Do you trust your mechanic?

[NorthShoreBuck]

To reset your check engine light.
Remove the negative battery cable.
Turn on your lights. I know this sounds dumb but it will drain all power from the car and the computer.
Reconnect your battery cable. If the CEL comes back on any time soon after that, blast the MAF with cable cleaner. It is a two wire sensor usually down stream from your air filter. Do not touch the wires, they are delicate. Check your PVC valve and hoses for leaks.
Depends on what model you are driving.
If it is on, the computer will set your air fuel mixture to a fixed point and odds are it is not the best for gas milage or performance.

 

[tedginn05]

Yes i have heard that when the engine light is on, the car goes into a "Safe" mode and you lose gas mileage/performance

 

[BuckBackHome]

To reset your check engine light.
Remove the negative battery cable.
Turn on your lights. I know this sounds dumb but it will drain all power from the car and the computer.
Reconnect your battery cable. If the CEL comes back on any time soon after that, blast the MAF with cable cleaner. It is a two wire sensor usually down stream from your air filter. Do not touch the wires, they are delicate. Check your PVC valve and hoses for leaks.
Depends on what model you are driving.
If it is on, the computer will set your air fuel mixture to a fixed point and odds are it is not the best for gas milage or performance.

I have absolutely no idea what you just said once you started with MAF. The only thing that worries me is about the gas mileage, but I have to admit I drive the car so little (average about 6K a year) that I hardly notice the gas mileage. The performance issue is interesting because the two times the CEL came on was when was hitting the gas on the freeway.

 

[lowkarma]

MAF= mass airflow sensor coming on when you hit the gas could be your throttle position sensor....

 

[coxew]

Absolutely not. I took my car in for a tire rotation and front end alignment one day a while back at Goodyear. They were backed up a bit so the guy told me he'd have one of their mechanics take me back to work so I didn't have to wait. On the way, we were shooting the breeze and he was telling me that the actual mechanics get something like 10% on any sales for "problems" they find. I've had them tell me I needed new brakes after 6000 miles. One time they told me that my rotors had already been turned so I needed them replaced when the last brake job called for new rotors. I later took my car to another garage for a free brake inspection and they were perfectly fine. My dad replaced a battery in my mom's minivan. About a month later, she had a coupon for a free oil change and they tried to sell her a new battery, telling her that it was the original.

 

[ScarletInMyVeins]

My mechanic is the only person I trust with my vehicles. He's been a friend of the family ever since I can remember. If anyone here in Columbus is looking for a good, honest mechanic the name of the place is Skip's Service Center. It's off of Mckinley Rd.

 

[Pheasant]

Do I trust my mechanic?
I have a Camry, so the mechanic doesn't see it very much. After numerous run-ins with shady places (usually the Firestone/Goodyear type places) in Columbus with my old car, I decided I was only taking my car to the dealer. When I moved away from Columbus I got a job at a Toyota dealer as a service writer/parts character. Holy shit what a disgusting business. Not only do they rape you on prices, they are truly dishonest people. The whole mentality of these people, from the mechanics up to the managers, is to "fuck the customer"....a phrase I heard several times. There were some guys I worked with who were genuinely good at their job and didn't need to be dishonest, but they were the vast minority.
Flat rate is the biggest scam they have going, but parts prices are pretty close. If you take your car in for any particular service, the manual tells them how long to charge for that service. 2.5 hours for spark plugs is 2.5 hours, even when it takes them 20 minutes. I have seen a person billed for 17 hours worth of work that was completed before lunch. We had to keep their car overnight so we could justify the bill.
Another problem a lot of places have (usually not dealers- this would mainly be the "tire place" type garages)- is throwing parts at it until it goes away. This is probably what happened to NSB. They didn't really know what was wrong with it, either because they couldn't figure it out or because they just didn't care....so they wanted to throw parts at it.
I still take my car to the Toyota dealer to get fixed when I can't do it myself, but since I know their game I don't get hosed.
One thing I'll definitely recommend: if you take your car somewhere to get fixed and they don't fix it right, don't take it somewhere else. Make the original shop fix it right, or make them take it to the dealer and pay to have it fixed right. For some reason a lot of people seem to pay to have 3 or 4 different shops fix the same problem, only it never gets fixed.

 

[NorthShoreBuck]

Findlay confirmed what I have suspected all along. Didn't Firestone get their ass in trouble for making unnecessary repairs. The purpose of my thread was to warn those that get the hard sell on parts at each visit.

I must say that I do not find fault with my truck. I use, or misuse, it as a work vehicle more than most. I have used it to pull stumps, pull huge oak trees that snapped in half and to drive through creeks and flooded streets up to the wheel wells. I have snapped a 20,000 lb tow rope using my truck to pull down trees. It has had the bed overfilled with trees and dirt. The hunting camps I belong to have clay roads that have huge ruts and holes. It has always started and stopped. It gets 15-16 mpg with a head wind or tail wind.:)

I have a friend that bought one of the first Lexus 300 which is essentially a Toyota Camry. I saw him two years ago and his vehicle had over 300,000 miles. He does the standard maintenance and had the fan and housing repaired once. The paint is faded and the interior has seen better days. That is truly one reliable, remarkable vehicle.