Your car is UNSAFE!

[Retail Associate]

I'm very fortunate that my son is a mechanic. I figure I can trust him but I have yet to meet any other mechanic who is honest. I was screwed over one too many times by them so I tend to disbelieve anything they say.

As long as my son continues to care about his mom's wellfare, I'll trust his judgement when it comes to repairs on my vehicle.

.

[queenbb]

yah i hate it when they argue about saftey issues.

i tell them that under no circumstances will they drive their car out of here, they do not have to get the work done, but you will not drive it out, you can call for a tow truck for all i care but you will not drive this vehicle out of our shop, and we will not park it out side for the tow truck to pick it up either, it will wait inside the shop till the truck gets there then we will push it out and make sure it is on the truck. signed with the whole liablity if you drive this car it is a danger to every one ect ect.

the one that they usually get mad about is if they get the work done at our shop they must do ALL the required work,

just yesterday infact i had this happen, the brake job was front rotors required, rear shjoes suggested with hardwear required if they did the shoes. the customer says just do the rear brakes, i tell them um no, if you get anything done at all it will be the front rotors since it they are way below spec and unsafe to drive on if you do not get them done. she got mad at me saying that i pretty much told her she had to get the work done there ect, i said um no you do not need to get the work done here as long as you get it done some where, but if you get any work done at all you must complete the minimum required work because it is a liablilty for us not to complete the work that is required by the bar.

it took them all day to get the brake job approved because they would call and then say they would call back and they wouldnt so they would call back saying they were waiting for us, then they went to another shop that they had work done at earlier on the front brakes to debate the warranty since the rotors were gone and they were not replaced at the time of the pad install 6 months ago (which at the time they were not required, and only suggested so they probably did not do them to save money and just had them machined). let me tell you what a mess.

on the untrust worthy mechanic thing, yah i get it sometimes too. haveing been a mechanic i genarally know what i need for my car and if i dont know i need it and they show me i will know if they are pulling my leg. i have had it also happen that i would tell them what is wrong with the car, only for them to tell me im full of crap only to have them appoligize to me for treating me like an idiot when they realize i was right.

my fave untrustworthy mechanic happend to a friend of mine. i was takeing the smog classes at the time, and it was time for her to smog her car, so we hooked it up to our machine at school and ran a mock test on it to see if it would pass (it was a 72 vw beetle and at the time they were not smog exempt in the state of ca, and sometimes have a hard time passing) we hooked it up, ran it made some adjustments to the mixture screws and we both went to the place to get the smog certificate (since we couldnt do that at the school) the guy hooks up the car and imideatly starts to play with the mixture screws, and tells her that the car will not pass smog and that she will need this and that to make it pass. i streight up told the guy that i knew he was full of shit, that the car had just passed smog at school, i saw him adjusting the screws, and that i would report his ass to the bar. he would put it back in spec, and do the smog check for free, (we did have to pay for the certificate cause well that is a must pay for thing here) i reported him. the guy just stood there in shock as i told him exactly what he did to her car, and that i was actually getting my ase cert in smog at that time.

yah dont mess with a woman just cause she is a woman that makes me mad.

[marasbaras]

I, too, do not trust mechanics. There are far too many bad ones to not be leery. When you find a good one ... STAY.

[Sliceanddice]

i have a place i trust but sadly they dont do everything necessary. But yeah they are good guys they cost maybe a few bicks more than come places (oil change might be three bucks more than someplace for instance) but i love them

[Seshat]

Once, they told my mother that it would be $200 to fix a car door that wouldn't click shut. She bought a $7 magnet at Walmart and snapped it into the appropriate groove.

I wouldn't consider this one a valid complaint: the mechanic is expected (by most people) to repair it 'as new': basically, to do the panel work to ensure the door will click shut. If I took a car with that problem to a mechanic for a proper repair, and they shoved a little magnet on it instead of doing the panel work (without asking me), I'd be really angry.

However, if the same mechanic had charged me a couple of hundred for panel work when all they needed to do was adjust the position of the thingy (striker plate?) that the lock hooks around; I'd be just as angry. Adjusting the (striker plate?) is a matter of a screwdriver and patience. I'd accept a labour charge for that, but not a parts charge.

Actually, it wouldn't come to that, because I'd have tweaked the striker plate myself. But you know what I mean.

[Catwoman2965]

I used to drive 45 mins to my mechanic, who had been fixing my car for years, and his father had before he retired. I trusted him completely, he NEVER did anything that was unnecessary. Now I found someone closer to home, who I think is even better than my old one! He checks everything when I take it in for an oil change, and will tell me if I need brakes now, or next oil change, or what have you.

I also think a little bit of knowledge goes a long way; I'm not saying that you should know all the ins and outs, but....it helps if you have SOME idea of how long its been since your brakes were last done, or you got new tires...I know a lot of my friends who are completely in the dark about their car, and even general maintenance, and as a result, sometimes have things done that perhaps don't need to be, or they don't question it.

Funny story, my car is in as we speak, i thought i had electrical gremlins as my dome light would not turn off, and the lights in my side view mirrors wouldn't either, when you shut off the car and locked it. Turns out the dimmer switch was pushed too far to the right...hahahah - do I feel dumb! but...they checked it out, at no cost to me...

[Crazeyal]

Rather than threadjack to a complaint about Mechanics in general..

Methinks this gives some reason (coupled with being an entitled bitch) for the suckiness. There are a LOT of thieves posing as mechanics out there. The honest people watch the crooks get rich and apparently, give in more often than not.

I've never stayed with a a mechanic more than 6 months. They get greedy, or they hire idiots to do their "light work"... Then my car either doesn't get the care it was supposed to, or they try and rip me off.

For instance, I will NEVER go to another Pep Boys in my life. I came in to get an oil change, and asked about a problem with my radiator. They wanted $700 to replace it!! I told them no, and since they'd taken 2 hours to get to me and STILL hadn't done the oil change..FORGET IT!! The bastards had taken a screwdriver and jambed it into the bottom of the radiator, breaking the seal! I had checked the undercarriage before brining it in, hoping to see something leaking or unplugged. No damage then!! (I didn't think to take a picture beforehand.. and my boss just told me to bring the truck in.)

It's this sort of antics that get people who just want to do their job such a problem. I *HATE* thinking every mechanic is a thief. I KNOW this is not true!!! The sad truth is... If I don't watch what they do, I lose time and money.

EVERY
DAMN
TIME

[Greenday]

It kind of depends on where I go. The Sears by me that does auto stuff has a great staff. They all seem decently honest enough. When I needed new tires before the winter a couple years ago, I told my mom but she gave me some crap about saving money and only getting one, even though I knew I need four new ones. I took it in and told the mechanic I was with what my mom said. We went out to my car to see which tire was the worst, and after looking them over, he said, and I quote, "Wow, your tires are f***ed up." After repeating this to my mom, I got four nice, new tires, that actually had treads on them.

Now, the Jiffy Lube by me, they enjoy screwing people over. I go there to get my oil change, and now that I've hit 80k miles, standard oil is no longer good enough for my car. I need oil that costs me an extra $20. I also apparently needed a tire rotation for $200 and new transmission fluid. Yea, no thanks. The first time they gave me the spiel about the new oil, they gave me a $20 discount on the special oil since I was broke and barely had enough cash for normal oil.

[protege]

Brakes are one thing that I don't mess around with. If they start making noise, the car starts pulling to one side, or it starts taking longer to stop, I get them checked pronto. Some of you might remember me posting about the time my Tempo's brakes went out one night coming home from work. Trust me, that car had a well-deserved reputation for brake failures. Anyway, the only way to stop, was to throw the transmission into "L", and use the car's weight to slow down. I'm sure it took a beating, but that was the only option. Other than hitting something

What annoyed the hell out of me about that car, was after the brake failure...my mother got in, and Dad insisted they were fine. Didn't stay that way though--the pedal hit the floor again less than a block away Needless to say, the car ended up going to the garage on a flatbed...

He has some strange ideas about brake wear though. Up until recently, he'd downshift (an automatic, no less!) to stop...since he thought the brakes should "cool" as much as possible. Uh, last time I checked, it's cheaper for a brake job than to rebuild a transmission...which he found out the hard way when the minivan he was driving literally 'spit out' its gears!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Ah. Natural selection at work.

[IT Grunt]

The brakes in the OP sound like the ones I just had to get fixed on my truck. It wasn't giving the usual warning signs that your brakes are about to go, until I started hearing the grinding noise. First I took it to a well known auto center (think Montgomery Wards competitor before Wards went belly up.) They refused to touch it, because the ABS light was on. So I had to drive into town and found a Meineke that took me right in. After all was said and done:

• Rebuild the front driver's side caliper. It had rusted in place and was dragging on the rotor.
• Replace both front rotors. The driver's side was actually cracked.
• Replace all pads
• Replace both rear drums. Apparently my drums had been turned down until they were too large in diameter.
• Replaced both rear cylinders, because they'd over-extended and blown the seals due to the over-large drums.
• Replace the rear hardware, both sides, also due to them being over-extended.
• Replaced both rear adjustors
• Replaced rear driver's side ABS sensor, which is why the light was on.

All in all, ~$1000. The mechanic told me that he was truly shocked I was able to get it in there. The brake fluid had coated the insides of the rear brakes, and with the bad front brake, I had hardly any brakes at all. Afterwards, I had good brakes. Although I found out my e-brake cable is starting to stick. That yelping sound when I sit? That's my wallet.

Still, it has to be done. If there's /any/ part on a car that is of the utmost importantance, it's brakes. No brakes, no stop. For that lady to pitch a fit about brake work is insane. It's not just her life, it's everyone else on the road when she causes a pile-up.

[TheSnakeLady]

I had a similar experience. I used to drive a Ford Taurus, and for whatever reason, the car didn't squeal at all when the brakes were low, but made a looooovely grinding noise. I took it in, and wound up with a >$1000 quote to get the brakes up to spec due to most of the hardware having been damaged. The car had 200,000 miles on it. No way I was going to pay to have the brakework done, so I told the mechanic that I would just have it towed and go out and buy a new car. The price immediately dropped to about $600 (hmmm...) still too much for what the car was worth. We settled on the bare minimum to get it safely drivable (about $160 or so worth of parts and repairs), and I used it long enough to shop for a new car. Which I love (Pontiac Vibes are awesome for hauling snakes around to reptile shows). I also have an extended warranty on the thing, which means if anything breaks on it, I don't have to pay to get it fixed.*
So anyway, I dunno if the brake mechanic was trying to cheat me or if it really DID need that level of repairs... but it was kinda fun seeing him backpedal when he found out I was willing to junk the car rather than pay to have the repairs done. (I wound up donating the Taurus to charity... I figured they probably have mechanics who would donate their time to fix the thing up, and it was still a good car otherwise -- the interior was in pretty darn good shape too.)

*unless it broke through fault of my own or whathaveyou.

[IT Grunt]

I hear ya. My eyes bugged out when I saw the quote, but he'd included a breakdown that showed that it was ~$800 for just parts, the labor was only about $200. I'd priced the parts before I took it in* so I knew he wasn't jerking me around, it really was going to cost that much, and it was because he used parts a bit higher on the quality scale than I would have bought myself. I wasn't going to argue if it meant this was the last time I'd need it for a while.

* When I'm headed out for repairs, I like to get a general idea of what it'll cost, at least parts wise. Helps with the sticker shock.

[digilight]

We're lucky, we have a great mechanic. He is a friend of the family and actually owns his own shop. We know that if we bring it to him, whatever he says goes. And there have been some times that it's been some big repairs. Like the time the computer went out on my Eclipse (He was able to pick up a used one for about half the price of a new one). We can drop the car off in the early morning and drop a set of keys off at his house for him if need be.

He's even checked out minor probs for us at no cost.

But its very important to find a good mechanic that you trust. Around here thats a hard thing. I'm sure there are tons of good trustworthy ones, but you never know who to trust and with the cost of repairs it is hard to trust anyone.

[IT Grunt]

My primary mechanic is one I've been going to for about 9 years on the recommendation of my co-worker, and he's really good. On top of that, he's honest. He's never tried to do work that wasn't required. A good example of that was when my old car (that I dubbed 'Christine' due to all the trouble I had with it.) had a noise coming from the front suspension. When he rode with me to check it, his first guess was the wheel bearing was going bad. Pricewise, that was going to be expensive to fix. After checking it, though, he found it was coming from the strut, which was a lot cheaper to fix, at least on that car. Saved me about $400 bucks.

The only reason I didn't take it to him for the brakes this time is because he was booked up. The whole town knows he's good and he's hard to get scheduled. He told me that if I waited until he could see me, the brakes would self-destruct.