Car Bill - Heart Attack Time

[Tropicana]

So were all of these repairs unnecessary or just not urgent? Do you think he keeps a broken down muffler with a huge hole round de back and shows it to every unsuspecting woman? Does it sound like the vehicle was falling apart to any of you?

[Tropicana]

Car repaired, emissions test past....bank account empty.

[lonewolf]

Car repaired, emissions test past....bank account empty.

Tropi, normally if a car is going to fail an emissions test, you will see the check engine light appear on dash.
Sometimes it's a simple repair such as a sensor related to emissions componets. If you don't see this light appear, your car will probably pass.
In the states(CANADA?) there are auto parts(Autozone)store that will do a "free" diagnostic test on your vehicle and pinpoint what part that needs to be replaced. This could help you with your next repair if you walk in and tell so called mechanic that you know what part needs to be replaced. This knowledge will at least let the person know that you have taken efforts to find out what's wrong with your car. Be advised that the free diagnostic test will also tell you if any part controlled by the inboard computer is faulty. All these parts controlled by your cars computer are fuel related/exhaust (all related to emissions). It's simply a matter of extracting the downloaded material from the cars computer to diagnose MANY of these repairs...I must emphasize that MANY, but not ALL repairs. A little knowledge can sometimes go a long way when dealing with mechanics...and as Rich and J-Kid said, second opinion never hurts.

[Tropicana]

Wow I didn't know that.

there are auto parts(Autozone)store that will do a "free" diagnostic test on your vehicle and pinpoint what part that needs to be replaced.

Well this has been a very expensive lesson. I am sure that some of the things he fixed eventually would have needed attention but at least I wouldn't have had to fork out all that money one time. By the time RichD suggested getting a second opinion, the car was already at the shop and the mechanic was working on it. It would have been tough to pull the plug.

[j-kid]

PEP Boys will also pull di codes FREE also........

Wow I didn't know that......... It would have been tough to pull the plug.

Yes, especially wen him was soh thoughtful an already yanked dem fi yuh at your expense.

[Tropicana]

[My Looh]

As far as I know there is no such place in Canada to take your car to have them display the codes (free) for you. You can purchase your own device however and just follow the instructions. Then once you have the readout,take it to a Partsource store in your aarea and they can tell you exactly what is wrong and what you will need to fix (give you a quote on parts). Then you could purchase the parts yourself and take them to a mechanic and have them instal the parts for you.

[Tropicana]

De car trouble woes continue. It didn't cost much today but there is more work to be done.

Today they did:


- exhaust gasket, front downpipe to catalytic converter, replace spring bolt and gasket kit, oxygen sensor gasket.

Translation please.

Parts:

- spring bolt and gasket kit $23.79
- oxygen sensor gasket $11.70

Labour $147.00

In addition to the additional work identified before there is now also this:


Timing chains making excessive noise, tensioner not holding chains tight enough. Requires replacement of chains, guides and tensioner.

Is that going to cost ?

[My Looh]

Timing chains making excessive noise, tensioner not holding chains tight enough. Requires replacement of chains, guides and tensioner.

Is that going to cost ?

Depending on the vehicle it could be a rather labour intensive job.

Sounds like he is counting on you to put his kids through college.

[Tropicana]

and cater to his wife's expensive tastes.

I am going to get a second opinion. Seems he is finding NUFF things wrong with the car but some of my original complaints like the brake light coming on even though brakes were done last year and the left signal sometimes not coming on when you click it the first time still have not been fixed. Also the noise I complained about ages ago and it didn't get fixed till today. It got so bad it sounded like the engine was about to explode. I just couldn't take it anymore.

[Wahalla]

DAT cheap.. Satdey changed out deh brakes replaced deh tyres 1300 pounds. Next char mi buy is twine bi ah land rover or range rover cause der is land rover specialist mechanic at 100 m team deh house. Im GI discount tuh deh people to in deh village discount service.

[Tropicana]

Wahalla you foget I spen $1650 around a month ago and there is still more to fix.

[blugiant]

tropi wen cars tart fe act up ann repair bill iss iigh itt thyme fe gitt new ar newer wan

[j-kid]

Mi si tings in yuh list dat bother mi again.

[Tropicana]

Okay fire away J-Kid....what is bothering you about the list?