Car maintenance
Car maintenance
when you are buying car maintenance you want to make sure that you receive what you paid for. A good example of this is that if you frequent a dealership and you purchase their 15,000 or even 30,000 mile maintenance service, there are a lot of things that are supposed to be performed on these checklists.
The 15,000 or 30,000 mile service is usually very expensive and includes many important car safety checks. If you are going to shell out $400 for a 30,000 mile service. Please take the time to review what is supposed to be accomplished During this expensive service.
How to buy car maintenance
A good way to verify that some of these vital safety checks were performed is to ask the dealership to provide information about some of the individual items that are checked. For example, there maybe a spot on the service that requires a brake inspection. Ask the dealership to document the percentage of the brakes that are remaining. In yet another example if the tire inflation is to be checked, again ask the dealership to document the tire pressure in all four tires as well.
As a mechanic that has worked at dealerships for more than 23 years, I can tell you that the technician is paid on a flat rate or percentage basis. The mechanic is motivated to move as fast as he can and may take some shortcuts. This means you have not received a good value for your car maintenance dollar.
Take some time to review, what is included in the individual car maintenance service and ask lots of questions about each item to your service adviser. This will put the dealership service department on notice that you are very hands on and involved in what is being done to your car. This will also make the dealership more likely to complete the maintenance service properly and to cut corners and rush on somebody else’s car.
Car maintenace tip
If your service includes a tire rotation take a minute to mark each tire with a crayon. So that you can verify the tires were rotated during the service. Also when the technician sees these marks on the tire.
He is immediately informed that you are watching him and is more likely to perform all the steps that are included in the maintenance service that you have paid hard earned money for.
Would you like to read more stories about car mechanics and what might happen during your auto service
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Auto repair scam artists
Auto repair scam artists
I can’t help but break into a story about one of the sharpest most evil service advisor’s I ever met. This man would go through your vehicle and find out as much as he could about the vehicle owner.
He would look for bank statements past due bills and any thing he could get his hands on to find out what your financial position was. He would go through the trunk, the glove box under the seats he was relentless.
One time he came out to my bay and started going through a vehicle and I asked him what he was doing. His reply was making us money. Then He yelled out bingo. I said what did you find.
He said the best thing of all a baby seat and baby toys. He then said this vehicle needs brakes. I said I didn’t look at the brakes yet. He said it didn’t matter what it needed it only mattered what they were getting.
Most people are scammed at some point by the auto repair business
Now in this case the brakes were about 25% remaining so selling brakes to this person didn’t hurt anyone. But the service adviser asked about the baby to set up the sale for family safety reasons.
If the customer hesitated to buy, the service adviser would explain it was for the safety of the baby and how if she performed an emergency stop the vehicle would take longer to stop with worn brakes and he was looking out for her baby. This guy was a shark and pulled down more than $100,000 a year just for selling service.
I tell you this story so you can be on guard if you run into a shark. The shark will start asking you personal questions while you are waiting for the vehicle to be brought into the shop. Not because he cares about you. He is trying to paint a picture of you so he can find the button he needs to push to make a sale. And do not forget to clean out the inside of your car including the glove box. You must protect yourself!
Here is a perfect example of the auto repair business hard at work taking money for unneeded repairs. View one of my online auto repair stories here
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Auto Mechanics and ASE Certifications
About ASE certified mechanics.
The national Institute for automotive service excellence or ASE is a nonprofit organization founded in 1972 for the purpose of improving the quality of automotive service and repair through the voluntary testing and certification of automotive mechanics. Currently there are over 400,000 professional certified automotive technicians.
ASE certification recognizes the knowledge and experience of professional auto mechanics. Taking and passing the ASE certification tests also demonstrates the employers commitment to professionalism. Becoming an ASE certified technician can mean better compensation and increased employment opportunities as well.
ASE, not only certifies technicians for competency. It also promotes the benefits of technician certification to the motoring public. Repair shops, an employee at lease one ASE certified technician can display the ASE sign. Established auto repair centers, where 75% of the technicians are certified with at least one technician certified in each area of service offered by the business are eligible for the ASE blue seal of excellence program display sign. ASE and urges consumers to patronize the auto repair centers that take this extra step towards the commitment to excellence.
How to become an ASE certified mechanic.
To become ASE certified, you must pass at least one ASE exam and have at least two years of related work experience. Technicians that pass, all tests in a series earned the master technician status. The ASE certification is valid for a five-year period of time after this time has elapsed. You must retest to retain certification, demonstrating that you have cut up with the changing technology in the automotive repair field.
The ASE tests consist of 40 to 85 multiple-choice questions. A panel of technical experts writes test questions from vehicle, parts and equipment manufacturers, as well as working technicians and technical automotive educational instructors.
All questions have been tested and quality checked on a national sample of technicians. The questions are derived from information presented in the task list, which details the knowledge that a technician must have to pass an ASE certification exam. This task list periodically updated by ASE in response to changes in auto repair technology and car repair techniques.
For more stories good and bad about mechanics visit my page about auto mechanics I have worked with.
Check engine light is on
(Quick story) I remember one time my sister had her car repaired when she was out of town.
She was driving and her check engine light came on. She called me in a panic. I told her to take it to a chain store and hope for the best but to ask for the old parts back.
The shop said the vehicle needed an o2 sensor and my sister confirmed the light was out and received the old part.
When she got back in town I asked to see her old part, it was not an o2 sensor but an egr valve off of a large diesel engine. Definitely not from her little economy car gas engine.
When I looked under her car the old original o2 sensor was still in the exhaust stream.
To make a long story short the shop just cleared the check engine light and let her go after confirming with her she was heading back to her home state.
Two things to learn from this. One if you have out of state tags tell the shop you just moved to the state your in and have not changed your tags yet.
The shop knows that if you are a transient customer that they will never see you again and can give you the royal screw over with no problems.
The second lesson is if you ask for the old parts back know what the part looks like.
Have the shop show you the old part on the car before they remove it so you can confirm it is the part quoted in the repair estimate.
Learning some basic automotive skills will make you feel more confident about going in for auto service. The service writer or service manager will instantly recognize this confidence.
A consumer that understands the vehicle and how the auto service business works is usually passed over when it comes time to apply the rip offs and scams.
For more information on check engine light diy diagnosis. For more info on protecting yourself from auto repair rip-offs.
Beware of cheap oil change services
The simple oil change service. There are many kinds of shops that perform this service. Dealerships, chain stores, quick lube centers, independent shops and mobile auto repair service.
They all view the service as an opportunity to up sell you something else.
The profit margin on an oil change service is very small. The shop considers this an acceptable loss because it provides them an opportunity to look your vehicle over very carefully.
The shop calls this an at bat. And sometimes they strike out but most of the time they hit a homerun.
Being under your vehicle and then in the engine compartment to refill the oil provides them with all the opportunity needed to work up a nice big list.
Even the quick lube centers that do not even have qualified technicians are selling services like coolant flushes transmission fluid changes fuel injection cleaning and more.
It cracked me up when they started selling windshield services where they would apply a rain shedding product and new wiper blades for about $75.00.
When I say that quick lube centers do not employee qualified technicians I am being truthful.
These auto repair service shops pay a very low hourly rate and there fore are unable to find a certified technician to work for $7.00 – $9.00 an hour.
This could spell trouble for some customers. An oil change is a simple operation but if done incorrectly major engine damage can result.
For more information on how to protect yourself from the common oil change service scam visit my inside the Auto repair business page.
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Disabling the check engine light
Most areas have state inspections or smog check points that verify the proper operation of this check engine light bulb check. If you have disconnected the check engine light, you will be in violation of the clean air act and will fail your state inspection.
Disconnecting check engine lights has become a very difficult procedure to accomplish, even if you were to ignore the law. The good news is, that it is easier to repair the malfunction than it is to disconnect the check engine light.
Disabling the check engine light would require disassembly of the dash and removal of the bulb. On most late model vehicles, this is a difficult task to complete.
Also on some models when you remove the check engine light bulb, your computer that handles the air fuel mixture will go into a backup mode.
This will cause poor gas mileage and poor drivability. In essence your computer is monitoring the proper operation of the check engine light and its bulb. The technical term used to describe the check engine light bulb is the MIL or malfunction indicator lamp.
Do not disconnect the check engine light.
Believe it or not the check engine light is your friend. It is there to notify you that your car is suffering from either a minor or a major malfunction.
Overriding this indicator light is not only against the law, it is counter productive to your vehicle’s long-term health. Learning to fix your own check engine light malfunction can be a very rewarding experience.
On this website I supply lots of good information on how to accomplish this repair. Please visit my http://www.auto-facts.org/resetcheckenginelight.html“>
reset check engine light information page for valuable inside tips on how to retrieve the failure code and repair the problem quickly and easily.
Also visit my DIY auto repair page for http://www.auto-facts.org/online-auto-repair-tips.html“>
online auto repair tips and tricks on bringing professional results home to your driveway. I have learned over the years that when you try to cheat the system. You wind up putting in more time and labor than it takes to properly fix the auto repair problem.
Auto dealer service department true story
Incite on why some auto dealers may be willing to sacrifice customer satisfaction in order to secure maximum profit.
I worked for an auto dealer service department that had a tendency for playing hardball with its customers.
Why would they do this? Isn’t the customer always right? Doesn’t the dealership value your business?Â
Well this auto dealer had an exclusive area franchise and considered themselves the only game in town. If you decided to try another auto dealership of this brand you had to drive more than an hour to get there.
This cornering of the local market was used by the auto dealership against its customers. The owner of the dealership would get excited when customers would get irate and would usually handle the complaints in person, which is very unusual.
He had a complete service department staff to handle such matters. But he enjoyed the confrontation so much he would push everyone aside and handle the automotive consumer directly.
When the customer would get to the point when they realized who they where dealing with and that conversation was futile, they would threaten a lawsuit.Â
Well the owner had a standard response he used on the irate customer when they threatened to sue. He would say, me and my team of lawyers have deep pockets and live for litigation, see you in court.
And that was the end of the conversation. Either you spent the money on litigation or you accepted the dealerships pricing decision. ninety percent of the people would give up at this point but the other 10% would actually go to court over the given issue.
When the owner said he was willing to go to court he meant it. I remember many days when the owner and selected service department staff would dress up and go to court.
The good news is he lost as much as 50% of the time if the case did go to court. When he came back from his losing court cases he was chewing nails and veins were popping out of his head. This man hated to lose.
On one occasion we had a customer take a different route. The customer made a big picket sign and took off from work and picketed the auto dealer service building from open till close.
This picketers wife would take over so he could have lunch and bathroom breaks.
Well after 2 days the owner finally got a court injunction to stop the picketer.
The picketer was removed with great force by local police (kicking and screaming comes to mind).
The funny part of the story was the auto dealer service department employees where all pulling for the picketer. The owner treated his employees worse than his customers.
I could write a whole book just about this one dealership and its owner. The auto dealership was crammed with so much inventory there was no employee parking.
The entire staff (except the owner) had to park a mile away at the city ball field and walk to work in –30 degree wind chills and heavy nor’easter snowstorms. I worked at this dealership for two years because I enjoyed working on the exclusive product line and didn’t want to drive the hour and 15 minutes to the next closest same brand name auto dealer.
So if your wondering why the auto dealer service department is not treating you fairly, you might take a look around the area for another same brand dealership to visit. If there are none, then you might just have your answer.
I have a lot more incite on why the automotive business is stacked against its life blood (the customer).
Mark Gittelman is an ASE Certified Master Technician With more than 23 years experience in the automotive repair business. For more free automotive information and stories visit the Auto-Facts blog. Or if you would like to post a car question visit his auto repair help page.
Tips for Online Auto Repair
Learn how to easily fix your own car or truck with step-by-step instructions using online auto repair manuals. Save money and make automotive repairs fast and fun.
Check out online auto repair manuals when it comes to repairing your own car or truck. You may just avoid a disaster.
Your car or truck is a big investment and it should be treated as such. When it comes to auto repair it can go one of two ways.
You can be successful and fix it right the first time. Or you can make matters worse by creating additional problems. The latter will increase repair costs and down time of the car or truck.
Let me give you a real life example of this. I had a gentleman e-mail me for help with a no start condition. My first advice to him was to get some online auto repair assistance from a quality manual, to properly diagnose the problem.
My favorite online auto service manual has the most incredible no start diagnostic charts in the business, because they come straight from the manufacturer auto service manuals. Easy to follow tree charts with pictures and helpful tips.
The gentleman told me he could not afford the $24.95 and he thought replacing the distributor would fix the problem. A new distributor was $650.00.
He bought and replaced the distributor but this did not repair the problem. It was also not returnable like most electrical parts. Again I said cut your loses and get any kind of auto service manual and diagnose the problem, do not through parts at it.
Well He replaced the coil, cap, rotor, wires and spark plugs. It Still would not start. Now he is a thousand dollars deep in un-needed parts. The guy who could not afford $25. Finally he towed the car to the auto repair shop and they fixed it for about $500.00 by replacing the fuel pump.
As a side note I did try to help him by explaining, in a no start condition you either have no fuel or no spark (or rarely no air). The gentleman explained he was getting plenty of fuel. But he was not.
So $1,850 later he was motoring again. And to let you know step 1 on the diagnostic tree chart was an in-depth procedure with pictures for checking for fuel delivery.
Also the online repair manuals had a technical service bulletin on the fuel pump for this specific vehicle. This is why the online auto repair manual can make things easier. What if you had the same auto repair information that the dealership level mechanic has?
But in a format that provides step-by-step instructions and pictures that a person of any skill level can follow. The virtual online auto repair assistance system was created to bring top-level information to the do it yourself auto repair public.
Find the auto repair information you need fast and simple with the online auto repair manuals handy search function. Just type in the component or area of the vehicle you need help with and the online programs gives you with just what you’re hunting for.
No more going through old-fashioned paper auto repair manuals filled with outdated information. You now have access to the same information professional auto repair techs use. Mechanics may have more hands on experience then you but they are not smarter then you, they just know how to find the required information
Mark Gittelman is an ASE Master Technician With more than 24 years experience in the automotive field. For more free information and stories visit his Automotive Repair Information Area. Or if you would like to post a car question visit the Car questions help page.
Auto repair problems 02 toyota corolla
Auto repair problem with a 2002 Toyota corolla. Yes even a Toyota can have mechanical problems. In this case the vehicle owner notified me that her engine was leaking oil and wanted to know if this would be covered under warranty.
The vehicle warranty was 3 years or 36,000 miles which ever came first. The customer had 36,125 miles on the vehicle, just over the warranty limit. I was surprised that the vehicle was having this problem because Toyota’s are very well built.
I did some research on auto repair problems and found out that the vehicle had brand new technology in the engine compartment. This vehicle was the first year for a new engine know as the vvti (variable valve timing).
I used All-Data online auto repair manuals to research TSB (technical service bulletins). The very first bulletin was about engine oil leaks from the front timing cover. I called the customer and asked if the oil leak was from the right side of the vehicle. The customer put some cardboard under the vehicle and confirmed the next day that it was on the right side.
I faxed over a copy of the TSB from the online auto repair manuals and the owner took her vehicle to the Toyota dealer instead of an auto repair shop. The dealership performed the repairs under warranty even though it was technically out of warranty by miles.
As a side note the dealer has some lead way when it comes to warranty coverage. If the vehicle is out of warranty but close the dealer can still cover the repairs under a grace period clause provide by the manufacture.
The dealer can fix auto repair problems for customer satisfaction and brand loyalty reasons. Most dealers will not do this unless you ask. If they refuse to offer you a slight grace period you can call the manufacture and explain that if they assist you, the next time you buy a car it will be their brand because of the support received.
Back to the 02 Toyota corolla story. The owner of the vehicle picked up the car and the oil leak was fixed. The customer was looking at her receipt and the repairs did not match the repairs that I sent her in the TSB. I had her fax me a copy of the receipt.
The warranty paper work stated that the dealer replaced the cylinder head gasket and not the timing cover seal that had been updated by Toyota. I called the dealer to find out why the receipt did not match the repair. I wanted to make sure that the redesigned timing cover seal was installed on this vehicle to avoid future problems.
The service adviser honesty surprised me. He stated that the timing cover seal was replaced with the updated part number but they had charged Toyota to replace the head gasket because the head gasket operation paid more labor from Toyota. So what this meant was the dealership was actually stealing from the factory.
When I went back to the customer and told her the story she asked me to drop it and not get the dealer in trouble because as far as she was concerned the car was fixed properly. The customer felt that looking out for Toyota was not her concern.
I agreed to drop it but I wanted to tell you the story. If the dealer cannot scam you they can still scam the factory. The dealerships lust for money knows no boundaries. This is a good time to touch on warranty repairs and the relationship between the dealer and the manufacture. I have worked at dealers that scammed the manufacture worse than they did the customers.
This affects all of us as in the manufacture takes these loses in account when pricing new vehicles and passes the cost on to the consumer at the point of sale on new vehicles. I have worked for dealerships that pushed the manufacture to the point of the dealership being audited by the factory.
This process is very interesting and I wanted to share it with you. When a dealership performs warranty repairs the factory requires the dealership to turn in the old parts for inspection. Yes the manufacture uses the same techniques I recommended earlier in the verifying the repairs chapter.
The factory does not trust the dealership either. When the dealerships warranty claims exceed what the factory considers normal an audit is performed. The manufacture will send out a factory representative to review warranty claims and old parts.
The dealership is then responsible to pay any charge backs that the factory feels is necessary. If the dealership refuses to pay, then the franchise is pulled and the dealer is out of the new car business. I hope you found these auto repair shop stories entertaining and helpful.
Many more free stories at www.auto-facts.org . Also visit here to learn more about online auto repair manuals
