Seems that tires are the big thing to hit people up for cash. I had a flat tire once, and the employee at the tire place who was helping me told me right away I needed a new tire. Since they didn’t have the correct size tire, he said he would give me a larger one. I told him no, but he insisted. I had gone there several times, and the owner knew me, so I went to talk to him. He pushed his employee to the side, and fixed my tire. That was four years ago, and now my tires are finally so worn that I need new ones. Never had a problem with this particular tire.
I agree with AL5000. Find a good independent local tire shop and you’ll get prices as good or better than Tire Rack, plus you’ll get all the advantages of good local service.
Hahaha, this is my favorite!!!
I NEVER said the belt wasn’t changed…In fact I had just changed the belt the month before…My complaint was their criteria for determining that I needed a new belt…using their records is kind of Stupid don’t you think…Another dealer or independent could have changed the belt…or I could have done it myself (which I did).
Back in the days before I-95, a favorite scam perpetrated by toothless “good-old boys” in rural areas of Georgia was to wait until the Yankee driver and passengers went to the men’s room/ladies’ room, and then squirt oil on the shock absorbers.
Oh that wasn’t just a Southern - Good ol Boy thing…
A shop pulled the metal-filings-in-the-old-oil scam on my friend. She went in for an oil change. They drained it, and then came up with a bucket of oil that had metal shavings in it. Tried to tell her it meant she needed a new transmission. Fortunately she called me and I told her it meant she needed a new oil change place.
Was tooling around town with another friend when he stopped at Jiffy Lube for an oil change, over my advice. They wandered up to him after awhile holding his pcv valve. “See that? It’s turned black. You need a new one.” Uh. . .it’s always black. That’s the color it is. . Just for fun I told them to show me a new one so we could compare it. Guy turned red and re-installed the old one.
Some mechanics will tell customers that if one brake caliper seizes up they have to replace the one on the opposite side. That’s BS. You only have to replace the one on the opposite side if it, too, is seized. Otherwise, leave it alone.
Bought a used Mazda van…no warranty. It started overheating. Mechanic looked at fan, said I need a new fan clutch and belts. Replaced; still overheating. Then said I needed new radiator. Replaced; still overheating. Mechanic is stumped after hundreds of dollars in repairs. Kept the van for another (third) week, pronounced it fixed…and it was!
He replaced the thermostat, the cheapest, easiest thing to replace in the cooling system; and my normal ‘go to’ part whenever I have a cooling problem (it was my wife’s car–her ‘favorite’ mechanic. I wasn’t allowed to work on it.).
He argued that all the other parts he’d thrown at it were, indeed, bad. Since we’d already paid him for those repairs, there was little recourse; except to badmouth him to everyone who asked.
When ever I got to my Mini dealer for scheduled maintenance (free) They expect me to spend 200.00 to have the fuel injectors cleaned or 200.00 for a four wheel wheel alignment. Really, I can buy a can of injector cleaner for less than 10.00 and dump the stuff in my self. And the alignment, after almost 3 years is still fine…no pulling to one side or an other and no abnormal tire ware.
I was a manager with 10 sales reps who were driving leased company cars. The most common scam was recommendation for a new air cleaner filter. I had to send a memo out to the reps to refuse this service until the car had 30K miles on it. Without the memo some cars got new unneeded air filters every 3,000 to 5,000 miles.
Next, most common was oil squirted on parts to show they were leaking. This was done to shocks, struts, CV joint boots, and steering gear boots. I got a call from a rep with a car at about 35K miles that a shop recommended about $3,000 for new CV joints, struts, and a new steering rack. I told the rep to say no and leave the shop. We took the car to a Ford dealer and requested a “safety check” (it was a Taurus) and they said everything was fine.
Bait and switch on tires happens sometimes, when the advertised tire is out of stock or a “discontinued” tire and they move the customer to a much more pricey but much “better” tire(s).
Firestone dealer; car in for oil change (90 Corolla). ‘Complimentary’ check revealed ‘dangerously soft’ radiator hoses. Estimate to replace: $400+!!! For two radiator hoses!
Cost at Autozone: $10 each, plus $10 of antifreeze; half hour of simple labor. I looked at them myself, decided they could go another couple of years. They have…
$400…!!!..on a '90 Corolla? You have absolutely GOT to be kidding!
While traveling in Florida I took a nail in the sidewall of a fairly new tire. I stopped at a Goodyear store in Lakeland and had them take a look. They said they couldn’t plug it but could put a new inner tube in it. Rather than lose the tire I said OK and opted to use it for a spare. Several years later I had that tire replaced and asked for the inner tube for the kids. The ‘new’ tube had more patches on it than a quilt.
Once a friend of mine called into a car repair radio talk show and they told him the fix to his issue was to buy a “miracle in a bottle” product. All I could say was BOGUS! I just wish I could remember the name of that show. I think the hosts were two brothers or cousins or something. Not to worry though, there’s no way they could still be on the air offering bonehead advice like that!!!
There’s a difference between a lousy mechanic and an outright scam.
A quick oil change place by our house tried to sell my dad a $60 synthetic oil change, for a '02 VW Jetta.
I have a 2002 VW and it calls for synthetic. (mine is a diesel, but check out the recommendation for the gassers, you may find they need it as well. As I recall some gassers need it (those with a turbo) and others not. Using synthetic when it is not required, is not likely to cause any damage and it may prevent the damage.
[b] I can't believe I supported a quick oil change place. [/b]I love Discount Tires because all they do is tires and it’s no hassle for included balancing and rotations.
…another Firestone place (I was trying to find an honest one). Same '90 Corolla, in for oil change…special instruction to absolutely check the transaxle, because it had a leak.
Five minutes later, guy comes in telling me my (nearly new) air filter needs replacement. I passed, but that put up my antenna. Sure enough, when he pronounced the car done, and I inquired about the transaxle, he said he checked and it was ‘fine’.
I knew better and told him so. It was nearly dry when they finally did the actual check.
My starter on my '92 Toyota was going (sporadically). Took it to the dealer who refused to believe it was the starter since it wouldn’t fail for them. Asked them to remove the starter and test it anyhow–paid about $300 to be told it was fine. Failed next morning, took it to another mechanic who took out the starter and took it apart and told me it was not only bad, but it had burned-out clutch debris in it from when the clutch had died 30,000 miles earlier and nobody who had pulled it would ever have missed it. They charged me $200 to replace and it started great ever after. Never went back to the dealer.
I had this happen a few years back. Didn’t have the $80 the dealer wanted so I called my brother to ask if the car really was going to blow up if I didn’t have the service done. After he (and all his friends) stopped laughing, he gently explained to me that in a manual transmission this is a sealed system. So I called the shop back and the mechanic told me that the secretary had gotten his message wrong so I asked what the actual service was he had recommended. He couldn’t come up with anything!
My ex took her car in for an oil change and they offered her a free “brake check”. They pulled a rear drum off, showed her the dust in it, and told her the brakes were disintegrating. (“we see it all the time in these cars”) wanted to do a complete brake job right then and there. What they didn’t tell her was the shoes had about 3/4 their wear left, and the front pads had been done just 3 months prior! Luckily she didn’t fall for it without checking with me first!
I had a front wheel bearing go out 5 hours into a 10 hour trip, and had the bearing replaced at the end of the trip by a mechanic I found by calling a parts dealer and asking for a recommendation. That was fine but the mechanic said I should get the wheel bearing on the other side replaced in 2 to 4k miles as it was a little sloppy. So calling and getting quotes to replace the 1 wheel bearing, Shop one said I would also need a 60 dollar alignment, Shop 2 said no alignment needed but there would be a $46 analysis charge added on to make sure the work needed to be done. Waiting for shop 3 to call back, I have used and trusted all 3 shops before, but it just shows what can happen. I’m imagine if I showed up in person it would be a little different but just out of curiosity thought I’d cold call them for an estimate. 03 trailblazer 6 cylander 4wd.