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Title: Car Mechanics are Weasels
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Published: Dec 7, 2011
Author: Turtle
Post Date: 2011-12-07 18:38:45 by Turtle
Keywords: None
Views: 206
Comments: 24
My check engine light can on and my 1999 Ford Winstar van did not want to start. It finally did, so I took it to the local mechanic whom I had never been to before. It was the Mass Air Sensor. $200 for the part, he told me, $70 labor. I checked at Autozone and got the part for $129. It was located in the air filter. Took me about 45 minutes to change it. Weasels!
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#1. To: Turtle (#0)
You are making a generalization which certainly does not apply to ALL mechanics. I know several who would not take advantage of anyone for anything because they are honorable.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Lord Acton The human herd stampedes on the fields of facts and the valleys of truth to get to the desert of ignorance. Saman Mohammadi The only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. Albert Einstein "...if the military is going to defend our freedoms, then we need freedoms to defend. Our freedoms must be restored before the military can defend them..." Lawrence M. Vance Você me trata desse jeito só porque eu sou preto. Junior (my youngest son)
It was the Mass Air Sensor. $ He diagnosed the problem for you which you did not have the ability to do, evidently. Not trying to be snarky here, just saying. Anyway, I feel the thing you should do in the future is take the vehicle to a parts store, all of them, as far as I know, will do a scan for free, and most of the sales force can tell you what to do with the scan. Or refer you to a at least decent mechanic to do the work. Be interested into what others would suggest, as these new beasts are complicated. They are not all weasels. I know of one who is not only politically astute but is a man of honor.
What is a calorie? Calories are the little bastards that get into your wardrobe at night and sew your clothes tighter... MY CLOSET IS INFESTED WITH THE LITTLE SHITS.
There's a Tool that more folks should buy. It's called an "OBD2" reader. Can be obtained at Wal-Mart, Harbor Freight, for about $100 or less. At Auto Stores they're still getting about $150. Very easy to use, and will readout what's causing your "Check Engine" light.
Good Advice.
thanks for the info.
What is a calorie? Calories are the little bastards that get into your wardrobe at night and sew your clothes tighter... MY CLOSET IS INFESTED WITH THE LITTLE SHITS.
My engine light is perpetually on in my Windstar. And it is tuned up and well maintained. Mine is a 1996 and I've replaced the shocks and struts, done the front brake job they always need at that age, put a newer transmission on it and got a spare engine on Craig's list I keep in a storage locker. It was sold to me for a dollar to avoid the gift tax after I lost my VW bug to storage on the street in Eugene while i was working on forest fires. It would not go into forth gear, and it healed itself a month after I got it. I still replaced the tranny when I found an almost new one at a very kind plce. It was a bear to install though. I never want to do that again. I always keep my cars a long time. I'm 57 and this is my forth one I've had since I got my first of two VW Super beetles. I also have a almost ready to re-title standard bug I bought out of someone's farm field and I am completely overhauling and getting ready to become my primary vehicle. I hate not having a VW Beetle up and running. They are the greatest. I am using my last 1600 engine I rebuilt as a spare for the other one. I need to buy another to overhaul to keep as a spare. so he should pay rent and utilities on a building, advertising and other expenses, buy tools, and work for nothing? Turtles are pea brains.
SolvoSermo.Com Free speech Video Hosting
I have my own OBD II/CAN reader so the only thing I take to the mechanic is stuff I don't feel like working on, and as I know exactly what problem is I never have issues with him trying to pull a fast one, in fact I don't think he tries pulling a fast one on anybody.
I paid less than $60.00 for the one I have, comes in handy and gives me the ability to see if anything is acting squirrely even with out a MIL as it take at least two fault registers to activate the MIL I can look to see if there are any pending fault codes generated by a single registry.
i figured everyone already knew about obd2s ! lol man i got tired of the 'duh- huh, let's hook it up and see how stupid you are ! ?' b.s. in various new cities that i lived in over time.
Add this place to your VW favorites folder, they always have winners in car shows in North Texas.
#2. To: Turtle (#0)
y did, so I took it to the local mechanic whom I had never been to before.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" 
#3. To: Turtle, abraxas (#0)
#4. To: Turtle (#0)
#5. To: tom007, Turtle (#2)
"all of them, as far as I know, will do a scan for free, and most of the sales force can tell you what to do with the scan. "
#6. To: ndcorup (#4)
#7. To: Turtle (#0)
#8. To: Turtle (#0)
#9. To: Turtle (#0)
We are not allowed to make a decision as mundane as what kind of lightbulb we're going to use anymore, but we're allowed to choose who runs the city, state, and fedgoob? Give me a break. - Esso
#10. To: James Deffenbach (#1)
the most factual thing ever posted by buckeroo
I have no freaking' clue. buckeroo posted on 2010-07-24 21:33:00 ET
#11. To: ndcorup (#4)
the most factual thing ever posted by buckeroo
I have no freaking' clue. buckeroo posted on 2010-07-24 21:33:00 ET
#12. To: IRTorqued (#10)
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams 
#13. To: Ferret (#8)
(Edited)
-Alex Kurtagic
#14. To: X-15 (#13)
Thanks, great site. Eugene, Oregon is one of those places that is the elephant's graveyard of air cooled VWs. I ran across an old 1963 standard beetle that still had an intact pan with all it's german steel fenders, deck lid and other parts in repairable condition at an old woman's place by my brother's place in Salem, Oregon. I completely dismantled it and have been methodically restoring it. It is completely unshaved and has no real modifications done to it other then those that make sense like California style window seal rubber, some better then stock engine modifications, headline, seats and carpeting. I used to plaster my bedroom door with VW ads in the 60s and early 70s and my first one was a 1973 Super Beetle I had to really struggle to save for when I was in my late teens as my Mom would not co-sign for anything but a "save real car" like the Ford Pinto she tried to talk me into getting. When the self lighting hibachi barbecue aspects of the Ford Pimple when hit from the rear came out, I never let her forget that. It was the best car I ever had. One time though when I was going tree planting in Idaho I got toilet paper near a vandalized highway restroom sucked into the cooling fan behind the engine doghouse and fried the engine five miles out of Arlington, Oregon and the nearest tow truck in Boardman many miles away wanted 200 dollars to do the tow. I put my shoulder into the door and pushed it back all the way to Arlington. (fortunately much the last mile back was down a shallow hill). I got a ride back to Portland, got $$$ from my sister and Greyhounded back home where I hired a couple sleeping in a pickup near White Bird Clinic to drive me, my tools and a spare engine back to Arlington where I field installed it. We took the dead engine to Portland where I cored it and then went back to Eugene where I had the facilities to make sure everything was rigged right and then headed out to Wallace Idaho to re-join my crew. People can say what they want bout how nasty and dirty tree planting is, but one thing for sure; I would never have had the strenght to do that push without the strength going up and down hills with 65 pounds of trees on my hips with a 19 pound hoedad in my gloved hand. I have a Porsche engine I want to install into a bug someday. I think that is the most carefully rebuilt engine I have ever done. I am from a family into aviation and the first engine I ever 'helped' rebuild was to the family Cessna 140. Which is why I have an affinity for air cooled power plants. I used to make extra money rebuilding engines in the self help car shop at Fort Bragg, N.C. I'd get bored because I didn't drink and go to clubs so I would work on cars, my Harley (Sportster) or Veewees. There was one old cracker in Spring lake who had three derelict oval windows rotting in his collection of VW junk who I tried everything I knew to get him to sell one of them to me. He told me, "I'm saving them for my retirement" (he was in his 60s.) I left before he died and his family sold them. That is my big one that got away. I have a 1600 CC block that has been dye penetrate tested for cracks, line bored and had the case savers installed, but I am going to get an engine from a yard in Portland to make the new spare for the 1963. It was funny how blind I was when I got to Bragg of how many people in other parts of the U.S. judge you by your ride. It wasn't until I got the Harley before some car oriented guys would warm up to me. Taking off the Grateful Dead stickers off the bug helped too. I found an interesting way to get new seats too when I was there in the late 70s before the pee test era. They had dogs go through our cars and one smelled the pound I had had on the seat and started attacking the oder. I objected bu the handler wanted to let the pooch work. They paid for new seats. I made sure I found the most expensive ones before I turned in the receipt to get my claim paid off. It's a good thing I had vacuumed the interior before this happened. I told them I had forgotten my grocery bag one day and the heat in the closed car had done a number on the beef I had bought and that was probably what the dog was attacking.
#15. To: Ferret (#8)
I hate not having a VW Beetle up and running. They are the greatest. I am using my last 1600 engine I rebuilt as a spare for the other one. I need to buy another to overhaul to keep as a spare. That is so cool. I also have a almost ready to re-title standard bug I bought out of someone's farm field and I am completely overhauling and getting ready to become my primary vehicle.
#16. To: Critter (#9)
My regular mechanic would have done it for $100. BTW, one guy, who I will never go to, told me he charged $80 an hour to run a diagnosis. Everyone else I know would do it for free. It took a standard screwdriver and a Torx bit to change the Mass Air Sensor. I know a woman who told me a mechanic told her she needed a new carb. She informed him she had fuel injection. Mechanics consistently tell me my front wheel bearings are $300 parts and labor. I do them myself. Finally I found one guy who said he'd do it for $100. The bearing cost $70 and it takes half-an-hour with power tools. So he's making $60 a hour. so he should pay rent and utilities on a building, advertising and other expenses, buy tools, and work for nothing? Turtles are pea brains.
Modern propaganda as defined by Jacques Ellul is the systematic immersion of the public in a particular way of looking at the world.
#17. To: Turtle, Critter (#16)
Whatever the market will bear. Caveat Emptor! My best mechanic ever was the service manager, at 19, of a 6 stall garage. All it cost for his service was a six pack - and even then he was reluctant to take even that from a friend.
#18. To: tom007 (#2) (Edited)
The '80s Caprices I owned for years could be diagnosed by using a paper clip in the upper two slots in the computer plug-in. This does not work on any new car that I know of. Instead, you're supposed to buy a diagnostic computer or have a mechanic diagnose it. I won't pay $140 an hour (which is what his $70 for half-an-hour would be) for anything. He diagnosed the problem for you which you did not have the ability to do, evidently
Modern propaganda as defined by Jacques Ellul is the systematic immersion of the public in a particular way of looking at the world.
#19. To: Turtle (#18)
How about a Marilyn or Jayne lookalike? I won't pay $140 an hour (which is what his $70 for half-an-hour would be) for anything.
#20. To: Original_Intent (#19)
Plastic or flesh? How about a Marilyn or Jayne lookalike?
Modern propaganda as defined by Jacques Ellul is the systematic immersion of the public in a particular way of looking at the world.
#21. To: Ferret (#7)
I had a yellow light on for a year. It was a part on top of the transmission that prevented the car from starting in drive -- as if you can start an automatic transmission is drive. I was going to let if go forever but it failed emissions because the engine light was on, never mind the fact the code had nothing to do with emissions. The door locks will not lock when the van is in park. I cannot get out and lock the door for a minute. There is way too much nonsense on cars today -- and it generally cost a lot of money to fix these things. My engine light is perpetually on in my Windstar
Modern propaganda as defined by Jacques Ellul is the systematic immersion of the public in a particular way of looking at the world.
#22. To: Turtle (#21) (Edited)
Which is why I adore the venerable VW Beetle; there is nothing I can't fix or know about them -- other then I know better then to try and overhaul a trans-axle (transmission). The only thing I like about my Windstar that is newer tech is the *DING DING DING* it makes when I leave the lights on after turning it off and open the door. I also left the cassette player/radio alone even though my brother turned me onto a usable Ford unit that plays CDs. One of my pet peeves is not wanting to hear music while I drive. I never turn on the radio unless I need a traffic report when there is no one to talk to on my CB radio transceiver. "There is way too much nonsense on cars today -- and it generally cost a lot of money to fix these things."
#23. To: Ferret (#22)
I'm with you on that. I do not like having a radio on while I am driving. I like to be aware of my surroundings and the idiots on the road. A radio is, as far as I am concerned, a safety hazard. The one exception is this long stretches of empty nothing down near Burns.
#24. To: IRTorqued (#10)
I am sure the people we take our stuff to don't rip anyone off. Not that they don't make money, of course they do and I am glad they do. They couldn't stay in business if they didn't. But they have good reputations and all the work they can do. I have my own OBD II/CAN reader so the only thing I take to the mechanic is stuff I don't feel like working on, and as I know exactly what problem is I never have issues with him trying to pull a fast one, in fact I don't think he tries pulling a fast one on anybody.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Lord Acton
The human herd stampedes on the fields of facts and the valleys of truth to get to the desert of ignorance. Saman Mohammadi
The only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. Albert Einstein
"...if the military is going to defend our freedoms, then we need freedoms to defend. Our freedoms must be restored before the military can defend them..." Lawrence M. Vance
Você me trata desse jeito só porque eu sou preto. Junior (my youngest son)
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