One of the things you get used to when you’re driving around a 17 year old car on the rough wintertime streets on Charlottetown is that parts of the car fall off from time to time.

Most of the time–thank goodness–these parts aren’t vital: they’re bits of plastic or metal shielding designed to protect some vital part of the car, but that the car can otherwise operate perfect well without.

Last week there was ample evidence, just from listening to the rattle-and-scrape of the car on the driveway at home, that something new was falling off the bottom of the car. I drove around for a week with hopes that it would rattle and scrape free, but it didn’t. And so this morning, after I dropped Oliver off a school, I drove round to Mufflecentre to see if they could help.

While there are other muffler shops in Charlottetown, Mufflercentre is well known as the elite special forces of the exhaust system world. It’s where you go when you need something unusual done. Or something welded. Anything that’s not the typical “insert muffler A into slot B.”

Here’s how things proceeded:

Me: I’ve got a 2000 Jetta out there with things hanging off the bottom. Nothings wrong with the exhaust system, but it’s making a lot of noise.

Mufflercentre: Pull it around to bay number three and we’ll take a look.

I pulled the car around to bay number three, and got waved in to drive over top of the pit. There was a 50% chance, to my mind, that I would drive right into the pit, but I did not.

Me: There’s a bunch of stuff hanging off the bottom; I wonder if you could pull it off or tack it up.

Mechanic: Okay, let’s take a look.

The mechanic walked down the steps into the pit, pulled one bit of aluminum shielding off and bolted another into place. It took him about 3 minutes.

Mechanic: Okay, you’re set. No charge for that. Have a nice day.

And off I went. I’d left the house at 9:15 a.m. I was back at home, Oliver delivered and noise muffled, by 10:00 a.m.

Needless to say, I recommend Mufflecentre for all your muffling needs.