Car service

Today, I will shortly list things you need to be aware of when taking your car for a service.

First of all, almost every single place (maybe besides those most expensive ones) are really based on what you tell them to do and not what you tell them is wrong with your car. So you can go and ask for an oil change, you can ask for tire rotation and things like that. What you cannot do though, is ask for make the car not squeak, or to make it shake less, or to make it more powerful etc.

The reason for that is that when you ask them to make the car squeak less, they will tell you for example that brakes need to be replaced. Then, if you agree, you no longer have an agreement with them about making the car squeak less. From now on, the agreement is to change the brakes. And if after replacing the brakes, the car still squeaks, you are not going to get your money back. It's because the brakes have been replaced and that's what you asked for. If you bring your car back, they will say something else also needs to be replaced, and you are going to pay for that new thing again.

Therefore, if your car has symptoms, it is your job to figure out what needs to be done to it and then you can take the car to the service and ask them to do what needs to be done. You would think that it's best if you let them do the diagnostics. You might be right - it's a good thing to do diagnostics if you don't know what needs to be done to fix the problem. The diagnostics might cost anywhere from $45 to $135. But then, if it's a complicated matter, you will realize that taking the car to another shop and paying another $135 for diagnostics might end up with different results. And you know what? That is exactly what you should do. It's always better to pay extra $90 to be sure what needs to be done than to pay unnecessarily a large sum. Also, many places will not give you back your money if they diagnosed the problem wrong.

At one point I went to a place called America Service Station. They couldn't figure out what's wrong with the car by just doing simple tests. The problem was that the car failed to pass emission inspection even though the check engine light was off. The emission inspection result was always saying that the car isn't ready for a test yet, no matter how much miles I drove. The car should be ready after driving between 50 and 100 miles. I drove over a thousand. America Service Station offered me a detailed check on what's wrong with the car for $90. It took them 2 hours to get the results. They said that the repair is going to cost anywhere from $1,000 to $1,600.

An average person would just settle with that, but my advice is: never do it. Anytime you get an estimate for a large sum, take a car to another place for a second opinion. And never mention to them that you got first opinion. Then, if the second opinion differs, you know that some is either a poor mechanic or wants to rip you off. I went to another place, a local mechanic that has his little shop converted from a run down gas station. I left the car for him for the day so he could do his advanced check on the car. The next day he called me and told me that the car is fixed. I couldn't believe. I was wondering if he put some part for $1,600 in it and how he's going to ask me to pay for it. It ended up that some computer socket was loose and replacing the socket cost only $60. America Service Station did not even want to give me back the $90 for poorly done diagnostics. In fact, they did not even apologize for an attempt to rip me off.

Another advice - check fluid levels in your car before you take it in and know the correct levels and correct color. Also, know how to check your brakes and tires. It's very easy. Many times places that do mainly basic maintenance services like oil changes, wheel alignments etc. will have several options. For example, a basic oil change $22, one with filling up fluids $32 and premium where they will even vacuum inside of your car $50. If you know your car has all the fluids (time it takes to check - less than 1 minute, time to learn how to check - less than 10 minutes), it will save you ten bucks every time you go to do your oil change. If you want to save another $18 - just vacuum the car yourself.

Also, important thing about being able to check fluids - know how often certain maintenance jobs needs to be done. Those car maintenance places often tell you that your steering wheel fluid is too dirty and needs to be replaced immediately, that your transmission fluid needs to be replaced etc. I replaced my steering wheel fluid at Meineke and after 5,000 miles when I took my car to Jiffy Lube to do oil change, they have told me that the steering wheel fluid needs to be replaced. They apparently tell it to everyone who hasn't changed that fluid at their place recently. In fact that fluid should be able to last 15,000-30,000 easily, so if I didn't know that, I would tell them to replace it for me again. Moral of the story - never listen to their advices and follow your on because their main point is to make money.

Also, you might realize that the car maker would list that oil should be changed every 5,000 miles, timing belt every 100,000 miles, while the car maintenance place will tell you that oil should be changed every 3,000 miles and timing belt every 60,000 miles. Yes, they also want to make extra money here. If you look at cars that still have an original working engines and have 200,000 miles on them, and you ask the owners how often they change oil or timing belt, I bet you that most of them do not do it as often as those car maintenance folks suggest. Because it's simply unnecessary.

Also, never go to a place that not too many people visit. One reason is that the place might simply suck. But you probably believe it doesn't since you chose that place, and you believe that the folks there do their job well. You might be right. But there's another problem. Many mechanics will tell you that more parts are broken than really are. And they will do it because they have no customers and they need to make their money. If you want to give money away, I would suggest charities. I even had an incident where a mechanic replaced brakes in my car (because they really needed replacing) but after that the car started shaking when I was braking. The mechanic then charged me another $100 for turning the rotors, and then another sum for replacing the rotors. The rotors were in a perfect condition before I entered the place, so I can assume only one thing there.

And the last thing - consider the value of the fix. If your bumper has a tiny crack that doesn't bother you much, the car has 150,000 miles on it and the fix would cost over $1,000 - is it really worth it? An ABS light popped up, apparently ABS isn't working. Diagnostics plus fixing would run you at least $600. If your car is new, you can get it fixed on warranty. But if it's old, is it really worth fixing it? Consider that 10-20 years ago almost no cars had ABS. Also, if you know how to use brake pedal well, you can perform actually better than ABS. Another example - your CD player broke. Getting another radio maybe would cost just $200. But do you really use the CD player that much? Or think of it this way - if your car never had a CD player, would you pay $200 for installing it? If your car never had ABS, would you pay $600 for installing it? At the end you must know that fixing a small crack on a bumper for $1,000 isn't going to bring your car value up by $1,000 - if a potential buyer finds it, he might want to negotiate a couple hundred, but it will never be the amount you would have paid for fixing it.

So in short: know your maintenance schedule, know how to check levels of fluids and their colors, also tires and brakes, and if there's something wrong with the car, do your own research on what actually needs to be done to the car. Then, once you have the information, you can find a place that will do the service for you for good money. And lastly, think if you really need certain part to be fixed and if it's worth fixing it.