More car stuff

Some updates on my poor little car:

- I was able to get the hood open by following a friend's advice: have one person pull on the hood release while another presses down on the location of the hood latch. This worked right away. I then followed his next piece of advice, which was "WD-40 the hell out of the latch." It opens fine now.

- I took my car in to the service station last week to have the roaring/rattling noise investigated anyway. They told me I need a new head pipe, which is the thing that connects the exhaust system to the engine. They found me an aftermarket model - the life expectancy of this car is now measured in months, not years, so I don't need something that will last ten times longer than the car itself - and scheduled the installation for yesterday.

- On a hunch I checked my oil this Saturday, which is something I foolishly haven't been doing as often as I should have. It was halfway between "Full" and "Low", even though I just had it changed a month or so ago. I took it to Jiffy Lube to get it topped off. I'll get a full service after all this other stuff is taken care of.

- Yesterday I took my car in to get the head pipe replaced and they discovered they need to replace the muffler, too - otherwise upon removing the head pipe the rest of the exhaust system will crumble away. I trust these guys, sort of, as much as I trust anyone, which is less than I'd like to. But I expected this outcome.

They didn't have a muffler in stock - most places don't keep parts for 1996 Toyota Tercels in stock - but they're hoping to have one in today. Again, an aftermarket piece - I don't need a Lifetime Warranty on a piece when a duct tape patch would probably last a "lifetime." Unfortunately, I'm now spending twice as much as I had hoped to get this little problem resolved. I hope this is the last necessary repair before I get a new car in the Spring.