OT/Long post. Some times I wonder-

About how honest people really are.Long story short-daughter is 2 states away going to college.Calls the other day and says her car is making a funny noise. Can't describe the noise of course.After about 5 minuites of discussion it is finally decided that this noise happens while the engine is idling and seems to quiet down while driving.I figure the serpentine belt is squeaking. I replaced it last year and have seen lots of these get to acting up.Daughter dosen't know ANYBODY on campus that knows a thing about a car.[This subject could be another story in itself] So I told her to go to a local garage and have somebody go out a look under the hood.She does this and calls me on cell phone, here Dad, talk to the mechanic.This fella gets on the line and proceeds to tell me about the awful racket that is "coming from one of the overhead camshafts,sounds like its gone dry" Really? I said."Yep" I reply-Man thats really strange being as that 3.0 Ford motor has only one camshaft and its inside the block."AAh-well maybe its the transmission, yeah thats where the noise is."So I thank him for his time and ask to speak to daughter again.Told her to go someplace else,mechanic sez its just your belt squeaking don't worry it won't hurt anything.Next time wife and I go up there I want to go thank this guy for being honest and decent.The other place?Who would know,maybe guy was having a bad day. I just wonder what would have happened had I told them to go ahead and fix it.Many many $$$$ I am sure.Makes me feel sorry for unsuspecting people that get royaly screwed by crooked people.

Similar situation here, Daughters need help sometimes, seemed so hard to get them motivated to check out other rides, friends, bus, taxi, for such car-trouble emergencies. I would tell them to somehow get by 'till the weekend, I'd be there.
Still trying to get them to ask around for good repair services. I think, if they won't ask, they should be able to use computers to find a good reliable place for repairs.

Dave That is all to common in todays world. That is one reason I was fired from my last job. Was honest with a customer. Big boys found out and I was gone. I was at a job site to check out about putting an old unit back in service. They were told 5-7 thousand dollars to get it running. Told the customer that I had a battery on the truck,will get it and see what happens. Check all the fluids hit the start switch and engine cranked right up. All checks were normal. Total cost around 150.00 dollars and happy customer.

Our preachers wife takes her Mercury minivan to a local shop when her brakes start making a sqeaking noise. They tell her they will replace brakes front and back, flush system, and tune up her brakes for $1000. So she asks me what I think so I tell her to bring It by the house and let me look at it. All it needed was a $26 set of brake pads. Took me 30 minutes.

Crooked repair shops burn my a@@. A while back, a nice couple with their grandkids stopped me at the local Casey's and wanted to know of any repair shops open on a Saturday afternoon. They were on the interstate and the brake light had come on in their minivan, so they took the first exit and stopped at the first place they could find. The shop they found told them it would be about $150 to fix. I aked a few questions, and realized the problem had started when they stopped and switched drivers. I reached in and pulled the emergency brake release, and sure enough,the light went out. They must have bumped it when they switched seats. The shop they stopped at had to realize what the problem really was, they were just after the quick buck even if it meant ripping off a stranger. I told that story to everyone I could find, and did not leave out the name of the shop. Probably was not good for their local business.

Aro0und here struts are the scaam. A guy I worked with's wife went to a local tire place for new tires. They told her there was no sense in replacing the tires as the struts were shot and if she replaced the tires without replacing the struts, they would just wear out quickly.
The sold her some lifetime warranty struts and new tires. Fast forward 6 months, she knocked the front end out of alignment, took it to the same tire place, they told her the problem was that her struts were shot. She said,fine, replace them. When they handed her the bill, she handed them the warranty. They were sore as he--, said, why didn't you tell us you had new struts. Her response: what difference would that have made, you said they were shot...Score one for the good guys!!

Daughter away in college. Went to repair shop to get her 4 cyl Nissan to stop leaking oil from under the aluminum camshaft cover. Shop told her $200 labor because they had to remove air conditioning pump, etc. Told her I would call her back shortly, went to similar Nissan I had in yard to sell, guess what, NOTHING on top of cover, several phillips head screws were in plain sight. Called her back, explained situation, told her to take her phillips screwdriver out and tighten screws and if that didn't stop leak to buy gasket and get boyfriend to help put it on, and BTW don't go back to that garage again. She probably gave the guy lots of bad advertising which raises another issue: Don't these guys know that a satisfied customer is the best and cheapest advertising? These places need to take a good look at their business model and aim for repeat customers.

KEH

shops like that really burn me too. gives all shops a bad rap. we had a gal come in the shop friday, said her brakes were bad, making a noise. another shop told her her brakes were shot and needed frnt and rear brakes. pulled it in the shop, pulled the wheels, brakes were fine, plenty of meat on the pads, rotors looked good. brought her out to the car and showed her, nothing wrong, car has aftermarket pads and they squeak. nature of the beast. told her i'd love to sell her a brake job, but it would be wasting her money. did not charge her for the inspection either. she left a happy camper.

wife took her jeep to get tires on it garage told her she needed new lug nut would cost $300 she called me on cell phone i was leaving work 2 min away i said dont touch it ill be right over all that was wrong with her lug nut was the tin caps were missing something the garage did with there impacts he told my wifer her wheels would fall off i said put my old tires back on ill go else where and i aint paying you a dime nd thats what i did all that tin cap does is make a metric nut fit a standard socket doesnt help the nut perform any different

You and your wife are my new heroes!!!
I'll bet his jaw dropped to the Floor!
Good Job.

Some years ago stopped for gas ans afella came out to help. He filled the tank, then popped the hood and checked the fluids. Said the radiator needed a little water. Got a hose and "toppeditoff". Then told me I probably needed a new radiator cap. He put mine on some pump up tester he had and it bledoff to only 5 pounds. He said it should be 15. He goes into the station and comes out with a new 10 dollar cap.
Just before he is ready to screw it on, jusy like "My Cousin VInnie" I say, "Test the new cap. He stammers and stutters, says it doesn't need to be tested, and I just say if you don't test it I won't buy it. Do I need to tell you what the brand new cap tested on his money maker broken tester?

Gordo

The last week in Sept. two dealers told my wife that her A/C pump and evaporator were bad in her '02 Ford Focus. Total to fix through them was around $1200. We had a extended warranty which they both would accept. Through word of mouth We looked to a local shop called Mark's Auto Repair in Waverly and he said he could do it for about $1100 with all new parts and he could also use the warranty. He ended up charging us $1600. He didn't wait for the insurance guy to show up as per the policy rules which he knew about before the work was started and put the dash back in the car and the pump back on. Warranty guy showed up and agreed that the parts were bad. Warranty company wouldn't pay more than half though because he didn't follow the rules. He wouldn't take any responsibility for his actions. Demanded the $800 or he keeps the car. We had to cash the extended warranty in to get the cash to get the car back. Last week it was in the upper 60's so my wife turned the A/C on to cool the car, it didn't work. Doesn't even cycle on. Called Mark. He said "what do you want me to do about it, it's been over three months. Can you believe that?!? Called back again and he agreed to look at it Tuesday. I can see this might get nasty. ...Randy

Some tricks I have seen over the years. Asprin in the battery. Will not hurt the battery,but will make it look really bad.Shocks cleaned and repainted,works good until you show them. Where you stamped a code marker on the shock. BBQ sauce on the exhaust manifold. Makes one hell of a smell.Bacon packed into a standard transmission. Makes the noise go away for about a day.Battery to weak to pass inspection.No inspection for batteries in Texas.

I spent ten years as a Claims Adjuster for a company that administered vehicle service contracts. (There's a difference between a service contract and a warranty, but people use the term interchangably).

When you consider some of the stuff repair shops tried to pull on us, knowing we were professionals, it was mind-boggling to even think about what they were doing to an uninformed and unsuspecting public. If they'd have put as much effort into being honest as they did at being crooked, they'd have been money ahead. And the large franchise dealerships were the worst of the bunch.

I once caught a Chevy dealership in Mississippi installing a salvage yard engine in a pickup after I'd authorized $2700 plus labor to install a new GM Goodwrench unit.

Another time, I took a call from a female service writer at a Dodge dealership. They had a B200 full size van with a 318 engine. She said they had a problem with an injector. I said, "OK, you need an injector?"

She replied, "No, we need a new engine. It will cost $3874.56." I asked her why we needed a new engine.

She replied, "The tech said the injector was running rich, and when that happens it burns out the cylinder and all you can do is replace the entire engine."

I told her, "Here's what we need to do. You get the owner's permission to pull the cylinder head off of that bank. When you have the head off, call me and I'll send an inspector to check it out". Of course, we never heard from them again.

I caught another Dodge dealer in Colorado installing a 90 day salvage yard transmission in a Dodge Intrepid after I'd authorized $1700 plus labor to install a Chrysler reman with a 36 month, 36,000 mile warranty.

And the list goes on. That was everyday stuff. I said at the time the longer I'm in this business, the more convinced I am that everything negative and derogatory that's ever been said about the auto repair industry has been grossly understated. There are some real slimeballs out there.

When I was young I used to work as a mechanic in a few different garages. We were honest at most places. At a chain tire shop they used to rip people off terrible. The manager would scare the older customers and women, telling them that this an that will happen, wheels can fall off, etc. I didn't last there long, amybe it was me telling people that things were not needed. Many small items are a huge mark-up for shops. My one boss, an old guy, used to give away a lot of service. Changing a tail light bulb, he would charge for the bulb, same with the headlight. Our oil changes used to include washing windows inside and out, along with vaccuum floors, we did this for less than most chains. I remember one lady going to campground by our town, she had some small problem. Her and about 7 kids piled out of car, we did a quick fix to get her by, sent her on the way. A couple weeks latter she pulls back in, asks about fixing something, we give her a price, she gets work done. Next thing we know we are getting all these campers bringing in cars for work, because she said how good she was treated. So don't bad mouth everyone there are a lot of honest guys out there

Just changed out my belt because of the noise in my 99 Ford Ranger 3.0 engine. Darn things sure wear out fast! Mark H.

Last week a friend orf mine told me his son took a car to lube place, They put it up on the rack to
change the oil, left the lites on all the time they were doing it, then when they finished they came out and told him he needed a new battery because it wouldn't start. The son had been watching through the big glass window, told them probably not, went to the trunk took out his jump start thing started it an drove a way. His daughter didn't do as well , oil change and a brake job $600

Readers Digest awhile back had an article about someone on an interstate had rear end grease in the front of their pickup.

they would pull over unsuspecting people over and crawl under the motor home and come up with freshly covered hands with oil from the rear end.

They had conveniently place garage "just up the road that they could fix it , even a motel they could stay at if need be.