some people never learn

[CAP1]

havent met a good mechanic I trusted.  not saying there arent any, but I have never met any.  and it has cost me a lot since at the first sign of major trouble, i go buy another car/truck, in my case it's been the cheapest option.


semp

 it's hard to find one you can trust. i feel we're kind of like dentists. it's hard to find one you can really trust, and feel comfortable with....but when ya do, you stick with them.

[CAP1]

So 'It's broke' doesn't exactly work for you?

 when i hear that, i start off with "ok..what's it doing that it shouldn't be doing, or what isn't it doing that it should be.

[KgB]

when i hear that, i start off with "ok..what's it doing that it shouldn't be doing, or what isn't it doing that it should be.

Ever had a car towed in with empty transmission and WAY overfilled with trans. fluid engine?

[CAP1]

Ever had a car towed in with empty transmission and WAY overfilled with trans. fluid engine?

 uumm...i haven't seen that one yet.......but i think if i did, someone would have to call 911, because i'd be laughing so hard i wouldn't be able to breathe. 

 now on that note, i did....about 13 years ago.....have a taurus 3.8 with a blown head gasket(go figure, right?). it was spitting antifreeze out the tail pipe.....it was going nearly 3 feet. only time i've ever seen that........

[VonMessa]

it's hard to find one you can trust. i feel we're kind of like dentists. it's hard to find one you can really trust, and feel comfortable with....but when ya do, you stick with them.

The worst part is when your normal go-to guy can't do it.  I had a no-start with my Wrangler a few weeks ago.  I couldn't nail it down, so I took it to my normal guy.  He tracked it down to the PCM.  Problem is, he couldn't install it because it had to be done by the dealer as they had to program it.  We were both bummed out about that.

Thank God it was covered under the 8/80,000 warranty.

[DREDIOCK]

lol take it easy on the backyarders, thats what I am .  I had a certified mekenik "fix" my car, long story shot I fixed everything that he messed up myself ie loose bolts and what not.  My truck developed a tranny line leak right at the tranny, looked at it and the fittings didnt look like just screw in like brake lines, so I take it to a GMC dealer they replace the lines.  A few weeks later, it snows I had company so I parked my truck next to my garage on the lawn oh this(Image removed from quote.)is the tuck.  I get in it later to park it back in the drive way, NO 4WD!!  WTF I said, so I get a friend to pull me out, pull it in the garage 4WD is totally unplugged, they screwed up my skidplate mounting bolts.  funny thing is is that the tranny lines run nowhere near the 4wd plug on the front differential.  So my "backyarder" self dont trust ANYONE anymore to fix my rigs been hosed my 2 "real"mechanics.  But that is a funny story though

Who's the backyarder who sided that house? LOL

[DREDIOCK]

it's hard to find one you can trust. i feel we're kind of like dentists. it's hard to find one you can really trust, and feel comfortable with....but when ya do, you stick with them.

This is true.

I had one near here I really liked. Was a good mechanic that I liked and trusted. But he turned out to be a terrible businessman and couldnt get alone with the guy who owned the gas station where he rented the garage he worked out of. That combination turned toxic and he is no longer there now.
Not sure where he went.

The location was perfect for me though and I could walk home if I had to as it was only a mile or so away. There is a new guy there now. I'll have to check him out for my next oil change.
I dont even do oil changes anymore. Just not worth my time. There. I could/can bring my work truck in and for about $30 I drop it off. Walk a hundred yards away. get a slice of pizza. Take that another 50 yards to the local Stop N go convenience store pick up a pack of smokes and bust chops with the dot head owners. and they mine (trust me. we call each other far worse then that the moment I walk in) Have a few laughs. I walk back and pick up the truck. I end up not bleeding, cussing or aggravated. I dont have to bring the oil anywhere to get rid of it. and if I took too long he would even run a quick vacuum in the front provided it wasnt too much of a disaster area. Which, considering during the week I practically live in my truck is more often then not the case. Amazing how fast things accumulate.

I used to enjoy working on cars back in the day. Now I take one look at them. Realise I dont have a NASA type degree in engineering and say "screw dat"
I used to get a degree of satisfaction in doing it myself. Now I only get aggravated. Did the waterpump a few years ago. Used to be a fairly simple procedure. Now if you dont have a special tool. It is a regular full blown adventure just to separate the fan from the pump. Which used to be. take out 4 bolts and the fan came off. Why they changed that is beyond me because they really didnt need to.

Anyway. It started an effort in aggravation. Was an effort in aggravation and I was left nothing but aggravated when I was done. And when I looked at the time it took me. I could have saved money or at worst broke even by just bringing it to the shop. And I would have the added benifit of not being aggravated.
You see. I see my time as money Once something takes more then 3 hours to do Im looking at the cost of a full days work. As beyond that I charge for a full day. So. I could have went ot work and done what I know how to do best and made the money to pay someone else to do what they know how to do best.

Now I'll do front brakes and other minor things. But if Im going to bust knuckles or its going ot take more then a few hours. It goes to the mechanic

[homersipes]

Who's the backyarder who sided that house? LOL

lol that was the neighbors house and I o longer live in that craphole apt anymore bought my own house.  watched a lady while I was pumping gas one go into the store and buy 2qts of oil whent out and put it in her honda prelude.  she goes back in and buys 2 more and puts them in, was thinking wow must be NO oil in that thing.  So she goes back in and buys 2 more!! dumps them in, I was still pumping gas, as she came back out I had finished and walked over to her and asked her if she knew how to check the oil. she replies that she "still cant see the oil in the hole that you put the oil in" her husband came up and drained the oil lol and then explains to her how to check the oil.  The dipstick is under the hood NOT in the drivers seat

[dedalos]

had a lady brought me an s-10 4x4 last year. i had to fix some screw ups that a backyard mechanic did, in order to get the truck to pass inspection.

 just a few weeks ago, the truck appears on my lot, no keys, no note. i called her, and a few hours later, her daughter and daughters boyfriend show up. the boyfriend comes at me with massive attitude, and tries to "ever since" me. you guys that work on cars know exactly what that means. he tried telling me that ever since i worked on the truck it was making a rattling noise, and that it had an oil leak. yet i touched nothing to do with the engine.
 i stayed polite and calm, took the keys, and told them i'd call the mother, since the truck was registered to her, when i found something. so....know what i found? oil. everywhere. except in the engine. it was seized. i looked at the oil change decal, and found it to be to another local shop, and showing about 100 miles overdue. i know for fact that that shop didn't cause this problem though, as i know the owner, and the kind of people he hires.

 i called the trucks owner, and asked her who did the last oil change. she asked why i wanted to know. i explained that the last oil change was done improperly, the filter fell off, and the oil spewed out. wanna guess who did the last oil change?

 the daughters boyfriend.

 so i get her estimates on a reman. engine, and a used engine. she says that they're both too high. so what does she do? she's having the truck towed to another backyard mechanic that says he can do the whole job for about 1/3 of what a used engine was gonna cost here.

 so.......backyarder screws up the suspension bad enough it can't pass inspection.....then a backyarder screws up the engine.......now she's taking it to yet ANOTHER backyarder to install a used engine. 

 

I think the 100 miles over due caused everything    Quick question Cap, did you ever recommend to anyone that they change their oil after 3K miles or were you the one to blow the whistle?

[CAP1]

 depending on the driving conditions, and oil type i stick to 3k on up to 10k. 10k being synthetic with a lot of highway driving. 3k being the guy that drives his car 10-2- minutes at a time, never fully letting the engine warm up, thus doing a wonderful job or contaminating the oil.

 my fleet customer does theirs at 5k. they do a pretty even mixture of city and highway driving. it works well, as they've got nothing with under 150k miles, and several with nearly 300k miles. every time i drain the oil, it looks nice and clean.

 on the other hand, i've got one customer, that owns 2 cars, and they do theirs every 6 or 7 months. even then they don't put 2k miles on the car, but they want it done.

[homersipes]

had an 89 s10 with the 2.5 bought it when I was 15 with 30000 on it did oil changes religiosly at 3000 at 3000 the oil still looked brand new.  I ended up selling it to a guys son around 4 years ago had 190000 when I sold it to him.  The tranny crapped out a few weeks agoat 275000 . I guess, he said that it locked up the rear wheels, probly due to lack of maintance as the rear seal on the trans leaked a little when I sold it to him I had the seal just never put it in

[dedalos]

depending on the driving conditions, and oil type i stick to 3k on up to 10k. 10k being synthetic with a lot of highway driving. 3k being the guy that drives his car 10-2- minutes at a time, never fully letting the engine warm up, thus doing a wonderful job or contaminating the oil.

 my fleet customer does theirs at 5k. they do a pretty even mixture of city and highway driving. it works well, as they've got nothing with under 150k miles, and several with nearly 300k miles. every time i drain the oil, it looks nice and clean.

 on the other hand, i've got one customer, that owns 2 cars, and they do theirs every 6 or 7 months. even then they don't put 2k miles on the car, but they want it done.

  Good no answer

[guncrasher]

Ever had a car towed in with empty transmission and WAY overfilled with trans. fluid engine?

no but the first time i changed the oil in my car, there was no transmission oil and way too much engine oil along with slick 50 in my engine.  the oil plug for engine and transmission were only about 7 or 8 inches away, anyway, i kept thinking "the engine oil plug should be a little more to the front", i guess I should've paid more attention to myself.



semp

[CAP1]

Good no answer

 i didn't think that the fact it was 100 miles overdue was the cause of the problem. i simply noted that, as i looked for the decal, to see if it had just been changed. when i saw that sticker, i called the owner, and that's when i found out that the daughters boyfriend had just done it.

 i can tell ya......s-10's are tight under the hood. especially with the 4.3 liter. the quote she told me that the next backyarder had given her......he's gonna lose money on that big time. the engine's seized. it's gonna be impossible for him to get the torque converter bolts. due to that, he's probably going to lift the engine out with the converter attached to the flywheel. there's no room in the engine bay for this, even if he removes the radiator and a/c condenser, as the radiator support will still be in the way.

 i'm gonna wait about a week, and call her to see how it's going.

[branch37]

My first truck was a 96 chevy single cab step side with the V8 350 engine.  It got to where it didnt want to start, acted like a dead battery but the battery was only a month old.  So my mother, in all her genius, made me take it to this shop out of town because the local mechanics are just dumb rednecks.  He replaces the fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel injector, and other fuel related stuff that I cant recall at the moment.  It ended up costing my mom ~$900.  I went to pick it up, it starts fine in their lot, as soon as I get home, guess what, it wont start.  I jump it off and drive down to the local redneck.  He looked at it for literally 10 minutes, rolls out from underneath the truck looks at me and says "you need a new starter."  Problem solved.