How to stay safe in the time of Covid (Auto mechanic filter)

January 13, 2021 8:46 PM

I have to take my car in for an engine coil. I can't put it off. My guys are great, but the owner is a Trumpster, more of a conspiracy theorist really, so I'm guessing the crew will not have masks. (I once told him I would find another mechanic if he insisted on continuing to talk politics with me. He stopped immediately.) He is also a great guy (once gifted me with a $100 part because he knew I was broke). He's been my mechanic for 20 years.

So my plan is to go in with two masks, leave the keys in the car, and then go outside, take a walk. He has a waiting room, but, you know. There is no where to go really. I am so paranoid of the virus. It seems to be way more contagious then people let on (I'm in the midwest so probably the super extra contagious hasn't shown up here.)

Then use disinfecting wipes and also spray the inside of the car with disinfectant before I get in. Have I forgotten anything?

posted by Rumi'sLeftSock to Health & Fitness (13 answers total)

You can just go to someone else for now and go back to this guy when COVID is over.
posted by aubilenon at 8:53 PM on January 13, 2021 [18 favorites]

First off, I admit to being excessively paranoid.

From what I understand poor ventilation with droplets hanging in the air maybe the biggest issue. The last time I drove my car home from being serviced, I did it while wearing one of those kn95 masks with a cloth mask over it and I kept the windows open the whole ride home (this was early fall, so that was easier to do than it might be now). Then I left the car out in the sun for a few days before I started using it regularly again.
posted by NormieP at 8:55 PM on January 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you can get away without a car for a day or two, you can also delay a few days in picking up the car to make it safer - maybe drop it off Friday and pickup Monday.
posted by ShooBoo at 8:58 PM on January 13, 2021 [4 favorites]

Engine ignition coil is usually a little black box roughly the size of a small cylindrical perfume bottle (usually). Replacing one is pretty much open the hood, disconnect battery (for safety), unscrew a few things, unplug the bad one, plug in the good one, assemble everything, assemble battery, and start the car.

You can ASK if you can stay IN the car so he doesn't have to contaminate the interior. I doubt it'll happen, but these are COVID times, maybe he'll relent, as it's not a major work and it can be done in 30 minutes (maybe, I don't know how deep the coils are buried).

ANOTHER possibility is ask him to let you know when the assembly is done, so you can come in and start the vehicle, rather than have him or one of his folks do it. Again, avoid contamination of your interior.

If he won't budge on either, I guess you have to go in with full mask, glasses, cap, and gloves, then air out the car when you drive back, and spray down the interior when you get there.
posted by kschang at 9:08 PM on January 13, 2021

Response by poster: Not thread-sitting, I promise, but ShooBoo, I have no one to drop me off or pick me up, or I surely would do that.
posted by Rumi'sLeftSock at 9:17 PM on January 13, 2021

previously
posted by cda at 9:17 PM on January 13, 2021

Your plan is pretty much what I did to get an oil change, though luckily for me there was a park across from the place.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:24 PM on January 13, 2021

If it helps, bear in mind that surface transmission cases are almost entirely nonexistent. I think your plan is a reasonable balance of risk.
posted by liquado at 10:42 PM on January 13, 2021 [9 favorites]

The only thing I'd add to your plan is rolling your windows down when you pick up the car to ventilate the interior entirely. In general, I think the most risky parts here here are the waiting room, which you're going to avoid entirely, and the interior of the car after someone has been inside, potentially unmasked. Rolling the windows down mitigates that second one.

We keep our car in a shared garage (which means garage staff moves it around as necessary, so they're in the car with mask status unknown) and your plan, plus the windows, is basically exactly what we do.
posted by superfluousm at 4:49 AM on January 14, 2021

If you're paranoid, go somewhere else, but I would ask them to roll windows down while and after they are done working on the car and do everything else you're doing (the spray is not going to do anything to the air more than the ventilation)
posted by sandmanwv at 5:32 AM on January 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

I went to a Trumper mechanic. I called beforehand, asked if they’d be wearing masks when checking in, when she said no I asked if she would agree to check me in outside (I wore a mask and stayed distant), and I requested that when they were done with the service to please leave the windows down before I came to pick it back up (left it with windows down for an hour and wiped things down myself). I said if she refused I would be going to another mechanic and she complied. But I was prepared to go elsewhere also.
posted by greta simone at 5:45 AM on January 14, 2021 [5 favorites]

This is riskier than going to a shop where people have been following intelligent protocols, but only a bit. The odds there there will be a worker with Covid that day are not very high. Leaving the shop (indoors) is smart. They'll likely park it outside when they're done. Ask them to leave all the windows open. Start the car, run the vent fan on high for several minutes while you walk around.

The one thing you could add is an N95 mask, which provides more protection for you, less for them, but they don't care.
posted by theora55 at 6:10 AM on January 14, 2021

Response by poster: For those interested in the outcome: They wouldn't let me stay in the car, but I was the only one in the waiting room for quite a while....three at the most and I took a walk in the delightful post-apocalyptic/ warehouse area even though it was cold and a little snowy (but not much). "You're safe in here. We all had it in October." Maybe he never heard of the people who got it twice. Made sure to tell me to read yesterday's New York Times where corona is childhood disease, forgot to tell me the article said after vaccination and in the future. I left it, didn't pursue it as I could feel him winding up. Sometimes knowing you are right is enough. But I was outside more than I was in.

Think I'll be quietly asking for recommendations, but this needed to be done now and while I have done the touchless oil changes, seeking out a new mechanic that was honest and wouldn't charge me seemed a bit daunting at the moment.
posted by Rumi'sLeftSock at 8:13 AM on January 14, 2021 [4 favorites]