Car problems

Maybe some cars, but the 1988 Cutlass Supreme which was my car at the time involved turning a wing nut and lifting the lid, and the 1999 Toyota Corolla involved pinching a couple of tabs. Didn't even require a tool.

 

In my quest for a kick-ass mechanic, I made a great discovery a few years ago -- Christian auto mechanics.

Walked into his shop and I thought I was at a revival, but he was pious, which meant he was honest. Did a great job and I didn't get ripped off.

In the waiting room, I noticed he was part of some Christian Auto Mechanics Society. One of my great regrets is not asking him if he had a list of other Christian mechanics across the nation.

On other side of the coin, there's a mechanic in Muncie who I would not hesitate to kick indescriminantly in the nads after he speeded the death of my car by several years in a hackish attempt to replace the head gasket.

It never did get fixed properly, creating air pockets in the cooling system which didn't allow coolant to get to the engine.

One time, the engine was getting ready to overheat, so I went to check the radiator. So much pressure had built up that my little touch of the release cap caused it blow, spewing Prestone all over my face. Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell, aka Bubbler's little brother, watched in horror from the driver's seat as he thought I was dead or at least horribly burned, he began to sprint towards the McDonald's we were at to call 911.

But the coolant never got to the engine, so fortunately for me, it was still cold and I suffered no burns. Didn't taste so good, though, I swallowed some of it, but I was only sick for a day or so.

To this day when I check the coolant in my much-better cars, I do it from the side of the vehicle and turn my head the other direction in case it might blow. That circumstance is something I don't care to repeat ever again, especially since I dodged a major bullet.

So in a roundabout, backasswards way, I suppose those brain-dead hicks saved my life via their utter incompetence. :

 

I was going to post the same thing. I knew the good mechanic I've been to wouldn't have time for me on this specific day, so I went to Minute Muffler. For a rattle in my muffler. Turns out the muffler didn't need replacing. It's just the catalytic converter that's rattling, which is no big deal really.
But they inspected my brakes. Need work on both the front and rear, they said. I let them do the front brakes and it cost me $500 (rotors needed replacing, too). Three months later, I haven't had the rear brakes done and I can still stop without any issue.
Minute Muffler, Magic Muffler, Canadian Tire ... whatever the hell it is. They're all out to dig as far into your bank account as they can.

 

I once went to an Econo Lube or something like that for an oil change, and they said I needed new transmition fluid. Showed me what mine looked like and what it should look like. Mine looked like crap, so I told them to go ahead and replace it. Three months later at the same place they pulled the same crap. Even showed me my "dirty transmition fluid." I told them that they just did that job last time I went there. They guy fumbled on his words for a minute or two, went back and looked on the computer and told me I was right, I didn't need new transmition fluid. Nice little scam exposed there, eh?

I would not go to a place like that again. Not only do they pull crap like that, but they are at least $10 more than most dealers for a simple oil change, believe it or not.

 

I never go to those places. Nobody should.

If you do, make sure you're more familiar with your fluid replacement intervals than the trained monkey is. (My car's tranny fluid interval is 100K, which I already made one mechanic aware of.)

For the record, Firestone sucks. Exception: Roy.

 

Hahaha you said tranny!

 

I can't have anything nice; apparently I brake with such violence that my fucking rotors need replaced already. 33K miles in. Sunsabitches.

And you guessed it; it's going to cost a bundle, even if I do it myself; Nissan parts are apparently expensive as shit.

 

All brake systems have a slave where you can add fluid without getting air trapped in the line. You're not opening the line itself, so there's no way to get air in the system. Look at your owner's manual, find the place under the hood and add it yourself. It ain't rocket science.

 

I guess I don't see what the big problem is here. They aren't supposed to do any work without asking, so just say no to the B.S. like replacing the transmission fluid.

I did let them put some stuff on the windshield to improve the water flow. That was a good recommendation. The water rolls off like a thought passing through COCKDIAN's head.

 

Rain X? That shit is the, well, shit.

 

Dude, WTF are you talking about?

I don't think The Future Mrs. Doc said anything about a crooked mechanic or getting scammed. She was pissed because she had to wait 4 1/2 hours for her car to be fixed on the day she had a 12-hour drive ahead of her.

Unpleasant? Yeah.

A scam or a ripoff? Doesn't sound like it.

And at least part of her problem seemed to be that she waited until the day before the trip to try to get the work done.

The service guy apparently told her she didn't need brake pads after all or anything other than an air filter. Does that sound crooked to you?

And are you willing to lambast the business in an editorial based on what you read on an Internet chat board written by someone you don't know, someone who admits she knows nothing about cars? And are you prepared to do it without hearing the mechanic's side of the story?

I'll tell you what: Go to your local Yellow Pages and count the number of auto repair places in there. And then go tell your editor that you intend to visit every one of them to find the crooks and the scam artists so you can write editorials about them one at a time.

Then tell us all how much time it took him to tell you to pee in a cup because they want to test your urine for traces of crack and/or hallucinogens.

And for anyone else, how many people work at newspapers that have beats dedicated to scam mechanics?

Anyone? Bueller?  :

 

Jiffy Lube and places like that don't make that much off the oil changes, which you can often get for around $20. It's those other things where the profits mount.

The biggest ripoff is the "Fuel System Cleaner" They'll tell you that you should have this done ever 30,000 miles (or whatever number they pull out of their ass), and that their price is much less than the dealer's. My response is that I hand them the owners manual and say "Show me in there where it EVER is called for."

Enter our new buddies, Hem and Haw.

And no, I don't need new wiper blades either.