Are There Any Honest Mechanics?

[duster117]

sorry to but in on this thred

but i keep reading about rushing water sound when cold?
what is this linked to?

[scruffboy]

I can't find a chiltons book for my specific year supra. I did find a book (forgot name) on supras in general and it is somewhat helpful. The TSRM is very helpful, but I'm afraid of getting in over my head. I saw a site where they show every part and part number in blow ups and the parts separated. I once saw it on a Body Shop Computer. Does anyone know the URL for this? I think this would be very helpful.

Thanks,

James in NJ

[mrnickleye]

http://www.cygnusx1.net/supra/library/EPC/MKIII_NATO/

[suprra_girl]

the rushing water/gurgling in your dashboard is due to air in your cooling system
you need to burp it

[mrnickleye]

here's a link on 'burping your baby'

http://www.supras.com/06/techcenter/...0f95928a5c87c2

[Isphius]

There is plenty of honest mechanics, but the majority give the rest a bad name. i went to meinike for an alignment, And the guy came up to me and said, your car has a whole list of problems. And after i talked all the BS out of him(guess he realized i knew what i was talking about),they told me i needed a new power steering system and wheel bearings to get an alignment. And they wouldnt even let me in the bay to look at the car. they gave me a 450$ estimate to change the bearings, and said they couldnt even get the rack. And this is after a 2+ hour wait in line to get my car on a lift. So i basically gave meinike the finger and decided never to go back there. I took my car to a little shop by me, that my friend goes to, and the guy aligned my car for 70$. Drives perfectly straight, wheel isnt crooked, anything. shows what shopping around can do too.

[Troyota]

Honestly, owning a Supra is a good way to learn how to work on a car. The Chilton's manual will tell you pretty much all you need to know. If you MUST take it to a mechanic, shop around...I usually take it to the dealership because at least one or two of the guys have been around long enough to have done some work on a 7m engine (if it gets the the point that I need to have someone else work on it, I've really messed something up!). They may charge you a bit more, but I think it's worth it to know that it's being worked on by someone who knows thier stuff. Now, I am ASE Certified (after I bought my Supra) and personally know all the techs at my local Toyota dealer so I would definitely trust them and sometimes call them up for advice.

[supratech]

i am curently in the middle of my automotive apprenticeship, and i've seen a lot and know how this industry works...dishonesty is caused by a "mechanic" that can't make money by being honest, probably because he's lazy or has an addiction he needs to support...there are a lot of scummy people out there that will take advantage of naive people when given the opportunity...there are a few things you can do

1) get a second opinion
2) make friends with a tech (techs are suckers for beer)
3) use your common sense
4) ask questions on this forum
5) learn to do the work yourself, sometimes easier said than done, but it's worth it in the end

[lethalwithasupra]

Ok so all this " honest mechanic " crap ... sorry if it's too full of *itself* or long paragraphs ...

Customer comes in and asks what the dashlights on his van mean. Fuel, handbrake and altenator lights are on while it's runing. They had been comming on and off for a couple of days now, no other problems with the vehicle ( such as overheating from a missing fan belt ). Same-day service sort of thing cos he's a tourist and in a hurry. So I get the job of taking his van appart, the guy hangs out for a bit ( here the boss is fixing his 230V radio for free cos the guy seems cool. Couple other perks to getting his van fixed here. We're like that, multi-skilled and good guys ). Guy takes off on foot somewhere for the day. I take his altenator appart and notice the nice burnt diodes ( someone must've put the leads backwards when it was jump started for them all to go like that ). I take off in the work van to finish off a small mammoth job I started a couple days ago and my boss fixes the altenator and puts it beside the van. At the end of the day the guy comes back and I'm pulled off yet another job ( which was yet another walk-in, but a really good customer ) to put his alt back on. A very busy day or it would have been ready ages ago.

Stupid me doesn't put the belt on right and it flies off the pulley, gets crimped but not broken. Yea don't laugh too hard plz, I ain't happy with it. We can't find another belt for it same day, so we put the buggered belt back on temporary and ask him to come back tomorrow and appologise for all this *yet again*. He has to stay in town overnight. Next day he gets a new belt on URGENT delivery by nine the following am, supplied and fitted free of charge and with a another big fat appology.


Now here's the bit that slotts me off. He comes back, after telling me all is fine ( fuck I hate ppl who can't just say " this isn't good " ), he asks and asks to talk to my boss who was away on a callout. Apparently and you have to look at this from his " point of view " but, and he's " no mechanic, " but it seemed to him that my buggering his v-belt and the alt being buggered had the same symptoms. Therefore the alt was never faulty and the belt had smiply fallen off. And that was the only problem. Apparently I had missed the fact when I took the belt off to get the alt off .... And the boss also missed it when he did the diagnosis work. Right ...

Boss comes back in and tells me this arsehole told him *I* suggested the belt was the only thing wrong. Fucking retard. So I go and talk to him while the boss is hunting through the scrap for this guy's old rectifier and regulator, just to show the guy how visibly damaged they were. I end up explaining to him several times that both *his* fault and the one I caused had similar symptoms, but the guy just isn't listening. Keeps falling back to this stupid line " you have to look at this from my point of view, I'm no mechanic but it seems to me that ... " gist is that the altenator was fine, he isn't disputing that we put new parts in, or accusing us of ripping him off. Just wants to settle on the price, or he'll go get a second opinon and go to the cops if we have ripped him off. Single minded argumenting. Fuck the guy was pissing me off by the time the boss came back out to show him the old bits and point out that if he really wanted to rip the guy off he wouldn't have done a few other jobs for him for free or even taken the alt off the car cos that just took up time. If we really wanted to rip him off we're smart enough to do it well. plus the symptoms were different ( firstly the alt light only came on with the engine running, the other two lights were always on. With the belt being broken all lights were always on ).


Didn't come here intending to post this ... just saw the post and wondered if I'd gotten an answer for the AFM/TPS Q then got to thinking on how sometimes you're not actually being ripped off when you are. Or you're actually trying to rip off by accusing people of ripping you off. No acusations there, I'm just getting really angsty about people who want the earth but wont buy it.

Supratech's advice is good advice.
I'll add
6)only get your car worked on by a tradesman you think you can trust, and don't try to haggle, barter or browbeat after the damn job's done under quote. After all, half of the exchange is how we trust you. Give and take, or there's just no point helping you.