My recent car problems
Lately I had problems with my car, which originally were only small problems but ended up costing me $600 due to the idiots at the repair shop replacing a whole bunch of shit.
I brought my car into the shop late last week because of a suspension noise. One of the noises was a clunk when I hit bumps, and the other one was engine noises amplified through the suspension when I turned right.
The shop had been where I had gotten a strut on that side before several months ago, and so I figured if a strut was what was wrong, I could get it replaced on warranty. They told me the strut did need to be replaced and they'd do it under warranty, but they needed to wait until tomorrow when the new strut would come in.
When I brought it in the next day, they called me and said my control arm needed to be replaced as well. Another shop had told me the same thing, so I agreed to it, since it would be shy of $200. I got my car back that evening.
My car was STILL making the same noises.
It was Friday (*ducttapes Rebecca Black's mouth shut*) so the shop wouldn't be open again until Monday. Between then, I did an oil change. After the oil change, my car started leaking oil, so I dropped it off at the shop again.
I loved how my mother made so many excuses on why I couldn't borrow her car (I'm on her auto insurance, though), like it was too far to drive to my house from hers, or I might crash it. So I had to get a co-worker to cover for me for a night.
Turns out, the noise from the car was from an engine mount. The clunk was the engine bouncing, the vibration noise was the engine vibrating against the suspension. And the oil leak was a crack in the oil filter mount. These cost me an additional $400 to fix.
What angers me is this guy didn't tell me about the engine mount in the first place, or that's the only thing I would have fixed. It seems that he just replaced things to see if it would fix the problem instead of actually fixing the problem. "Hmm, let's see if a new strut will fix it. Nope. Okay, a control arm? Nope. Ah, maybe this engine mount." And that's what pissed me off. I don't even know if it NEEDED a new strut, and the control arm could have waited.
Even worse, had I known what the problem was, I could have fixed it myself. Especially the control arm and oil filter mount. The only reason I agreed to the control arm is I figured it was the only thing that needed to be fixed. So I feel I wasted hundreds of dollars I could have saved by doing stuff myself.
At least I got a free strut out of it. But I will probably seek another shop.
I brought my car into the shop late last week because of a suspension noise. One of the noises was a clunk when I hit bumps, and the other one was engine noises amplified through the suspension when I turned right.
The shop had been where I had gotten a strut on that side before several months ago, and so I figured if a strut was what was wrong, I could get it replaced on warranty. They told me the strut did need to be replaced and they'd do it under warranty, but they needed to wait until tomorrow when the new strut would come in.
When I brought it in the next day, they called me and said my control arm needed to be replaced as well. Another shop had told me the same thing, so I agreed to it, since it would be shy of $200. I got my car back that evening.
My car was STILL making the same noises.
It was Friday (*ducttapes Rebecca Black's mouth shut*) so the shop wouldn't be open again until Monday. Between then, I did an oil change. After the oil change, my car started leaking oil, so I dropped it off at the shop again.
I loved how my mother made so many excuses on why I couldn't borrow her car (I'm on her auto insurance, though), like it was too far to drive to my house from hers, or I might crash it. So I had to get a co-worker to cover for me for a night.
Turns out, the noise from the car was from an engine mount. The clunk was the engine bouncing, the vibration noise was the engine vibrating against the suspension. And the oil leak was a crack in the oil filter mount. These cost me an additional $400 to fix.
What angers me is this guy didn't tell me about the engine mount in the first place, or that's the only thing I would have fixed. It seems that he just replaced things to see if it would fix the problem instead of actually fixing the problem. "Hmm, let's see if a new strut will fix it. Nope. Okay, a control arm? Nope. Ah, maybe this engine mount." And that's what pissed me off. I don't even know if it NEEDED a new strut, and the control arm could have waited.
Even worse, had I known what the problem was, I could have fixed it myself. Especially the control arm and oil filter mount. The only reason I agreed to the control arm is I figured it was the only thing that needed to be fixed. So I feel I wasted hundreds of dollars I could have saved by doing stuff myself.
At least I got a free strut out of it. But I will probably seek another shop.