AWESOME.
Talk about Credentials! What should I do about this awful situation that my mechanic put me in!
I took my Mazda 6 into my mechanic (Reliable Auto in Chicago) for a 60,000 mile tune-up. They checked out the breaks, fixed a head light and rotated the tires. 3/4 hours later, I drove out of the shop and went about driving 8 miles on streets that average about 40mph here in Chicago (Western/Ashland). I pulled off because my car was shaking and sure enough a gentleman from the sidewalk told me my back tire did not look good and I shouldn’t drive on it! It was tilted outwards!
4 out of the 5 lug nuts were missing! So UN-Reliable Auto Repair basically put my life in danger! What should I do about this situation. I had the car towed to them to see their mistake and told them I wanted to be fully re-imbursed for the $175 charge. I plan on getting a second opinion at another Auto-Repair.
Own a '99 Toyota Camry (v6) with 100,000 miles. Great car with one exception over the last year – the check engine light warning appears. Been in the shop 6 times. Mechanic says it’s a vapor sensor problem, but he can’t seem to fix it. So he resets the Camry’s system to get rid of the warning light. We pick up the car and the check engine warning light is off, UNTIL we arrive at our home (about a 3.5 mile drive). Mechanic knows it’s annoying, but claims it’s not a big deal (Camry is maintained, all systems checked and working). So, we’re thinking of replacing the gas cap – to see if that will stop the check engine light from appearing. Has anyone ever had this problem? Whaddya do?
You’ll want to post this as a separate question. Copy what you’ve written then click on the “Ask a question” button, top right.
10 years journeyman field mechanic for fleet, heavy duty and heavy equipment (Current occupation) 9 credits shy from completing a B.S. in mechanical engineering (Aug 2013 hopefully net employment I have spent a long time working on a 4 year degree!!!) Used to hold an A class AMA racing card for motocross and endurocross, Did most of my own work, also wrenched for many other racers. Raised on a farm (farmers are poor and have to be able to fix anything!!) I know this whole post sounds like bs to many but that is my honest credentials
Congrats on getting close to that BS ME degree. A hard row to hoe…
WOW…AGAIN…I sign on, and wind up standing back in AWE of a little idea I thought was worthy to become a “Sticky” post. I thought a “Credentials” type of intro would be useful for “All ye who enter here”. If nothing else, it lets us describe/define ourselves for our own, as well as others enjoyment.
Look at how HUGE this thing has become!!! Well at least it has fulfilled the general idea of what I wanted to happen…its not a traditional “Sticky”, but it certainly accomplishes the same goal. We still dont have “Sticky’s” here… Maybe someday… Even if we did…the newbies wouldnt read em anyhow. LOL
Enjoy the thread people…it always was for all of US anyway… Keep on wrenchin…
Blackbird
Amazing collection of posters. You are a very skilled bunch! I am a degreed engineer with a bachelors and a masters in mechanical engineering. I spent 26 years in R&D with Delco specializing in electronic shocks, suspension design and chassis control systems. I spent a further 6 years as R&D manager at a forklift company. I hold 28 patents on a variety of car and forklift inventions and I’ve worked with race teams from showroom stock sedans to IMSA sports racers to IndyCar. I’ve had an SCCA and/or NASA racing license for 20 years. I’ve built several race cars from street cars and I work on every car part and system except AC and automatic transmissions, neither of which my race cars have! I’ve rebuilt and modified engines, manual transmissions, axles and suspensions. I can tune a carburetor or a fuel injection system. I HATE to pay mechanics for things I can do myself.
degree’d engineer (bsme/cs/ma), worked way through college digging clams and fixing construction equipment. did my first trans-plant at age 15, rebuilt my first engine at 16 (it had a carb - yes i’m that old). don’t have the time to do my own work anymore, frequently dismayed by mechanics who don’t use their heads for anything better than wheel chocks.
Toyota Master Technician for 15 years. Experience with all makes in the meantime.
Network engineer with vocational automotive training. I can Google the hell out of a diagnosis, but I need emotional support to do the repairs themselves.
Retired Service Manager for GM, worked for 35 years in dealerships from Conn to New Jersey and eventually California. I worked on everything from Chrysler to Yugo and Cadillac to Kia. Always loved cars, but not the car business.
mechanical designer for 40+ years. Car nut all of my life. I got hooked when my uncle showed up one day in his “new” car, a 1940 Ford opera coup with a '57 Olds J2 engine, Lincoln Zephyr tranny & a Halibrand quick change rear end in 1963. Primer red, with red and white tuck and rolled interior. As traditional a hot rod as you’re ever gonna find. He took me for a ride in that thing, and not only was I hooked, I was on the leader, and in the holding tank. I don’t think my long suffering mother ever quite forgave him for that.
Have several projects going right now, including a newly acquired '65 Olds F-85 two door post sedan I intend to bracket race.
Nowadays I only work on my vehicles when I have to. I’ve re-built a few engines and done some pretty major repairs but I still consider myself a novice.
This is a good sticky! I have a BS degree in Mechanical Engineer and soon to have Masters in engineering management. I’ve been tinkering with things mechanical since my early teens, sometimes successfully. Prefer working on ATV’s and motorcycles, but also enjoy working on cars - at least to a point. Don’t care so much for working on anything newer than about 25 years because they have become too sophisticated to diagnose well with all of the electronic controls involved. I generally like to repair something myself rather than pay to have it done, but I have concluded in the last few years that good mechanic can actually do things better than me and in less time and that there are some car repair jobs that I just don’t want to do.
This question is quite imprecise.
While interesting to read, I do not see how knowledge of any user’s credentials can help anyone if the claims cannot be evaluated independently - more so if the form of the “credentials” is so wide open as to be asking anything. It also depends on the question being asked. The OP already can identify poor information from interesting bits - so I am at a loss as to what this is supposed to do besides make for interesting background reading.
It’s just a way to know a bit about the folks answering your questions. Wouldn’t knowing that one is a mechanic with 30 years experience, while the other is a guy who just likes cars, make a difference to you?
And it’s just for folks to see, nothing ‘official’ about it…
texases wrote:
Wouldn't knowing that one is a mechanic with 30 years experience, while the other is a guy who just likes cars, make a difference
as I wrote at 11:34AM:
It [...] depends on the question being asked.
notwithstanding, I think it is helpful to have your vehicle, occupation, what-have-you in the signature.
I think the reason I posted this is because I am still astonished to see this … what, announcement? … at such a prominent position in the discussion for the past week or so discussing something quite trivial - what users have in their signatures.
I do not see how knowledge of any user’s credentials can help anyone if the claims
cannot be evaluated independently
No one is viewing the entries in this thread as credentials. Hang around for a while and you’ll see many very interesting people, who give endless hours of their time trying to help others in the sincerest way they can.
I find it very interesting to learn of the diverse backgrounds that the many contributors have - making this one of the more successful forums of its type.
admittedly, I did not pore over all entries in this thread. many in my view are missing the point.
nevertheless - what the original post suggests to me, at least vaguely - or broadly - is a need seen by many internet users for - what, accountability?.. a need left unmet as evidenced by books about individuals whose personal lives were harmed by words written in “chatrooms”, but also evidenced by pay-per-use/subscription-based newsgroups, e.g. So-and-So’s List, where, by virtue of users paying for access, the information and comments accessible there somehow exhibit truth.
However, I do not wish to derail this Announcement with the above comment - if anything, it should be another thread. Instead, I want to point out how the original post is equivocal in this regard - either pointing to the trivial but still useful and interesting idea of user background, or the much more general area of internet freedom or accountability (unless I think of a better word) - to say nothing of anonymity. The former merits brief comment, and is interesting as I wrote, and we would be done by now if it were the case. The latter is an enormous and heated topic, and I see “credentials” being tangled up in that.
I also maintain that “credentials” is not what is truly meant as featured in the title of this post, one reason being that credentials are intended to be taken seriously. “Credentials” do have importance, and as such feature on such serious things as resumes and curriculum vitaes. The cars JuniorMint (me) owns could not possibly be called “credentials”, and I really have no credentials to speak of with regard to mechanic work - that’s partly why I am posting here. In fact it should be apparent by reading a few words of my comments.
lastly, don’t ask me why I wrote such a long thing here, I don’t really understand why myself besides not having much to do for 20 minutes. If anything, take it as an indication that I truly like how this site works at the moment, and I don’t feel a need to get JoeMario’s or Whitey’s resumes before I take them seriously, because that’s how the internet, debate, and plain old conversation work.