Ford white collar guys nixed the engineers recommendations on transmission service on mid-1990′s F150s. This resulted in torque converter lockup shudder. A conversation was had directly with the Ford engineers to obtain this data. The white collar guys knew better than the engineers and recommended do trans service at any interval. They were wrong. Manufacturers do not always have correct recommendations.

I know a lot of good honest mechanics. I know a few stooges as well. Shops that I have worked for for any prolonged period have been honest and reputable. At one shop run by a 35 year veteran with me as his only tech, we virtually never replaced any major components. I attribute this to the good work we did, following manufacturer recommendations on viscosity, diligently selling them valid work which I noticed needed to be done and really staying in communication with them regarding what they were experiencing with their vehicles.

On occasion we had owner diagnoses which we would talk them out of. We would only repair what we could observe, diagnose and honestly would have done for our own vehicles. Of course, I did work for 2 small shops that were less than honest sometimes. I left them. Your book is essentially doing a good thing but some revisions are due. I would love to work with you on it.

The second repair shop said that the parts supplier was at their garage when the line was removed seeing the old orifice tube and claimed that the condenser needed to be replace also or there would be no warranty on the new parts, which turns out not to be true, as they only require the dryer and orifice tube replaced. The labor cost increased to $609.00 plus tax from the original $359.00 and the new parts $475.00. The parts store hearing this story suggested that I pay the second shop for the work to date and they would have a car hauler pick up the car and take it to a reputable shop.

I paid the second shop $136.00 for the labor and collected the parts remove. The third shop called the say that the cost to replace the compressor, dryer and orifice tube $406.00 plus tax even though they don,t have to remove the compressor or water pump. To date I have $673.00 in parts, labor repair and plan to have the car hauled from the third shop to home and fix it myself. By to time that this is over and hopefully my car repaired I will have over $1,000.00 invested, what a nightmare.

I put together a page about how to properly replace an ac compressor. It outlines 10 steps that should be performed when replacing this expensive part. If your 2 shops have not performed these steps your problems may continue. Here is a link to my compressor article. http://www.youfixcars.com/car-ac-compressor.html