Engine flushes are absoulutely NOT needed unless the oil in your car has been changed so infrequently that it is like a thick, almost non-flowing sludge. Engine flushes contain chemicals which can dilute or “wipe” the thin film of oil which protects your bearings from contacting metal and being destroyed.
Windshield wipers need no conditioning. They should be replaced every 6 months to one year, depending on the climate where you live, and are cheap and very easy to change yourself.
Glass waxing- I have never heard of that.
Grease Monkey is a derogatory stereotypical comment directed at the supposed unintelligence of anyone who works as a mechanic. It has nothing to do with race. All I have to say is most of them seem pretty smart to me.
Engine flushes are absoulutely NOT needed unless the oil in your car has been changed so infrequently…
That isn’t always the case. Some engines have sludge problems in spite of having the oil changed on time. Certain Toyotas come to mind.
Good post. If this makes you feel any better, our very competent family doctor has the utmost respect for good mechanics. He has owned MGs, Mazda RX8, Mercedes and other non-common cars.
As a doctor, he jokingly says, he deals only with 2 “models”, and different ages. He has a raft of specialists to get a second opinion from. He believes being a good mechanic with diagnostic skills is one of the most difficult trades. This man took engineering first, then switched to medicine, so he understands the complexities of electro-mechanical systems with a lot of chemistry and thermodynamics thrown in.
My daughter had her Nissan Dealer in the Albany NY area try to sell her a new timing belt at 60,000 miles, her 94 Altima had a timing chain.
I had a 92 Plymouth Minivan and Dunn Tire tried to sell me ball joints at 75000 miles but when they tried to show me the play I couldn’t see any. Car went through 5 annual inspections after that and at the first two I asked my regular mechanic to check the ball joints. Car went to junk yard with 170,000 miles and the original ball joints.
Thanks Civicminded. I agree. I’m moving on from this thread.
Went into NTB for a battery issue. Charged me $10 for cleaning the terminals. No problem except the next day the car wouldnt start and my regular mechanic discovered they had not cleaned the inside of terminals because they needed to be replaced (one wouldnt come off). So $10 for doing nothing. In addition, NTB claimed I needed $600 worth of work on a 12 yr old Camry included cracked mounting brackets, new spark wires, engine flush, blah blah blah. My regular said I needed non e of it except I did need a oil changed based on the sticker in the window, which NTB completely missed.
I few years ago I took my F150 to the local Firestone to use great coupons for a radiator flush and oil change. While there they correctly pointed out it needed a new serpentine belt, for which they quoted $80 for the part and 1.6 hours of labor, as well as other unnecessary repairs. I stopped by AutoZone and bought the belt for $20. It was literally 5 minutes to open the hood, lever the auto tensioner and replace the belt, and close the hood.
A couple of months after I moved to Columbia MD from MA, I took my Jeep to one of those mega-service complexes for an oil change. They offered a free safety check-up and of course I told them to go ahead. As I was sitting in the waiting room reading my CarTalk monthly magazine, the manager came out and said, “You’ve got a problem, Sir!”. And I followed him into the garage to see that I had a cracked rotor on my right rear brake. I thanked him profusely and told him to go ahead with $500 repairs feeling that lives may have been saved by noticing this before anything happened.
A few months later I took my wife’s Grand Prix to the same shop and lo and behold, hers had a cracked rotor in the right rear brake too! Nice scam I think - car undriveable to go anywhere else. Anyone else have aimilar experience?
My 94 Land Cruiser lost it’s Alternator / Waterpump belt so I had it towed back to the dealer to have a new belt installed. I was advised that the belt broke because the Power Steering pump froze up. I mentioned that was odd because it seemed like Power Steering was working when I parked the car at the dealer. No it’s frozen was the response so I told them to go ahead.
I checked over night and found that the Power Steering pump was gear driven off of the engine, it had nothing to do with the belts. Of course by the time I found this out the car was already apart. I got a small amount off the bill but not much. Needless to say I haven’t been back
A few years back i took my Honda Civic in for a timing belt. I also told them to change out the water pump and to replace the alternator and a/c belts. When I got the car back I noticed they charged me labor to put on the belts. I pointed out they had to put the belts back on as part of the other two jobs I also paid for, to which he said without skipping a beat, “Yes, but we put on new belts. When we put on new belts we charge for the labor.” Um…no they didn’t, at least not this time. BTW - they lost a customer for life over less than $20.
and you need a full fuel injector service too…
OK, this may not fit the question tightly enough, but deserves mention.
The 2008/2009 Honda Accord Coupe has terrible brakes. And Honda deserves mention for behaving like the worst imaginable scam artists I’ve ever seen. I was blown away when essentially told that I ruined the brakes - which had worn out completely at 22,000 miles. When I checked CarComplaints.com, I found that the Accord topped the list with @1200 complaints, followed by the Ford Excursion which garnered about 6 (six) complaints.
I think Honda Corp. deserves a skunk spray from their collective in-dash radios in recognition of treating their buyers like idiots and suckers.
It seems to me that some 15 or 20 years ago, Sears auto centers were charged with fraud in a couple of states. As I remember, Sears then bought into Western Auto and did the repair business through the Western Auto shops. Sears has taken the auto servicing and repair back under its own name. What surprises me through all this is that Sears auto service centers still remain in business, but I suppose that being able to charge auto repairs on a Sears credit card keeps it going.
One more thought: I remember the scams in television repair in the 1950’s. This doesn’t happen much today because a television set is rarely repaired, but merely replaced with a new set. Perhaps that is the future for vehicles.
I don’t tolerate poor work or dishonesty
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I don’t either. Yes, there are honest mechanics and shops, and there are three I know of in my area. Not only do I frequent them, but I recommend the to friends and colleagues.
But the fact is, tho, the bad reputation is often well-deserved. More often than not the shop’s reputation, good or bad, is perpetrated by the shop management.
I once went to a Jiffy Lube for a simple oil change on my (then) piece o’ crap GEO Tracker. I dropped my car off and walked across the street for a burrito. When I returned, they happily told me that I also needed a new air filter (I think it was an air filter - it looked like a row of large tea bags), and that they had already put one in, and my bill was now an extra $20. So, trying to appear as a discerning female customer, I asked to see my OLD air filter. They said, “Sure!” And the guy walked me over to my car, opened the hood, and proceeded to show me my old filter - still in my car! They had never replaced it, they were only going to charge me for it!
Needless to say, I no longer go to Jiffy Lube for anything. :o)
Here’s another: I now own a reliable Honda Civic. While at the dealer for a routine service, I was told that my battery had been tested and would need replacing. So, I asked how much life it had left in it - a month, 2…? Since Mr. Honda Guy couldn’t tell me, and I have AAA so I’m not worried about my battery dying, I declined the new battery. That was about 8 months ago. My battery, as I suspected, was fine.
What I don’t understand is what this guy possibly would have gained from charging me parts and labor for this unnecessary new battery. Does they get commission on “sucker charges”?
I had a '93 Mazda pickup that I took back to the dealer for its 15K checkup and an oil change. I also reported an antifreeze smell under the hood. They came back and said the head gasket was bad. Since it was a warranty job (and I had heard Mazda’s had head gasket problems) I told them to go ahead.
At the end of the day they said my truck was ready and presented a bill for more than $400, for the 15K check and oil change. I pointed out most of the things on the long list of items on the 15K check up list (adjust alt and a/c belts, timing, check plugs, adjust fuel inj, etc.) had to be done when putting the engine back together after the head gasket job. He immediately said, “Yeah, but we did them again.” BS!!!
I then asked about the oil change charge. “You asked for an oil change.”
“Didn’t you do an oil change as part of the head gasket job?”
“No, Mazda doesn’t pay us for one on a warranty job.”
“So, if I hadn’t asked for an oil change already, you would have pulled the head but not changed the oil.”
“That’s right.”
They had the truck in the shop for seven hours, including an hour for lunch. Including the warranty work, they logged over 21 hours working on it. Now that’s what I call efficient!
I recently took advantage of a coupon for an inexpensive oil change at a chain tire establishment. Without asking, the mechanic also checked my tires and told me I had a leak in my brake line and that the idiot light for my brakes was on. Although he tried to talk me into fixing my brake and getting new tires, I never do that sort of thing on the spur of the moment, especially if it wasn’t malfunctioning when I brought it in. Sure enough, when I got into the car, the brake light was on but it was because the parking brake was slightly engaged, not because I “had a leak.” After disengaging the brake, the light went out and hasn’t come back on since.