Funny how car maintenance works

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by dsaundry

Grease Monkey's??

You may have a good mechanic that charges you $60 per hour. Better hope his insurance is good, see what happens if he makes a mistake and I will bet he does sometimes, are you covered?? As for cleaning the IAC did he address what caused it to become contaminated, did he suggest a decarbonization or an injector flush? Did he service the air box and clean the tubing to your throttle body? I am not going to get into a finger pointing match with any other techs, but sometimes you get what you pay for. There are some real quality shops, and dealerships out there and they have the right to be paid for their services. There are some not so great shops and dealerships out there as well, and yes, I would like to see them close up their doors. But your statement about having to know less nowadays is misinformed.

Grease monkey is just a carry over name your reading to much into that. My friend is not my mechanic I do all my own and I know what owners have to buy and I think it is hi way robbery, my shop at work, yes even in the military, had to buy about 30K in tools and such just so I could do warranty work on Volvo Penta stuff, which I am a authorized mechanic (grease monkey ) for.

It was myself that fixed my truck, I do my own stuff, and yes I did know what caused to to gum up, bad design, it was common in early truck 4.6 motors, and the easy fix would bypass some of the pollution junk so I just cleaned it when it needed it. I did do the decarbarization, I had an injector service. I did these every year asnormal maintance, I am kinda anal when it comes to my cars.

I am also a heavy duty diesel mechanic, and qualified by solar Saturn to work on there gas turbines. I have spent the last 19 years on courses and practical learning for these and several other mechanical systems. I am also as you put it a backyard mechanic for normal cars, although I like to think I have a leg up on most because of my training. I know the companies make you buy the big 10K reader, I have played with the snap-on one and it is neat even tells you the most common faults that cause the problem. I hate how they have you over their barrel for buying what they say when you can buy software and adapters for a laptop that will do the same thing for 1/10 of the cost. I know nowdays with the readers and newer sensors they tell you if you have a gound fault and let you know where to look, yes there is a learning curve to get good at electronics, but between the readers (good ones) and knowing how to do drop voltage tests and a little understanding of the computer workings it is actualy more simple than working on a old carburated motor that has a no start. alot of the repairs used to be trial and error and hours of trouble shooting, where nowdays you do a scan and where you have to look is narrowed down for you. Heck the Vodia tool for Volvo Penta will tell me which sensor is giving me the problem, weather it is a true reading or false, weather the power to the sensor is shorted or if the signal wire is shorted.


I have several friends who are mechanics, and several of my family are also, I am not knocking the mechanic, but rather the system. the big shops make it very hard for a self employed guy to get a good business going so they have to have lower prices, and I know what happens when he puts a part in that was defective, he eats it and replaces it so he can keep the customers.

anyways aside from that, I have all the respect in the world for honest shops, but they don't seam to be the norm lately.

oh if you want a challenge I got one for you, no one can figure it out, not me, not ford, not and of the other shops I have talked to as it is a real weird one. how familiar are you with 1996 3L Vulcan V6 in the Taurus?

Steve