The Service Engine Light: Your Mechanics Dirty Little Secret
Ablang
Submitted by G.E. Miller on Sunday, 31 May 2009
If you’re like me you shiver at the thought of paying hundreds of
dollars for major vehicle repairs. Well, the dreaded ’service engine’
light came on in our Pontiac Grand Am this past week. Even more, you
dread paying $100 just to have your mechanic take a peek at your
vehicle to tell you that nothing is wrong with it – but that’s what
you get for being a reponsible auto-owner. Or is it?Â
There is an alternative to those annoying ‘take a peek at it’ vehicle
labor expenses. And it costs nothing. The service engine light comes
on in your vehicle because the computer has diagnosed that something
ain’t quite right. When the light comes on, a code is stored as the
reason for triggering the light. When you take your car in to get it
checked out, the mechanic hooks up a little diagnostic computer to
your vehicle’s computer. They will then get a code and description
that tells them what the issue is.
The Mechanics Dirty Little Secret
What your mechanic probably won’t tell you is that you really didn’t
need to shell out $100 just for them to hook up their little machine.
You can get that for free at most auto-parts stores. I’ve had this
done at Napa and Advance Auto Parts. It costs nothing. The auto part
stores carry these to cater to DIY’ers in hopes that they, in turn,
buy the auto parts at their store to make the fix on their own. It
takes them 1 minute to do this.
I was relieved to find out that the cause for the light to go on in my
car was a possible vapor leak coming from my gas cap, caused by a weak
spring in the cap. The gas cap costs $10. The store can also reset the
computer so that if the problem persists, the light will come on
again. If it doesn’t, problem fixed.
There probably are some honest mechanics out there who won’t charge
you for this. But good luck finding one.
To the Readers:
* What clever techniques have you used to avoid vehicle service
fees?
* How much were you charged to have your car ‘looked at’?
Tim Wescott
To summarize: The OP wants to be able to drive into any mechanic's
parking lot, interrupt his/her work, not only find out what the car
thinks is wrong but get the benefit of the mechanic's experience with
that particular car and trouble code, chat for half an hour about things
the mechanic couldn't care less about, then drive off to a cheaper
mechanic or the auto parts store -- for free. All the while, the
mechanic in question is earning no money, while he has a shop full of
equipment that's depreciating or accruing rent, and possibly staff that's
sitting idle -- all at just the same speed as it would be as if he were
charging billable hours.
"Dirty secret" indeed. I think I'd want $200.
Vic Smith
wrote:
>
>To the Readers:
>
> * What clever techniques have you used to avoid vehicle service
>fees?
My very favorite trick is when the service engine light comes on I do
this: Hook up my OBD tester to get the code, then fix it.
Second favorite is stuff where no light comes on, but something is
wrong. Whatever is wrong, I fix it. For tricky stuff I break out the
shop manual.
Third favorite is I do regular maintenance stuff, like changing
fluids, belts, hoses on a schedule, and change brake pads before they
wear down to metal cutting the rotors. Same deal with drums.
> * How much were you charged to have your car ‘looked at’?
Last time I did that my mech kept the car almost a week, and his crew
used it to run shop errands, with a portable diagnostic machine
attached.
The problem I took it in for never happened to them. So I told him I
wanted my car back. Tired of driving my wife to work in her car, then
driving in the opposite direction to get myself to work.
When I asked what the charge was, he said,
"Nothing. Didn't do nothing. I'll get you later."
Had more gas in it than when I dropped it off there too.
But he did get me later (-:
--Vic
Scott
"Ablang" <ron...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:8da54854-21c8-471a...@u7g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
The Service Engine Light: Your Mechanics Dirty Little Secret
Submitted by G.E. Miller on Sunday, 31 May 2009
>If you�re like me you shiver at the thought of paying hundreds of
>dollars for major vehicle repairs. Well, the dreaded �service engine�
>light came on in our Pontiac Grand Am this past week. Even more, you
>dread paying $100 just to have your mechanic take a peek at your
>vehicle to tell you that nothing is wrong with it � but that�s what
>you get for being a reponsible auto-owner. Or is it?�
snip
The weak dick that wrote this could have googled "check engine light" in
much less time than it took to write this crap, and found someplace to
check it for free, and shared this with others.
And you are in the same company for pasting the dung here.
But he probably makes $40,000 to write dung for unsuspecting folks, so
he wrote this. Sad.
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