Common Auto Repair Scams

Maintenance/Repairs
61

The real nasty stuff seems to happen in developing countries, especially those with low labor costs. A foreign oil executive in an African oil producing country brought his relatively new Suburban in for scheduled service.

When he picked up the car, it seemed to have less power, and he could also see smoke in the rear view mirror! On further examination, his new engine had been lifted out and an old one (properly repainted) installed. As a private citizen he would have little recourse to compensation, since the perpetrators pay off the police, and in some cases, judges. In this case, the oil company which spent many million in the area and provided jobs was able to get the situation rectified.

Some of the more scarier tactics there is re-grooving worn tires to make them look still serviceable. This can have deadly consequences.

62

Years ago, a European car shop in Tacoma WA told my mom she needed a new transmission in her 1972 Fiat 124 (no kidding, Tom, if you’re reading this–she still has it today and it might be for sale
). At the time, it was her only car which she needed for work, so she stopped in to pick it up–unexpectedly–and took it immediately home because she couldn’t afford a new transmission. On the way home, she noticed it was shifting much better. Turns out they just replaced the transmission fluid, but they were hoping to keep it around the shop for a couple of weeks and bill her for a completely new transmission while only doing the fluid change. Strange thing is, a tech. called her up later and owned up to it! She still never went back there though.

63

One could also argue that if the shop is TR’s preferred shop, you could ask them how much it’d cost normally for them to get the tires, then maybe show them a printout of TR’s page and ask if they’d meet or beat that price, or offer lifetime rotations or something if you ordered through the tire shop instead of TR

64

To keep everything balanced how about an upcoming feature on the countless ways that customers try to scam repair shops; or would that be treading on the wrong, and far more numerous, toes?

65

The thread I titled My Iffy Lube Experience last winter can be found here: http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2136790.page Apparently that sort of thing is quite common.

I don’t know who tacked that last piece of spam onto it in September. Maybe Connie Brichford can delete it and bar the poster.

66

SOME truck tires are labled as REGROOVABLE. The way I understand it, manufacturers can’t possibly put tread that deep on a tire originally. It would cause too much quick wear. So they put on the standard tread. When it wears nearly smoothe, then the remaining rubber is heated and molded with new tread. It’s not done with a hand held tool from J.C. Whitney, but on a large commercial basis.

67

As a Master Certified Mechanic, former parts,warranty and service director with 36 years of experience, this is my input.

Look for a Certified Mechanic,with the most certification. Master Certified preferred.

Anyone can claim to be a mechanic. Poor diagnosis is a big problem.

Vehicles are very complicated and hard to work on. Just because a thermostat can be checked easily on one type of vehicle, this is not inclusive of all vehicles.

The biggest common factor in service issues boil down to one common denominator. The majority of mechanics are paid on a commission only basis.They are encouraged by their bosses to sell work, because the boss is paid on a commission basis.

If Mechanics were paid $20-$25 an hour, the quality of work would go up and selling unessessary work would disappear. Mechanics have to beat the Flat Rate clock.

If a mechanic road test a vehicle, puts it on a lift and pulls all four wheels to inspect the brakes, that is 15 minutes. He then goes to the service advisor and informs the advisor what needs to be fixed.

The service advisor calls the vehicle owner and discusses the repair. Another 15 minutes go by. The mechanic waits for the parts . If they are in stock on the shelf, 10 minutes go by.If not, he waits 20 minutes or more for the parts to be acquired.

The mechanic only gets paid one hour to do the job and road test the vehicle.When the mechanic gets the parts he quickly slaps the brake pads on the car and parks it outside. He is lucky if he beat the Flat Rate clock for that job.Thats the problem with cars repairs being done properly.

If the average salary of a mechanic is $30-$35k per year {according to the US Labor Board} then they are not beating the Flat Rate clock on a regular basis

Mechanic average between $300-$400 dollars a month in tool bills. Buying a special tool to remove an Acura front pulley, or special cam tool that might only be used less than a dozen times to mechanic employed by an independent shop .

Most shops expect the mechanics to buy any tool needed for a job if it cost $1000 or less. If the tool is more than that, the shop makes the decision to buy the tool or sublet out the job to a shop that has already purchased that tool.

I have $80,000 -$100,000 worth of tools. Due to model changes and different technology, I would say over half those tools are obsolete and worthless. I recently purchased a Torque wrench that has to be used to accurately torque in degrees, not foot lbs. $500 was the price of this special tool.

68

I like this. For every legitimate claim of the miss doing of mechanics, there is a customer claiming that their engine was destroyed by the brake job that was done to their car.

69

It was a long time ago that an alignment place would not guarantee their work if I did not let them install new ball joints. I smelled a rat and left; asked the guy to do the best he could and in fact the car steered just fine after that.

I didn’t know much about it so to make sure, I went to one of those schlock joints that did brakes, exhaust, shocks, alignments and upholstery to have my ball joints checked for a second opinion. The “mechanic” removed a wheel, looked at one of the ball joints and then replaced the wheel.

When replacing the wheel, he torqued the first of 4 lug nut down hard and then did the rest of the lug nuts to apparently a lesser torque value. Then while I watched, he rotated the wheel which then wobbled. He told me that I had a bent axle. I saw him do it all and got out of there and can only guess what he would do to repair the “bent axle”.

Bottom line on this one: This may be a rarely used deceit but could be used as an excuse to replace plenty of parts or none at all, charging the customer for whatever.

70

I had one of the quick lube places try and sell me the replacement of the Air Filter on my '93 Honda Civic.
The problem?
My car had a K&N Air Filter that you can clean & re-use!
Sheesh! I even put the K&N notification sticker on the Air Cleaner Housing!

71

New York inspection only requires looking at one front wheel and most places don’t do more work then necessary. This means its possible for things like the front brakes to pass inspection while the rear ones are shot.

72

If four out of five lug nuts were tightened, the wheel would not wobble or move from the hub in any way. If the wheel wobbled with four tight lug nuts then you have a problem. Also, you can not do an alignment if you have bad ball joints, that is a fact.

73

Thats the spirit! You know, as a mechanic, I too wake up every morning thinking to myself all the different ways I can lie and cheat my customers.

74

Actually, I have had mechanics go the second mile to help me out and undercharge for their services. The service manager of the DeSoto/Plymouth agency where my Dad did business when I was in high school sometimes would say, “Don’t waste your Dad’s money or our time to fix his car when you could do it”. He would then spend time telling me what to do and where to get the parts. Some years later, I was returning from graduate school late at night and realized my old Pontiac wasn’t going to make the last 250 miles. I stopped in a small town and got a the last room in a mom and pop motel. The next morning, I decided that the only thing I could do was go to the Pontiac dealer and hope for the best. I drove in to the service department and explained my problem. The service manager put a mechanic on the car and he worked for an hour. When I got the bill, it was only $5. I thought that the price was way too low, even for 1963 prices. The service manager explained that they had done the best they could and I would make it home, but I needed to have extensive work done on the car. He said, “I can’t charge full price for a car that leaves my shop that isn’t exactly right”. Some years later, I had to have a windshield replaced. I took the car to a glass shop, but hit the side of the building making a sharp turn off the street. After the windshield was replaced, I took the car to the Rambler dealer for a reinspection. I showed them the damage I had done and knew my wife would be really mad at me for being so careless. The service manager found that they did have the fender extension in stock that I had damaged on my car. He chained the car to a post and pulled the bumper out so expertly that nobody could tell I had bent the bumper. He then replaced the fender extension. I was only charged for the fender extension and a can of touch up paint. I have had other experiences like this through the years. I am certain that there are many more honest shops than scammers.

75

I agree with you on all points and in Wha Who’s case maybe the wheel was wobbling because of a worn ball joint.

The way this usually works is that if the original shop had performed the alignment anyway without inspecting the suspension the aforementioned shop would be rats (which they have been compared to) of the lowest order if a ball joint failed a month later leading to major damage or bodily injury.
Per the usual, dxxxxx if you do dxxxxx if you don’t.

Just an FYI Wha Who, but you can just snug up, not even torque, 4 of the 5 lugs on a wheel and it will not wobble because of that method. A car can also apparently drive fine with worn ball joints, worn tie rods, etc. but that doesn’t mean the alignment is correct or will even stay anywhere near correct.

76

You don’t deflate and reinflate the tires just so they’ll have fresh air. You charge a whopping fee for filling them with nitrogen!

77

The classic little cheat that happens even at the best shops is on a front-end alignment.

Do this next time you take a car for alignment: Find the caster/camber adjustment (usually some sort of cam or slotted hole at the top strut mount) and mark the nut and adjuster positions with a sharpie. Then when they are done with your complete alignment, note that the ‘computer printout’ shows that caster/camber were out of specification when you came in, but now they are fine. Then look at your sharpie marks on the adjusters.

Standard procedure in most shops is “Set the toe and let 'er go!”

Don’t worry that they will notice that you marked the adjusters to catch them. They don’t even look at the adjusters.

78

Actually, I will undercut my competition that puts nitrogen in the air. I’ll put in atmosheric air which is 78% oxygen and only charge 75% of the whopping price my competition charges.

79

Manolito, don’t assume all vehicles need a caster and camber adjustment when a a wheel alignment is done.

Something had to have happened to the vehicle to require these adjustments.

Not all vehicles have struts. Not all strut vehicles have the adjustment at the location you describe.

I agree with you that if these adjustments need to be done, then they should be part of the alignment job

80

Central Florida: Uneven wear on front tires. My local mechanic doesn’t do front alignments. He said that the front end is OK but suggested that I take my '98 Blazer to a dealer for alignment. Chevy dealer tells me I need idler arm and pitman arm before they can do alignment. I go to local Sears and ask for alignment. They tell me that I kneed lower ball joints first. I ask how the rest of front end is. They say it’s fine. I bring Blazer to my local Ford dealer. He does alignment. Ford has a new loyal customer.