Leaving Well Enough Alone

“Leave well enough alone!”  How often have I heard that admonishment?  Yet most often, I have ignored it.  What does it actually mean?  The online Wiktionary defines the phrase as meaning “to avoid trying to correct, fix or improve what is already adequate.”  Really?  I should just settle for adequate?  Unfortunately, perfection is the standard I try to meet, though more often than not it gets me into trouble.  Sometimes that trouble comes upon me quickly enough to see my mistake.  Sometimes it takes a while.

A few months ago, I noticed that a few of the tires on my wife’s car were a little low on air.  This is a fairly recent problem.  It used to be that I pretty much ignored any tire that didn’t look close to flat as the car sat in the driveway.  Back then I switched between summer and winter tires and figured the tire shop would make sure the air pressure was right when they made the switch for me.  These days I have all-weather tires so there is no need to make that switch.   However, modern technology has put sensors in the tires so that the car dings at you when tire pressure goes below what the car’s brain believes is the minimum pressure for safe driving.  So when I heard that ding a while back, I drove the car to the local gas station that offered free air. 

While adding air, I happened to notice that one of the tire valves had lost its screw cap.  Now I knew that there is really no need for that cap.  Sure, it may help keep out gunk from the road which might impair the valve’s function at some point in the distant future.  But it’s not like it helps keep air in the tire.  Anyway, I found some old caps in my basement workshop, so rather than leave well enough alone, I pulled out a brass cap and screwed it on the valve.

Fast forward to the present.  I drove my wife to work in my car; hers hadn’t been driven in about a week.  When I got home, I decided to pull her car out of the driveway so I could position it behind my car.  Then it would be ready for my wife to drive to work the following day.  I started her car and began to back out of the driveway when I heard that ding.  One of the four tires was low.  Well, I thought my wife would appreciate it if I took it to the gas station and filled that tire.  According to the dashboard display, two tires were at 35 psi, one was at 32 and the low one was at 27. 

The recommended pressure for the tires on her car is 32 psi.  But given the fact that they are bound to lose pressure over time, I figured 35 was a good place to be.  So I filled the low tire to 35.  Then I decided to add a little air to the one that read 32 so all four tires would be at 35 psi.  That was the tire where I had put on the brass valve cap.  Try as I might, I could not unscrew that cap.  There was a car behind me waiting to use the air pump, so I gave up on it, got in my car and drove home.

“Leave well enough alone!”  The tire pressure in all four tires was certainly adequate at this point.  But that stuck cap was a challenge I couldn’t resist.  I figured I just couldn’t grip it tightly enough with my fingers, so I went to my tool box and got a pair of pliers.  If I could get the cap off, I could stop at a gas station on the way to pick up my wife from work to bring that sucker to 35 psi.  But as hard as I could grip that cap with the pliers, they just slid over the metal and the cap refused to turn.

 

“Leave well enough alone!”  If I couldn’t grip the cap tightly enough with pliers, then why not try my vise grip pliers?  I went back to the tool box and got them.  I tightened the vise grips on the cap, twisted, and then heard the sickening sound of air rushing out of the valve stem that had torn apart in my effort to remove the screw cap. 

I pulled out the spare, which is not actually a real tire.  I looked at the lug wrench and jack.  And then I briefly came to my senses and called AAA.  They arrived in about a half hour and put the spare on the car.  This was bad, I knew.  But how much could it cost to replace a valve stem?  I drove it to the local national chain auto parts and repair store.  An hour and a half later I found out that replacing a valve stem with a sensor that lets you know the air pressure in your tire is a bit more expensive than replacing a valve stem used to be.  I also learned that one should never use a metal cap because the metal will corrode, and the cap will get stuck.  Not leaving well enough alone had a cost, and that cost was $139. 

As I drove back home, I tried to figure out a proper apology to my wife for having to spend that much money to fix something that wouldn’t have been necessary if I had just left well enough alone.  I started to rationalize my various actions based on my good intentions in replacing a missing valve cap and then trying to get it off so I could add air to the tire.   That, of course, brought to mind another well-worn adage – the road to hell is paved with good intentions!