ultimate ( it was loaded with stuff like a compass, air ride etc) or I had not checked it close enough.
I went several places to ask how much to fix the A/C and was told that it needed a new control panel. I checked and it cost $1000 just for the part. I was pretty discouraged. I went on the internet and checked there too, everyone said it needed that $1000 part. Even the junk yards wanted several hundred dollars for one PLUS my old part. What if my old part was not bad after all, and the one they sold me was no good.
I finally found the part at one junk yard for $75 and it looked in perfect shape, but my old one looked good too. I found a mechanic that said he would install it for $100. Well right at that time I did not have the $100 so I put it off and did without the A/C.
So the thought kept coming to me that there might be some kind of safety switch in the A/C that will not allow it to work if the Refrigerant is low. So I bought a bottle with the pressure gauge on it and put it in until the pressure gauge said it was full. It still did not work.
But then one night it was cool and I needed the defroster and it also does not work. So I had to do something you can not drive a car in Ohio without a defroster for the windshield.
The thought kept coming to me that the refrigerant was low, but now it has too much in it; leave some out. Well that stuff is $40 a bottle, and every mechanic was telling me that there was not too much in it. The one put a set of fancy gauges on it and said the pressure was fine.
So I thought this thought must just be a crazy thought.
But then one day after my workout I decided what do I have to lose except for a little refrigerant. So I let some out of the system. I was surprised to see a yellow fluid coming out with the gas refrigerant. I let it out until the yellow fluid stopped and it was all gas. I left the car run with the A/C on while I did this.
But as I drove home 8 miles it still did not work. So after I ate breakfast I drove over to the mechanic to see if he could install the new control panel. He told me to bring it back in several days. So I left to drive to my gun club to see if the free time would make me feel better.
On the way to the gun club the A/C started working fine. It has worked ever since that day. The heater and defroster works fine too.
As I kept driving the car with the A/C working the grace of The Lord Jesus overcame me and I was brought to tears.
I KEEP EXPECTING TO GET WHAT I DESERVE.
BUT THE LORD JESUS KEEPS GIVING ME GRACE THAT I DO NOT DESERVE.
It was not the money, or the fact that I now had a heater. It was just the way Jesus touched me in all of this.
He took a great amount of time and effort to lead me to fix my A/C myself for no cost. I can not put into words the feeling on His grace, knowing that He was able to lead me to fix such a complicated thing as this auto climate A/C. Even specialist have a very hard time fixing it with a lot of fancy equipment. But I was able to fix it with no training, no experience, and no equipment. But I knew The Creator of everything that exists.
But then I remembered the sales person telling me that they had drove this car to Pittsburgh and Cleveland. These cars have a very good rep for reliability. BUT if the auto climate control goes bad it is very hard and expensive to fix. I had looked at this very car earlier and they wanted $5000 for it. But then I went back and the owner himself called me and told me he would sell it to me for $3000.
I think the refrigerant went low and it was working and not working off and on, so they got scared of the car and sold it to me cheap. I bought the car and The Lord led me to fix it for $40.
I did not have enough money to buy a decent car - no problem with The Lord Jesus. He can make a greedy dealer sell you one for whatever money you have.
I did not know how to fix the A/C - no problem with The Lord who created the men who invented A/C.
There is simply no one like The Lord Jesus.
Lou Newton
So I saved for several years to get $3000 and started looking. Well any thing that was better cost $5000 with used car prices the way they were. But then I found a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis for the $3000. Everyone wanted $5000 for a car like this at the time.
It only had 82,000 miles on it and was in pretty unbelievable shape. It could have passed for a 5 year old car. It drove like new and I looked it over very carefully. I took it on a hour test drive and checked to see that everything worked. I did not have a hoist to put it on, so I hired a mechanic to check it for me. He was very impressed with the car so I bought it. BTW, after he had looked it over very carefully, he told me no charge. I was shocked and gave him $50.
Several days after I bought it the A/C started to not work and then work again. Then it stopped completely. I felt like a failure and thought I must have done something wrong. Either I was greedy in wanting this one because it was a model called The Ultimate ( it was loaded with stuff like a compass, air ride etc) or I had not checked it close enough.
I went several places to ask how much to fix the A/C and was told that it needed a new control panel. I checked and it cost $1000 just for the part. I was pretty discouraged. I went on the internet and checked there too, everyone said it needed that $1000 part. Even the junk yards wanted several hundred dollars for one PLUS my old part. What if my old part was not bad after all, and the one they sold me was no good.
I finally found the part at one junk yard for $75 and it looked in perfect shape, but my old one looked good too. I found a mechanic that said he would install it for $100. Well right at that time I did not have the $100 so I put it off and did without the A/C.
So the thought kept coming to me that there might be some kind of safety switch in the A/C that will not allow it to work if the Refrigerant is low. So I bought a bottle with the pressure gauge on it and put it in until the pressure gauge said it was full. It still did not work.
But then one night it was cool and I needed the defroster and it also does not work. So I had to do something you can not drive a car in Ohio without a defroster for the windshield.
The thought kept coming to me that the refrigerant was low, but now it has too much in it; leave some out. Well that stuff is $40 a bottle, and every mechanic was telling me that there was not too much in it. The one put a set of fancy gauges on it and said the pressure was fine.
So I thought this thought must just be a crazy thought.
But then one day after my workout I decided what do I have to lose except for a little refrigerant. So I let some out of the system. I was surprised to see a yellow fluid coming out with the gas refrigerant. I let it out until the yellow fluid stopped and it was all gas. I left the car run with the A/C on while I did this.
But as I drove home 8 miles it still did not work. So after I ate breakfast I drove over to the mechanic to see if he could install the new control panel. He told me to bring it back in several days. So I left to drive to my gun club to see if the free time would make me feel better.
On the way to the gun club the A/C started working fine. It has worked ever since that day. The heater and defroster works fine too.
As I kept driving the car with the A/C working the grace of The Lord Jesus overcame me and I was brought to tears.
I KEEP EXPECTING TO GET WHAT I DESERVE.
BUT THE LORD JESUS KEEPS GIVING ME GRACE THAT I DO NOT DESERVE.
It was not the money, or the fact that I now had a heater. It was just the way Jesus touched me in all of this.
He took a great amount of time and effort to lead me to fix my A/C myself for no cost. I can not put into words the feeling on His grace, knowing that He was able to lead me to fix such a complicated thing as this auto climate A/C. Even specialist have a very hard time fixing it with a lot of fancy equipment. But I was able to fix it with no training, no experience, and no equipment. But I knew The Creator of everything that exists.
But then I remembered the sales person telling me that they had drove this car to Pittsburgh and Cleveland. These cars have a very good rep for reliability. BUT if the auto climate control goes bad it is very hard and expensive to fix. I had looked at this very car earlier and they wanted $5000 for it. But then I went back and the owner himself called me and told me he would sell it to me for $3000.
I think the refrigerant went low and it was working and not working off and on, so they got scared of the car and sold it to me cheap. I bought the car and The Lord led me to fix it for $40.
I did not have enough money to buy a decent car - no problem with The Lord Jesus. He can make a greedy dealer sell you one for whatever money you have.
I did not know how to fix the A/C - no problem with The Lord who created the men who invented A/C.
There is simply no one like The Lord Jesus.
Lou Newton
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