If something is broken, get it fixed. Don't delay it. Don't try and leave it for when you have time. This is a completely off-topic post, but I had to vent my frustration somehow. The control for the driver side window of my car had broken. The button had cracked for some reason. Instead of getting it replaced, I decided to rip it out and fix it myself "when I had time". This left me with a little hole where the button was. The only way I could pull down the window was to use something that would act as a lever. What did I have that was like that? The top part of a nail-cutter.
This seemed to solve the problem temporarily. However after about 2 weeks, the lever broke. This actually worked out even better. I didn't have to "load" with the whole nail-cutter but just the lever. I could delay fixing the problem at hand even more. Insert the lever in the hole where the button was, push it down and down came the window. Pull it back and up came the window.....until today.
Today, I was waiting in the car, and of all things, I took this lever to "play with". Now that sounds innocent, unless playing involves sticking things where you shouldn't. In my case, I stuck it in the gap between my steering wheel and the honk
I don't need to explain what happened next. Oh you want to know? Well, the lever "slipped" in. Hmm, oops! Crap! Start to turn the wheel, hear a sound of the lever having fun inside. Ok. This is not good, but what's the worse that can happen? I just end up with a sound every time I turn the wheel right? Yes! I do, but not any old sound. I end up with the honk going like crazy. Suddenly I'm turning round a roundabout and my car starts honking at me. Huh? WTF???
So I call the BMW hotline and after explaining to the mechanic why I had a broken nail-cutter in the car and why I was playing with it near the steering wheel (these are the time I'm glad my five year old doesn't know he's taking the blame for something), he confirms to me what I was scared of. Do NOT try and undo the wheel. Best case scenario you'll have the airbag explode in your face. Worse case scenario, I'll break everything and we're talking about a 1.200 euros part here. He said my other option was to disconnect my battery. Unfortunately that will screw up all the programming of my radio, alarm, etc. He also showed concern about the honk going off. He said it's most likely a mechanical issue (lever doing what it does best and push on something), and not an electronic issue. But he wasn't sure. So my best bet was to call a pick-up truck and get it delivered to the dealer.
So, it's Friday night. I'm stuck without a car. I have to wait until Monday to call a pick-up. In the best case, I'm looking at it being at the dealership for at least a couple of hours and probably end up paying 200 euros (if I'm lucky) to get something fixed that was broken. Instead, I could have just fixed the original problem for less. Alternatively, I could have kept my hands somewhere less destructive.
The good news is that we've got a bottle of wine somewhere in the kitchen. It's a famous Spanish wine. It's sweet, from the Malaga region. It's from a company called "Quitapenas", which translates into English as "get rid of your sorrows".