[tokersmoke]

100 an hour for labor is not rediculous.Tools,gas oil,lubricant,employees and the government takes half of that.I own a towing and auto repair business and charge around 75 per hour.I dont scam people but sometimes uninformed people think i do.Example.Your car comes in with 150k miles the car is misfiring and stalling.I spend 1 hour diagnosing the car to find out its an o2 sensor.Most modern v6-v8 cars have 4 02 sensors. I recommend replacing all of them.Same customer goes to another garage and the guy replaces 1 sensor.The customer is happy but a month down the road the car is acting up again.

The point of my rant is cars are complicated.Obviously brakes are not and the op was being scammed.Being a mechanic is hard aggravating work that takes education and money.When you car is broke dont go with the cheapest guy.Often times the cheapest guy doesnt do the best job or have the neccesary equiptment.

[944s2]

Originally Posted by tokersmoke

100 an hour for labor is not rediculous.Tools,gas oil,lubricant,employees and the government takes half of that.I own a towing and auto repair business and charge around 75 per hour.I dont scam people but sometimes uninformed people think i do.Example.Your car comes in with 150k miles the car is misfiring and stalling.I spend 1 hour diagnosing the car to find out its an o2 sensor.Most modern v6-v8 cars have 4 02 sensors. I recommend replacing all of them.Same customer goes to another garage and the guy replaces 1 sensor.The customer is happy but a month down the road the car is acting up again.

The point of my rant is cars are complicated.Obviously brakes are not and the op was being scammed.Being a mechanic is hard aggravating work that takes education and money.When you car is broke dont go with the cheapest guy.Often times the cheapest guy doesnt do the best job or have the neccesary equiptment.

well said toker,,,,modern cars are very complicated
especially in the higher end cars,,
,,,,i much prefer my classics,,,,good specialist,, I don't cheat on service times and parts replacement and "at the end of the day" ,,you get what you pay for,,,,
unfortunately main dealers do seem to try it on,,,s2

[FlaDankster]

Originally Posted by Ichabod Crane

I trade weed for repairs.

I need a deal like this.

[GrowerGoneWild]

Yeah, I hear ya.. the wife got totally ripped off at a lube shop. I instructed her to check the front differential because of a possible leak, top it off if needed. That was it.

Somehow they convinced her to get a fuel filter, cabin filter, oil change, oil change flush (BTW is NOT recommended by GM) full differential service.. NONE OF IT NEEDED. Less than 10Kmi on the FF, I use synthetic oil and Bosh Filters, and a filtermag.

300+ dollars later.. These fuckheads dumped my synthetic oil and put conventional back in the engine to top it off.

What a bunch of rip off fuck tards, I was an ASE/ICAR mechanic, I had her do it because I had to go out of town for a bit, It sickens me to think that shops consider this an acceptable practice.

[PizzaMan5000]

My advice is to always go to the ghetto, or better yet the COUNTRY and find a private-non franchise store. They tend to be accustomed to less affluent clients who just need the "basics", and they also charge less per hour than big name shops, AND they tend to have BETTER TECHNICIANS in my opinion... Because smaller shops tend to have less turnover, and they make tech's work on a broader spectrum of car problems.

I prefer country mechanics the most, because everybody who lives in the country has a friend who could tear down and rebuild most cars with their eyes closed, and I believe that keeps country mechanics honest.

Gear head stoner's are a GREAT resource! Get them baked and give them bud to take home, they may not have to be the person who does the repair.... but they can tell you if you are getting fucked.

[GrowerGoneWild]

Originally Posted by PizzaMan5000

I prefer country mechanics the most, because everybody who lives in the country has a friend who could tear down and rebuild most cars with their eyes closed, and I believe that keeps country mechanics honest.

I thought they were cool too.. but I took in my car for an electrical problem.. (I didn't have a OBD2 scan tool) Anyways they replaced the sensor (TWICE) and those hillbillies left my truck in 4 low, and it was muddy like hell.. I know my truck is setup for wheeling, but not cool for them to go wheeling in it..

They did help me out in a jam, I needed a patch and a new ebrake cable and they fixed it up quick. I stuck around that time..

I think its a crapshoot if your an outsider..

[PizzaMan5000]

That's messed up, for future reference it is REALLY easy to scan obd1 codes at home with the internet for reference. And go to autoparts stores or oil changes places, they will run codes for free.

[tokersmoke]

pizza makes a good point most cars from the late 80,s to 95 have a self diagnostic light.Usually you have to insert a JUMPER wire beetween two wires and count how many may times the check engine light blinks.You count the short and long blinks to come up with the code.

Newer cars can be diagnosed with a smart phone code reader or the auto parts store for free.But not all codes will give the answer of exactly whats wrong.

[PizzaMan5000]

Agreed, they will tell you the system that is bad, and that's about it. I worked on a mid 90's caddy which had a really over the top code system, it had obd2... But it told me power seat faults and that certain power mirror movements drew too much power- This system WOULD tell you the exact part at fault. Its awesome until your car gives you 40 codes, 39 of which you could care less about.

[tokersmoke]

Most caddies in the mid 90s were crap.More electrical gizmos then the first space shuttle with crap engineering.In the late 80s to mid 90s all american cars came with a rudimetary fuel injection that was hard to diagnose and often failed.I own a 95 ford tow truck that is the perfect example.After years of ownership and failure i converted the fuel injection back to carburetion.Since this time the truck hasnt quit.funny enough everyone told me it was impossible.The truck runs better then ever and only has one wire connected to the engine for the distributor.Simple is better sometimes.