My dad was the manager of a Goodyear for over 40 years and as such one of my first jobs was an auto parts delivery driver. I cannot tell you all of the horrific lies I heard at some of these dishonest repair shops. One that I remember was a mechanic telling this old lady that she couldn’t drive her car because her motor mounts needed to be replaced and that if she drove it her engine would fall out. Even though the whole scenario was ridiculous, the fact that this car was literally less then 2 years old made the diagnosis clearly a lie. As I was leaving I saw the old lady sitting in her car crying and I couldn’t help myself but to stop and let her know that she needed to go get a second opinion and to not stress about it. She took it to my dad and there was literally nothing wrong with her car. Of course, this same disgrace of a repair shop was also one that ordered and returned parts all of the time and was always delinquent on their account payments. I’m glad they went out of business, couldn’t have happened to a better bunch of losers! :-) My dad always said that if you were honest and offered people a quality product at a reasonable price you would be so busy you wouldn’t need to lie and steal. 40 plus years in the business proved him right every time :-)
Honesty makes people trust in you new people keep comin in because they heard good things about you. Thats from my understanding. But then again , wheres the morality in people these days? These guys just gonna keep pulling scams so they can get the easier way out of cash.
I agree with being honest and offering a quality product at a reasonable price. There was a shop I worked at twice. Seven years apart. In 2007 they offered AUTO EXTRA parts for everything. In 2014 they offered AC Delco and Moog parts. However, in my experience, AC Delco parts seem to perform well on GMs. Moog parts are good, but only the box said Moog. What came in the box was not Moog. Anyway, in both instances they were dishonest, offered knock off parts, and charged an enormous price. They are still in business, but have shut down a few stores in the chain.
Cousin took her car to a Midas for a check engine light. They kept her waiting for several hours, then came back to tell her that her car is unsafe to drive and needs $2,700 in repairs. She wanted to refuse but they then pulled this scare tactic on her if they release the car "in its condition" that they'll "have to report it to the authorities." She called me in a panic, I went there myself mad as hell, shouting at the top of my lungs waving my arms everywhere causing a scene, demanding they let her car go, or I'm calling the cops. Cut to . . . it was just her gas cap needed replaced. That was all. They were just trying to take advantage of a young single woman. That Midas has changed management a couple times in the meantime, and has since closed. Good riddance.
I had this exact same experience with Firestone several years ago. I try to steer people as far away from those chain stores as possible. Theyre just a step up from the quick lubes.
I stopped by a Midas near my home last year to get an inspection on my work truck. They didnt pass it because the exhaust wasnt completely welded up. He then said he'd weld it up and pass it for $250. The shop I had do the exhaust used clamps in the pipes from the muffler out. Before the muffler they had welded all up. I called Missouri State Patrol vehicle inspection division ( they oversee state inspections) and was told they don't require exhaust to be welded. But since the shop failed it I really couldnt do anything if I needed the car now. Cant take it to a different shop for inspection either. Had my usual shop weld it up for $100 and took it back. The guy at Midas grudgingly passed it. I told him what the state said and he replied unless he had it signed In writing from the state he don't care.
I agree, and frankly, I think that a lot of automotive repair and service facilities get a bad reputation because of the way that they choose to handle situations like this one. However, not all of these places have this approach. I’ll give you a perfect example. A few months ago I brought my 2005 Honda CRV in to the Honda dealership for a water leak that was coming in on the drivers floorboard every time it rained it was like Niagara Falls and since my car is a stick shift that makes it especially challenging to drive in the rain and so they diagnosed diagnosed the water leak to be coming from the front windshield which I had replaced, and to be blunt I was going to replace it because it already had a bunch of dings in it and it needed to go but that did not solve the issue of the water leak so I took it back to them and they realize that the previous Honda dealership that had replaced the hood cable prior to my ownership of the car failed to reinstall the rubber grommet going into the firewall for the hood cable, and that was allowing water to enter the inside of the cabin. Needless to say they did not charge me for that repair because they miss diagnosed it the first time around. This here is an example of good business ethics my family and I have known the staff in personnel at this dealership for multiple decades. Now we’ve purchased cars from them and had our car serviced with them over the years and they’ve taken very good care of us, and they realize that this was a mistake on their part, and they owned up to it, so I was happy to see that. I wish that more places would own up to their mistakes the same way that this dealership did.
@mds2465 nah, GOOD ethics would have kept you from buying a windshield by way of inaccurate diagnosis.. with water intrusion, it only takes a cup of water to prove or disprove said inaccurate diag.. they should have caught it. Be interesting to hear how a water leak makes driving a manual difficult
a lot of shops don't spend time diagnosing the car because it takes too much time. Instead they throw parts at it thinking that will solve the problem, then bill the owner for it.
It's all in the wording which they go through training what to say. "We Recommend" that you this then you ask why does it need to be done they will never answer they will reply with we recommend
I heard this one from my Dad, back in the mid 70's I believe. One of his employees told him that his retired Dad took his car to a trans shop for fluid and filter at big (back then trans shop) After a bit, they wheeled his trans out showing him all the bad parts. He then told the tech "I am a retired trans tech, my car is chrysler, and that is a Ford trans" "Give me my car back NOW! (I think he took the legal action and won)
I had a car in the mid-late 90s where the sunroof stopped working and was stuck fully open. I brought it to the dealership where I bought it used. The dealership said the warranty was just engine and drive train, so it wasnt covered. I conceded that point. I sat in the waiting room for quite a while, but wasnt how long they actually looked at it. I dont remember exactly what they said was wrong, or if the knew what was wrong. However, they did say the sunroom assembly had to be removed and that was going to be $800. I said I couldnt afford that. The manager pulled out a calculator, punched in some numbers and said they could do it for $600. I said I would think about it. I was driving the car home and was passing by some podunk mechanic shops and thought why not see what they say. I pulled into one and "spoke" to a mechanic that only spoke Spanish. Mostly it was pointing that talking. He nodded and took the car into the shop. Probably less than 10 minutes later he comes out and said "Relay. $40." I nodded yes and a few minutes later it was fixed. I was very happy. I called the dealership and complained that they were trying to rob me of $800, but of course I got some BS apology stating they would have realized it was the relay and not charge me that much. Sure.
Funny that you mention dealerships -- folks any time you have anything done in a dealership they're going to charge to the hilt. (this is not "cheating", but rather charging for convenience / specific expertise) So if they say, "it's not covered by warranty," you should say, "it's not for you to fix." (with few exceptions). I heard a story from a friend 20 years ago who was going to get automotive repair training from a major mfg. He said that they had specific training on how to scam people. I'm not sure if the context was "how to discover when some other mechanic is scamming" or "how to do the scamming yourself". I think the later, because if you know your trade you can detect the former. It was not Ford or GM that he went to, it was a foreign make and I don't remember which one. He quit the course and went elsewhere.
I do a majority of my repairs except for welding and some electrical. But nowadays if it's a big repair and don't have the time, I will bring it to a nearby shop that I trust. Hard to find a decent shop these days.
Same if I can avoid it. Had a bill for a rack and pinion magically jump from 1300 quoted to 1800 over night. After seeing the totaled bill charge 100 for parts listed at 40 walk-in, it made more sense. Then seeing the "10% vet discount" only take off 100 of that same 1800, I had some words for my buddy who recommended Big-O.
Same. All of my cars are over 20 years old, so it's not too hard, although I spent quite a bit of money on diagnostic tools. It's still cheaper than a mechanic. And I started building my tool sets in about 1992. Started with 3 socket sets and one combination wrench roll. I probably have a quarter million tied up in tools now. So for anybody just starting out, you CAN do a LOT of work with a minimum of tools. Buy the specialty stuff as you need it and keep on truckin'. And never give up. Tenacity is the key to this.
Another thing is heavy research. A huge percent of online nonsense is just that, nonsense. I'll spend 8, 12, 14 hours on research. Sometimes weeks. I was never a professional auto mechanic, so much of what I do I'm doing for the first time.
@@jemcnair76 You sound exactly like me. My newest car is almost 17 years old, oldest one is 26 years old, and I've been slowly buying tools since 1998. I have quite a few now along with multimeters, diagnostic tools, and a few obd2 bluetooth adapters that I use with the Torque app. Picked up HP Tuners several years ago to build up my oldest car and tune it.
Before my wife met me see always went to a quick lube place and they always replaced the PVC valve. The problem is her cavalier didn't have a replaceable PVC valve. She spent over $150 on a non replaceable part. I went down to the shop in my work clothes and ask them to show me the PCV valve you replaced. They said the valve wasn't replaceable. I then pulled out all her receipts and got a refund and told them they are lucky I didn't file a class action against them.
Now with a lot of cars switching to electric power steering I get nervous that people are going to get sold power steering fluid flush from the car doesn't even have power steering fluid. So for people that don't know much about their cars I think it's very important to know what type of power steering system you have.
@@robertknight4672 That happened to me. It was "Low and Leaking." Looked dead into his eyes and asked is it sparking. Then I was in the lobby and they guy never looked at the next person car and told her the same thing.
I had a body shop manager tell me that he couldn't let me leave because my car had a broken turn signal cover. I looked at him and told him there was no way he could stop me! Needless to say, he didn't do the work on car and after I told my insurance agent about it, that body shop was no longer on their preferred shops list.
I have actually caught a dealership trying to replace a new part that I had just replaced the week before. I called them out on it right in the middle of the waiting room.
I once worked at a shop that was the reverse of this. One day a customer brings in his Ford Focus and tells the owner it misfires sometimes. I have a look and call plugs and wires. The wires did look worn, cracked insulation and I didn't want to risk pulling a wire off in case it breaks. The owner prepares an estimate and tells the customer. The customer explodes!!! "Do you think I'm a woman? I replaced the spark plugs last week! I said it WAS misfiring. It's fine now!" He still paid the $99 diag fee, but I don't know why you would want to pay a drivability charge on a car with no issues. Another incident. A guy brings in his Chevy Astro van, after replacing the plugs, wires, cap, and rotor himself, for an emissions test. He says it has a misfire and thinks he didn't put all the spark plug wires on correctly. He wants that checked before the emissions test. I get it and the CEL is on, but no misfire. There is nothing wrong with the work he did. I run it and it fails on NOx. The vehicle owner is pissed that it failed. We shouldn't have run it. He agrees to the diag to find out why it failed, but it goes to the other mechanic in the shop. He hooks up the scan tool and finds P0420. Low Catalyst Efficiency Bank 1. An estimate is prepared and the customer reveals then and there that he thought the CEL only came on for misfires. That's why he replaced the parts he did. He calmed down after OBD2 was explained to him.
Whenever i go to my mechanic to fix an issue, he always tells me "Nah, just leave it alone, no need to waste money on it", I always have to insist on him to fix it. great guy.
I'm glad you made this video. I've been a mechanic for 36 years and have walked off the job because the boss was a crook. Carma caught up with that one. And I worked for one guy for over 14 years BECAUSE he is so honest. Like you.
I quit an apprenticeship when the same jobs price went up with customer age and then I was asked to leave washers loose under a heat shield so they would eventually start vibrating.
My son took his car in to the dealership for a recall. HE returned, crying, as they gave him a several page list of recommended fixes, about $3,300 worth. I looked it over. "Never mind". Every item was negligiblly worn. Not a single one was needed.
Don't forget also the scenarios where they were meant to do just a standard oil change and the car NEVER left the parking spot to be worked on and they tell the customer later on that their vehicle has been serviced. My friend had that happen to him where he left the car with the service to be done and he was sitting out across from where he parked his car and he went back in a couple of hours later and they said it was done. He said "I was sitting outside near the car and it never moved!"
I always just do a quick check of the mileage when I drop my car off for that exact reason. I once asked a dealer service writer how my car went through a “full test drive” when the mileage had only increased by half a mile on the odometer.
As a shadetree mechanic, you would be absolutely floored by the amount of times I take my car in for an inspection and the place tries to sell me something I literally installed a week prior.
I remember in high school, my buddy had a mechanic rebuild his 340 mopar. Before he brought it in, he engraved the carb, and other parts. The mechanic actually showed him another carb and said it was his. When he told the mechanic (the owner of the shop) that he had engraved several parts, the guy started back peddling with excuses. These scams have been around a long time.
Being ripped off from a JiffyLube was the reason I got into cars. Embarrassing story but led to a future of car meets, garage work with friends, and money saved in the long run.
Here in Canada, we have Speedy Muffler and Midas who tries to rip you off by printing out a giant list of things to be done to your car that you don't need. Both companies cannot be trusted.
pretty much all mechanic shops to be honest. and also Car wizard himself is a scam, i saw a video where he charged his parents money for fixing their car ! imagine. His parents paid for his food, school, cars and everything when he was young and now his gift is charging his parents :)
Yeah it's hard to find an honest shop. I work on my own cars outside of exhaust welding and some electrical, but I do have a good local shop that I trust in the event that I don't have the time to tackle a major repair.
This is why “Right To Repair” laws are so important. If you are forced to go to only the dealer or a very few select repair shops then the scamming will increase exponentially.
Dealers are the biggest scammers around. My wife leased a Mazda 3 in 2015. First inspection after 12 months with only 3,000 miles, they told her she needed rear brake pads, 4 wheel alignment on top of the oil change. Such crooks.
I would love to see a video where you show some of your failures. I'm not being negative here. I work on machinery for a living and an occasional misdiagnosis happens. I would love to hear some stories on how you handle those situations. A person's character can be shown in how they handle their own shortcomings. May you both be blessed.
Hey man how's your faith going? I found you through the amazing atheist like a decade ago and have since stopped being an atheist. You haven't made religious videos in a while it seems
I always wonder about shops who "sabotage" things in order to create more expensive repairs down the road. Purposely leave things loose or do something to cause a part to wear out.
Had that happen to me. Had car in the shop for a fuel pump. Since they had it on the lift and it was due I gave the go ahead for an oil change. Next time I went to do my oil, the filter was on there so tight I almost broke it off the block trying to get it off. This was the attempt to prevent me from doing it myself so I'd have to bring it in for an oil filter that was stuck. My mom used this place and I went to change her oil and same issue. Neither of us use it now
My grandpa told me that back in the day when gas stations would check your oil, belts, hoses etc. it used to be commonplace for the attendant to take a pocket knife to your belts and hoses and say “those need to be replaced, we can do that here if you like!” So my grandpa started telling these places “go ahead and check under the hood, but if there’s anything wrong with it, I’ll take it to the next shop to have the work done.” Suddenly he didn’t have to replace belts and hoses nearly as often…
I bought a truck this happened to. The old owner had a shop not clamp a hose correctly so a water leak. The shop also caused a vacuum leak causing failed epa inspectuon. I did tell the guy I biught it from the failed inspection was easy fix. He didn't believe me. So I got a great deal. I bought truck, tightened the loose clamp and replaced a vacuum hose. 2 years later no repairs needed.
The big issue with good mechanics is they are very busy and some smaller shops will have a wait time. My wizard and friend is 80km away from me, I will still bring him my car because he's awesome. The only issue is he's a nice guy and doesn't know how to say no when he should so... always a backlog. Excellent mechanics don't always have excellent scheduling skills.
I caught a guy at a quick lube place that I brought in for a oil change and he changed the oil but only installed the dipstick partially in the dipstick tube and came back and told me in needs two more quarts of oil and that I needed a $60 air filter. I told first off, I'm a mechanic. Second, why don't you stick the dipstick all the way into the dipstick tube and check the oil properly. Third, that is NOT the air filter to my car as I just changed it. Fourth, I'm really only here to see how you guys conduct business because your company overcharged and took advantage of my mother. The manager came over and said my oil change was on the house and refunded my mom on her unnecessary items. Some mechanics should go into some of these places just to keep them honest. Thank you Mr Wizard for all your videos! God Bless!
I had that at the local Ford dealer..we took my father in laws car for a oil change because he could no longer drive and our son was buying the car....we were waiting in the lounge and I went to the bathroom and as soon as I left, one of the attendants came over and started telling my wife this and that needed replaced....have not been back since.
I struggle finding honest help in any trade. Home contrsctors, electricians, plumbers, mechanics... it's ridiculous. I know there are honest ones out there like Wizard, but seems impossible to find them. It's driven me to DIY as much as I can, but eventually projects pop up I just can't do. Recently needed an electrician and found one with with 2k+ reviews and a 4.8 star rating. Talked to the power company guy who came out first and he told me to cancel that appointment ASAP. Even with reviews it's impossible to identify good vs bad.
As an electrician, find an independent electrician that is licensed and does work on the side. One lady was quoted $20k to wire her shop up by a large residential contractor. I did it for $5k in 2 days.
One key method to avoid a repair shop scam: check out how busy they really are. The first indicator that someone might try to sell you work that you don't need, is "business is slow". As a young sprout I once worked in a garage, where a licensed mechanic took a chisel to a flywheel to knock off a few teeth. Instead of just replacing the starter which had died, he turned a half hour job into four. Be very wary of shops with guys standing around with their hands in their pockets!
Yeah, I use probably the only reputable mechanic in town - he's always overflowing with customer cars, the USPS, all the local police departments without their own mechanics, reputable used dealers, and anyone else in town who knows better uses him, might take 9 hours to get a simple oil change done, but anything he does will be done properly the first time and they don't nickle and dime on stuff that isn't an immediate concern. Can take a couple weeks to get an opening in his schedule, but the alternative is Valvoline or Firestone, so its worth it.
Also Google tells you how long they've been in business. From my experience the shops that have been around for 30+ years and don't give corporate answers to negative reviews are the shops you can trust. By corporate answers something like "We're sorry about your negative experience, we'll talk to the tech to prevent this in the future. " Non-corporate answers something like "You came in yelling profanity and called our tech 'a good for nothing *racial slur*' Of course we're going to yell at you, and you're banned from coming back. "
The worst are the dealers. I brought my minivan in to fix the rollers. Car was at 85k miles. They fixed and said there was an additional 6k worth of work to be done including front and rear bushings as well as valve cover leaks. I took my car to a mechanic ( now my go to mechanic) and gave him the list. I told him let me know priority and what he thought. He went through the entire list and said the only thing needed were sway link arms at 200 dollars. There was just a slight leak in the rear valve cover and not worth replacing and tightened it Al little and it stopped leaking. He has replaced my struts at 110k and still found no need to replace the valve covers.
Ya the dealership just wanted to sell me valve cover gaskets and wanted over a thousand dollars to do it. They have VERY minor seepage but of course they didn't mention that detail
I have heard of the blown headgasket scam. Two people come to look at car. Second person distracts owner while first person pours oil on exhaust manifold while engine is running and the two claim headgasket is blown then tries to lowball seller claiming a blown headgasket or engine damage. Don't fall for this.
That's why it's important to know your car. Before I got my car checked, I looked under it before cold start. I did see a oil stain on the parking spot. I did not say a word of it to The mechanic. He found that the seal ring from the crankcase was worn. He fixed it. Now the car has a rear wiper motor with play. The car has no contact with a day time running light. And luckily for me, the start/stop system DOES NOT WORK 😂😂
Fortunately for me the oil change location in my hometown was owned by an independent owner and he always treated his customers well never upsold anything and was always honest upfront if your car did need any work done. You know they’re good and well know when they normally have a 2-3 hour wait for service with vehicles lined up out the back. And the hilarious part is there is a jiffy lube just 3 blocks away on the same road and they never have any vehicles in sight when I go by.
I started my own synthetic mobile oil change business in late August and the horror stories I have seen from quick lube places so far is unreal. Drain bolts halfway out, cut underbelly panels, stipped out internal hex bolts. I hopefully can get to this level in a couple of years. Did a 2015 750li BMW which takes 10qts. Charged the woman $120 The oil and filter is only $60. I'm trying to put Jiffy Lube, Valvoline, Midas etc out of business.
@@elmayimbe_the_amateur_mechanic I would never go to any of those name brand companies. My ex gf took her Chevy to one when we were together and those people have no idea how to do maintenance on a vehicle. They tried to get her to change her air filter cause it looked dirty. I told them right in front of all the customers to blow it out with the air hose and put the damn thing back on. When I was in high school I had a Chevy Beretta and my local oil change place always took care of me. Even did a few minor repairs for me. They had actual mechanics working for them which is a plus. Not just someone that replaces oil lol 😂
@@elmayimbe_the_amateur_mechanic The dumpsters outside quick lube places must be full of under trays and the little doors on them. Seems they like to leave them off as if they don’t matter.
Always mark your oil filter before going in for an oil change if you do not do the changes yourself. This way you can make sure it was actually changed.
I took my 2005 F150 5.4 to my local mechanic after I changed spark plugs/coils and spent 3 days diagnosing a developed misfire. They picked it up with their rollback and then proceeded to take 2 months to fix it, they cut connectors and replaced new functioning coils but never fixed the issue and constantly gave me run arounds. Finally I told them enough I'll figure it out. Well i got it home and pulled the misfiring plug and instantly saw the sooty crack in the porcelain (I used a magnetic socket instead of a rubber one and if you know 5.4 plugs then you know they're a mile long and delicate). 🤦♂️ 2 months and they never bothered to pull the spark plug, granted I didnt either. But this is a mechanic that's been doing it since before I was born and I'm 38. Some mechanics never learn to actually diagnose and spend their whole lives firing the parts cannon.
I had to butt into a heated conversation at WalMart a couple weeks back. Customer was extremely upset because the oil light was on and engine was extremely noisy after oil change, service manager had told the customer to drive it back (with no oil), and was in the process of explaining that because it was still running, no damage had occurred in the 2-3 miles it drove without a drop of oil. I advised the customer that he should not leave the store without a written commitment to replace the engine. The service manager, who didn't personally made the mistake, had undoubtedly been stocking shoes until recently, was extremely upset at me.
The Wizard always keeps a pretty even keel attitude in the videos, but you could see that telling some of these stories was really getting under his skin that it happened. That’s a good character trait to have. Bad mechanics make people like the Wizard’s job harder. I work for a home builder and I’m very proud of the service, quality, and value we provide but there are so many bad builders out there it makes our job harder too. Keep being you, Wizard.
I went to a AAMCO once with a family member who doesn't know much about cars because their BMW went into "Transmission Failsafe / Limpmode". And the lady at the front desk, probably the wife of the franchise owner, was adamant that the transmission had probably gone bad and needed replaced. This was before they even looked at it. I had known from before going into AAMCO during a google search that the problem most likely wasn't the transmission. Turned out to be a bad ABS switch or something.
Something I learned as a BMW E38 7-Series owner is that knee-jerk reactions because "German is scary" seems to be common and often means "easy profit" for scammers. What I had before my E38 was the other car that makes shops cry, a Mazda Rotary. FC model RX-7 with a 20B-REW conversion (from a Eunos Cosmo), and the only person to make the sequential twin turbo control system work properly. Fun fact: I am the one that certifies individuals and shops to perform work on the Eunos Cosmo. Because I wrote the Workshop Manual for it, I am the foremost authority on it outside of Japan. And a 20B Cosmo has a LOT in common with an E38 too. Had a chain tire shop try and pull the upsell BS on me on parts I have records of being replaced by the previous owner. Before they could react, I was yelling at them in Japanese and the German word "Scheißkopf" came out at least 5 times. Think Asuka Langley Soryu from Neon Genesis Evangelion and you'll get the idea. Bottom Line: Don't piss off someone that reads service manuals in both German AND Japanese, they just might be Batman. ABS Wheel Speed Sensors do not cause Transmission Failsafe Mode. The wheel speed sensors report to a completely different system, commonly called ASC/DSC in most BMW diagnostic tools. Same deal as on a 20B Cosmo, which I've diagnosed in about 15 seconds from the other side of the planet in a facebook call from New Zealand at 2am. The short explanation for Transmission Failsafe Mode is "something is electrically behaving different than what it should be" and returning strange values back to the ElektronischeGetriebesteuerung. So it goes to Failsafe (4th gear only) which removes all of the solenoids from the equation so the car can be driven safely without something going bananas and causing damage. The most usual suspect is a failing solenoid, diagnosed in the same manner as an oldschool 4L60E in a Chevy or a Q4A-EL in a 20B Cosmo.
Speaking of AAMCO. I took in a Dodge 1500 4x4 truck that could not shift into reverse. I agreed to have it rebuilt. The guy wanted to charge $200 or so more for electrical harnesses and replace them along with the rebuild and I was a dummy and told him no. I then drove 800 miles up the CA-5 towing a u-haul trailer with all my belongings. (southern california, heading to middle of oregon). Right up at the border, the transmission broke down and I had to have it towed the difference into Oregon to another AAMCO. I was very impressed with the mechanics I met in Oregon both times I went to AAMCO's in Oregon, but they were not able to fix it either. And both times I offerend to pay extra for the electrical harness, both times no charge and I have no idea if they changed the wiring harness. I ended up giving the truck back to my father, who had a buddy and the buddy fixed the issue in 30 minutes replacing a wiring harness. (No idea if it was the same wiring harness). I got the impression through all this that the guy in California was adamant on the phone with these AAMCO people about NOT fixing that wiring harness. Bottom line -- I will never go to an AAMCO again. Oh and btw -- that is the only non GM truck I've ever been impressed with. ;-)
I'm a Honda mechanic and have been for a few years. Before that, I worked for a chain that worked on everything. I worked on a lotnof Benzes, including a lot of the side work I did for friends and acquaintances. Benzes are actually pretty easy to service in my opinion, and I actually like working on them, especially pre-2018 or so. And yeah, I've told everyone who will listen to avoid Quik Lube places like the plague. They either upsell you everything needlessly, mess your car up, or both. My dad and uncle both got burned from it and some of the first jobs I did were minor jobs they tried charging my mom $150 for with me in the store with her. I told her to just go down the street to the parts store, buy the parts ($25), and that I'd change them for her. And this was when I was maybe 17 and still knew very little about auto maintenance, I still knew she was getting ripped off.
While coasting 70 plus mph on Interstate 55, my car began rattling along with all the Dash Lights coming on, my assumption was oh my God is the alternator going out it? It turned out that the positive battery cable end was loose. All I had to was tighten the cable end and not had any problems since! My advice to people is learn as much as you can about the Components of a Vehicle to where you can fix the problem yourself. Major Problems such as Timing Belt about to break, send it to Car Wizard!
A friend several years ago worked at a quick lube place and they kept a filthy air filter on a back shelf that they broke out whenever they thought they had a naive customer that wouldn't question them. Sad.
I had company cars for years that had to be maintained at one of a couple quick lube places where we had charge accounts, and the air filter (cabin and engine) was flagged for replacement almost every visit - that should not be an every 3-4 month thing, but they knew it was a corporate vehicle and nobody was going to flag it, easy money. My boss told me to just get whatever service was advised every time, so no one at the company fleet department could ever ding us for not maintaining our vehicles, so, whatever, wasn't my money.
Here in Australia there was a major scandal some years ago involving a well-known national chain of suspension shops. At the time they offered something along the lines of a 120 point suspension "safety check" for like $19.95 or something (or in some cases, even a "special' free safety check); the TV commercials for these safety checks would usually run just before the holiday season, and implore people to get their vehicle's suspension checked out before possibly endangering their family's lives on the roads during the upcoming holiday road-trip season (scary images of freeway wrecks would be screened). Anyway, after the customer handed their keys over & was then kept waiting in the lounge outside by the office for half an hour or so drinking free coffee & soda, an ashen-faced service manager would come in glancing intently at a sheet of paper in his hand and sombrely announce "Sir/mam, please come with me; I need to show you something extremely serious". The customer would then be taken out to the shop where their vehicle (often only 4 or 5 years old with under 40K miles or so on it) would be up on a lift, where a couple of mechanics would be waiting under their vehicle with a two-foot pry bar, where one would then lodge it up between the control arms, sway bars etc and (with a nod & a wink from the service manager) apply his full weight on the bar against the various components to manipulate them while the other mechanic would apply severe upwards and lateral force to the road wheels in jerking movements . "SEE THIS!!!" the service manager would exclaim with exaggerated alarm and point to a tie rod end or track bar etc "IT"S MOVING; THIS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!!!" The customer would then be promptly provided with a repair estimate to replace shocks, ALL the bushings, tie rods, ball joints, steering components etc and be presented an estimate for several thousand bucks and told that the vehicle was far too dangerous to drive until this serious defect was fixed. Of course it was all a scam and the demonstrated movement was completely normal and within spec. Once all these "defective" parts were removed & replaced and the customer billed a couple of grand, the service manager would then auction off these pristine and near-new "defective" components that had been removed at the end of the day to his complicit mechanics so that they could then repair and upgrade their own personal vehicles after hours in the shop using them. Despite a class-action lawsuit and a massive finding against this company (with a court-ordered fine in the millions) they are still in business today a decade or so later, believe it or not.
Wow, incredible. And the logic to defend/justify the behavior was probably “Well the customer saw it with their own eyes! We showed them the exact issue and they approved the repairs!”
Poor bastard sticks someone up for rawmen money and tampons and they don’t hesitate to send him to hell but these goons fuck 10 old ladies out of 3 grand each in a days work and its a slap on the wrist!
As someone from the computer world, its exactly the same with computer and electronic shops. "oh yeah uhh... let me get the service manager" "oh yeah you're right, sorry about that. that falls under warranty so you don't have to pay 300$" (but they only admit that after I explain to them my credential and how whatever they're saying doesn't make any damn sense)
You're correct Car Wizard! This is same reason that I insist on watching when someone is working on my vehicles. I don't care if someone says this is not allowed but I'm always outside the service area. Great video!
Another thing the quick lube/oil change places do is bring in a dirty air filter and claim it's from your car (when it's not), then change it out and charge you 4-5 times what one costs from an auto parts store.
This is such great advice! I’m a GM for a major auto parts company. Every day I see customers come in terrified because of a dealership telling them tall tales about their vehicle. About 99% as you say here is absolutely false. The best thing you can do is arm yourself with basic information about your car! Even if you have a “trusted” mechanic. Never, ever trust all your car needs to your dealership. Most of these guys are imbedded in a commission based business structered to add on everything they can. Fear is their most useful tool to accomplish this!
I mentioned this in another one of your videos that I recently had a lift installed in my building. We have 3 vehicles and I should be able to easily do my own maintenance and change out most parts. I'm changing the exhaust on my 2014 Mustang GT and boy does the lift make it so much easier. Next will be to drain the transmission fluid in the pans and replace the fluid and filters in the Mustang and the 2012 Expedition. My lift will pay for itself in no time.
I've been a self employed mechanic for 4 years now. I've had an abundance of work for 4 years. Never a slow week, but I've always been honest with customers.
I agree with you, took my SUV to a dealer for a recall and they found $800 worth of work. I replaced the battery and other filters for under $200 with better parts.
I’ve worked at a dealership and I feel like there’s a difference between upselling and and outright scam. Even on oil changes we would check safety components such as tires, brakes, and suspension just to make sure they were all in good condition. If not we would suggest a repair to the customer. We had to fire a couple techs because they would suggest bs jobs that obviously weren’t needed. We caught one guy sprinkling metal shavings from a rotor he had resurfaced into the oil then claim the customer needed an engine repair. That’s the point where I consider it a scam.
It's frustrating dealing with customers who have had to deal with incompetent mechanics. They lose their trust in everyone. As long as you do quality work, you'll be fine, Mr. and Mrs Wizard! Thanks! ✌️❤️🙂🇨🇦
Great video. This year, I experienced local versions of the Car Wizard when my used car, and used tractor need repairs. The independent shop repairing my tractor A/C misdiagnosed the problem, and installed an unnecessary $1,200 part. The owner "couldn't in good conscience" charge me for the part, and the lost money on the successful repair. For the first time in 20 years, I took my used car to a dealer, and they replaced the necessary electronic part, but couldn't complete calibration. Head office told them to replace other parts, but the dealer wouldn't, because everything else worked well until the original part failed. After spending many hours diagnosing, they discovered only the new part was defective, and replaced it. I was only charged for one part, and the original 1.25 hr book time.
I've experienced these sorts of things with some shops. One guy I'll never forget told me I needed the front suspension rebuilt, because the wheels could just come off going down the road. That's when I decided to call a friend of mine who has a repair shop. I'd wanted to keep our friendship completely separate from any repair business as sometimes mixing the two together doesn't work out. Well, I found out the opposite was true. He looked at the car, all it was in need of were new shocks, the clunking stopped, and the ride improved significantly. I've been going to him ever since, and thanks to this channel I have a much better understanding of how things work and the automotive terminology. Now when I go for oil and filter change I know he's going to look the car over and won't do anything else without calling me first. It's super rare that anything other than routine maintenance is needed. It's a Toyota.
Omg.. thank you for being a no nonsense straight shooter. I had this shop my company has been doing business with for 15+ years tell me this Prius I had just gotten with only 140k miles wasn't safe to drive. "Sir, do you have another car to drive?" He went on to say my shocks were unsafe(even though they weren't bouncy at all), rear drum shoes low(they were but I hadn't heard any squeaking and said I'll do it myself which I did), and "OHH BOY," he said, "your air filter? Way overclogged. Unsafe." I just laughed and said thanks for telling me, but the suspension rides just fine, and I'll do the drums myself. Is the oil change completed? I didn't even acknowledge his mention of the air filter being the dangerous thing to watch out for. I just looked at him like he was dumb when he said that part 😅 on top of everything what made it worse it that this was the shop owner.. the head honcho.. the big guns! And thankfully I was experienced enough to sniff out the scam. Educate yourselves, y'all! Do all the work you feel comfortable doing yourself and if you don't know something, try and learn it. You may be capable of more than you think!
Glad to see you're healing & starting to be yourself again. I wish you guys were closer or visa/versa, your shop would be my #1 place to go! Much success as you certainly deserve it! Stay well & happy holiday's!
Went in for a mandatory etest a bunch of years ago with an old Chevy Van with a TBI 5.0. After it failed they tried to tell me it was the fuel injectors and that they would have to take the top of the engine to pieces to get to them. I paid for the test and took it somewhere else where they changed the cat for a junkyard one I provided and it passed with no problems.
When i was 17 my girlfriend at the time got ripped off by a shop for a clutch replacement on her maxima. All that was wrong was a bad slave cylinder, but they charged for a clutch and i could see that none of the bolts were touched except for the bleeder on the leaky slave cylinder. Her dad was friends with the shop owner, so he wouldn't listen to me about being scammed... You could even feel that the clutch was the same, it used to shudder and that was still there after they "replaced" it.
A friend recently had their mid 2000s Malibu serviced at a Chevy dealer. They replaced the gas tank, filler neck, some lines to the tank, and the exhaust including the catalytic converter. The bill was over $6000. I had her send me a picture of the invoice. First of all, I have no idea if it actually even needed a catalytic converter, since that is a very common upsell. They also charged her $400 core fee for the catalytic converter even though they kept the old one. They claimed because it was depleted, it did not satisfy the core charge. I am 99.9% sure that is absolutely yes, but if they aren't going to give her the core charge for it, they should at least give her the catalytic converter back so she can sell it to a recycler herself if she wants to. That's just the start. The catalytic converter is normally $850 direct from Chevrolet, they charged her $1300. The gas tank is normally $250, they charged her $450. It was like this for every single part on the invoice. The labor was an incredibly minor part of the bill. Now I know that every dealer can charge a different price for OEM parts, so I actually called the service department of this dealer and anonymously ask them to price each of the parts on the invoice for me. The dealer themselves overcharged her 30 to 80% on every single part on her bill over the prices at their own parts department! Which were already 10 to 20% higher than buying direct from Chevrolet online. Her bill should have been under $2500, but instead they charged her $6500. I could not believe how badly she was ripped off by the dealer! Absolutely criminal.
My state has safety inspections and when I bought my truck the inspector said that the ball joints were bad. Now Fords have a reputation for ball joints but I checked myself in my PPI and knew they were good. I walked away, let another shop do the leaking exhaust manifold and they inspected it and passed it. Been driving almost 11 years on the same ball joints and they are still fine.
Mrs. Wizard acting looool. Love it Been dealing with a new engine replacement after a tensioner broke on the timing belt. The cost is as horrible as the time spent dealing with it. In total, its a 4 wk ordeal with two shops involved.
Good video. I know that one of the probable reasons Sears has declined so is that their car repair shops were caught scamming customers in the 1990s. The bad experience I have had was with a Ford dealership.. I did have an honest independent mechanic tell me "Do not put one more $ in this car" The car in question was a 24 year old 1992 Ford Escort with 224,000 miles. The transmission was leaking, the engine was leaking(and not running right) and the suspension was worn out. He was right and we bought another car. (On top of all that, some raccoons had visited the interior of the Escort).
This is a very interesting topic especially to us who are following these channels and refusing to buy very expensive newer cars when our cars are working properly and have the same performance even more, present and comfort that the newer cars are selling
My daughter recently took her car a to large national chain for an oil change. They told her she needed THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of repairs. She had her last oil change at the same place, they told her she needed new control arms that time. She then took it over to our regular "trusted" shop, they looked and said she didn't need control arms. The national chain shop told her again the second time she needed control arms again, so I guess they are consistent liars.
Humanity could use more Car Wizards in all walks of life! Thank you for sharing your gift with us, Wizard! You are a genuinely good man who makes the world a better place! 😎👍
So glad I found an honest and decent mechanic by reviews. I know he's honest because he COULD have robbed me several times (where I'd have had NO CLUE what he did) and DIDN'T. He wants the customers to COME BACK.
I've recently changed the power steering and brake fluids on my truck myself for the first time. It surprised me on how easy it was. Saved me a lot of money doing it myself. The next project is dashboard bulbs!
I've been driving for 40 years and only found a trustworthy mechanic 10 years ago. My mechanic ain't cheap but I never have to worry about scams so I save money in the long run (plus they keep my 18 year old car running like a champ). If you find a good mechanic stick with them!!!
Letting the service manager diagnose the car is the first mistake people make, most of them only have marginal understanding of vehicle mechanical systems
@@CrimeVid I fit that description (to a point). My expertise goes as far as SUCK, SQUEEZE, BANG, BLOW. If explained to me I can figure out what part of that cycle is interupted but I need the diagnosis of a pro (mechanic, not service manager). A scan tool has also helped me avoid a scam diagnosis!!! I no longer have to worry about that stuff, thanks to an honest & professional mechanic. My current mechanic never does anything without showing me what's wrong, explaining why it needs repair & estimating the cost. The one time, in 10 years, I brought my car in for routine maintenance & it actually needed a repair they texted me a picture of the part needing repair & an explanation then asked if they should replace it (even explaining that the repair could wait). They are more concerned with keeping long term customers than milking each one for the most profit at every turn.
They do this with cabin airfilters all the time. They have a dirty one lying around, tell you it's yours, charge you and don't even replace your filter.
I was going to a local shop. I have a 2GR-FE engine and a 2GR-FSE engine. The FSE oil filter is slightly longer than the FE one. I started doing my own oil changes and found out they were putting the FE shorter filter in my FSE engine. Good idea to at least do your own oil changes or maybe ask to see the part or parts going on your car. They also wanted to sell me a front axle because the boot clamp came off and grease came out. It made no noise or vibration so I put grease in and a new clamp. It's been fine now for thousands of miles. They have 5 star reviews.
Yeah I agree DIY oil changes are easy to do and I take the opportunity to check the suspension, brakes, underbody, and check all of my fluids when oil is draining. Good to know what future repairs may need to be addressed before they become a larger issue.
@@FWDSUXARSE Sometimes they're easy to do depending on the vehicle and your location. Not fun doing an oil change on a dirt driveway when it's -10 degrees outside and snowing, lol.
The ones I hate are the “We can’t let you drive your car!” when it’s something unrelated to a safety concern or if they don’t have safety inspections in your area. “Your headlight is out! You can’t drive home like that! We can’t give you your car back!”
I worked at a dealership close to me, we actually had the opposite problem to this (in a detrimental way). I had a car come in with a screw in the tire and it was leaking bad. Service writer said “nah they won’t go for it anyway just air up the tire and send it”. There were many other occasions where I would go to him with other necessary and needed repairs and he refused to even try.
I worked at a small dealership as a technician and shop foreman. We had a policy that required any tech doing an upsell get a second opinion from a senior guy before bringing it to a service writer. We would always pre-authorize an hour diagnostic labor from the customer when dealing with any driveabilty issue. No repairs were ever completed without an approval. When we expanded and acquired another dealership mechanics quit within days because the service writers stuck to that policy. That was almost 25 years ago. Bad business has been around forever.
This reminds me of the dealership I bought my car from. I was there for an oil change and they said I needed all kinds of suspension work...a little over a grand worth. I told them I would think about it and then let another shop we use look at it. They agreed that the control arm bushings were pretty worn, but the rest was fine. They even said one of the things on the list could probably go another ten years before it would need to be addressed.
Same thing happened to me. I have an Acura. Dealership said lower control arm bushings, rear axle seal, and rear struts. Another shop said you can go several more years with no issues....
I had a 85 Chevy I put on struts and front brakes, just needed a alignment that was it ,my wife took it to sears and said struts were bad and other suspension parts, she brought it home and she told the manager that I did the work that morning.well sears is no more what a bunch of hacks😂
I was told years ago at a dealership my brakes were dying, I needed a complete flush and my coolant had been ‘poisoned’ and was no good, a $990.00 job to fix everything. I refused and drove away wondering when the bomb would drop on my car. It never did… my car remained well until I sold it a couple years later.
your oil filter skit reminds me of a time when I was young. I brought my 86 toyota pickup to a shop to get new tires. (This was probably round 1990 and I was 18) The manager came out and said "Your truck is almost done, but your shocks are leaking, and need replaced". Well.... the reason I brought it in for tires was, I just put a lift kit on it... with BRAND NEW shocks. Didn't have 20 miles on them. So, I asked if it was still up on the rack so I could see. He said sure, and we walked out to the shop. Sure enough... she saw brand new, shiny shocks (and all the new suspension parts) His response was.... "Oh.... it must have been another customer's truck". And this is why I don't let other people work on my stuff. (Except for warranty and state inspections) Thanks for the vid.
I have the opposite problem with my mechanic. He’s too old school. I buy used vehicles so I already know the reliability and common problems with them. Something will be getting old or not feeling quite right, and when it’s something I can’t fix myself I’ll ask him about it and it’s always “if it’s not broken don’t fix it”. Which get to a point and I appreciate him saving me money. But he doesn’t get I don’t want it breaking when I’m miles and miles away from even a main road since I spend a lot of time in very rural areas. It’s just like take my money and shut up lol
I agree. I work on cars but one day I was lazy and did not want to change out an intake manifold on my Caprice. I knew that that was the only thing leaking when I took it in. Went into shop, had them diagnose it and they came back with rear main seal was leaking (incorrect, had it replaced when transmission was pulled a few months ago, was bone dry when I took it in), water pump (again new cause I installed it myself) and valve covers but no mention of the intake manifold leaking causing the surge I took it in for. Was quoted $2,300 and they could get it done in 1 day. I asked them to point out with a uv light where the leaks were at. I had previously added tracer to oil to ensure there were no leaks. When they realized I knew my car more than they did, they also called their Manager. He explained that they made a mistake and the paperwork in the file was switched from another car.... I asked them if this happens often cause I noticed the more people were walking out aside from me.
This is why I've done all my own repairs for the last 45 years. I ran a repair shop for a national chain. There upsell policy was a policy of lies. I refused to follow the rules and I was fired ! I'm still around and the company went bankrupt !
A shop recently tried to tell my grandma that she needed an air filter for her 2020 Jeep Cherokee.......with 12k miles on it. I tool the old filter out and the bead of glue that runs across the fins was still intact which tells me they didn't fan it open to actually look at the filter. They wanted to charge her $110 for the engine air filter and cabin air filter.
Yeah las time a I was told the air filter thing was a hour after I just changed it myself. I just had the car at oul change place because I didn't feel like putting it on ramps and crawling under it that day myself.
My niece bought a battery at Pepboys and her husband installed it in her Civic. He got the connections mixed up and the car won’t start. They towed it to Pepboys and the mechanic told my niece that the computer probably fried and it’s gonna cost her $1800. She was stress and called me and asked for my opinion. I told her to wait until I check it out first. It took me less than 1 minute to find that a $5 fuse was blown. I’m not even a mechanic.
Where I live cars have to get an annual inspection. There are independent inspection offices but they cannot be in any way connected to any shop that does the work. Meaning that the people who look at the car are not in any way affiliated with the people who work on it. I imagine it limits these sorts of scams since suspension parts and things like that rarely ever get replaced unless the inspection office want them too.
I once had one of the quickie oil change places try a scam on me. They also did some brake work as well. I came in for just a brake job. Thirty minutes later the service writer told me that my water pump was leaking! That was a shock to me. What didn't know that I had it replaced 6 months earlier. It was a virtually brand new water pump. When I questioned as to how my recent new water pump was leaking he told me it was probably defective. I told him I was going to see how the car ran with the current water pump. Nothing was EVER wrong with the current water pump. I never went back to that shop ever again! Trying to upsell additional service I did not need almost caused me to go off on the service writer.
People are becoming more and more self centered and less moral in their dealings with others. I see this in every area area of life and in every occupation. I've been very fortunate through the years to find some good honest mechanics like you and your employees.
My alignment guy does a diagnostic suspension check before doing an alignment. He charges about 1/3 the cost of an alignment and allows me to change any defective parts myself and bring it back. He then finishes the alignment job and discounting for the cost of the pre check. Works out well for both of us.
You should make an app where people can report bad mechanics, and situations so other people know not to go to their shops. in Omaha Nebraska there’s a huge problem with reputable mechanics from their customers.
Problem with that is some people are dumb. Guy I know builds engines. He had a customer start his brand new engine with no oil in it clearly. It of course ruined the engine. So the customer is blasting him on every social media platform and review page claiming he's a shitty engine builder. The guy sued him also and it lasted about 5 seconds in court when the engine builder without a doubt proved he ran it with no oil.
Getting a good mechanic is like getting a good doctor... I've got one of each, but neither are taking new patients and when they are they're very particular about who they allocate their very valuable time. With a collection of complicated cars and an even more complicated collection of medical issues, I can see why their skills are very expensive per hour. Because they get the jobs done once, correctly.
I trained a new hire at my job, non-automotive job. My trainees previous job had been service manager at a large dealership locally Not only did he not really know much about cars. He also verified the practices at the dealer the wizard talked about that we've heard elsewhere and worse. He said he felt a little dirty everyday, but that was his job
I came home from work to an angry wife. I had sent her to get the exhaust welded to the local brake and exhaust place. They told her she couldn't drive the car as the front disc pads were so worn they were dangerous. I worked in a garage. I had replaced the pads two weeks before.....
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My dad was the manager of a Goodyear for over 40 years and as such one of my first jobs was an auto parts delivery driver. I cannot tell you all of the horrific lies I heard at some of these dishonest repair shops. One that I remember was a mechanic telling this old lady that she couldn’t drive her car because her motor mounts needed to be replaced and that if she drove it her engine would fall out. Even though the whole scenario was ridiculous, the fact that this car was literally less then 2 years old made the diagnosis clearly a lie. As I was leaving I saw the old lady sitting in her car crying and I couldn’t help myself but to stop and let her know that she needed to go get a second opinion and to not stress about it. She took it to my dad and there was literally nothing wrong with her car. Of course, this same disgrace of a repair shop was also one that ordered and returned parts all of the time and was always delinquent on their account payments. I’m glad they went out of business, couldn’t have happened to a better bunch of losers! :-)
My dad always said that if you were honest and offered people a quality product at a reasonable price you would be so busy you wouldn’t need to lie and steal. 40 plus years in the business proved him right every time :-)
Honesty makes people trust in you new people keep comin in because they heard good things about you. Thats from my understanding.
But then again , wheres the morality in people these days? These guys just gonna keep pulling scams so they can get the easier way out of cash.
We have one really good mechanic here in town and guess what they don't need to advertise and they're always busy... like busy busy lol
I agree with being honest and offering a quality product at a reasonable price. There was a shop I worked at twice. Seven years apart. In 2007 they offered AUTO EXTRA parts for everything. In 2014 they offered AC Delco and Moog parts. However, in my experience, AC Delco parts seem to perform well on GMs. Moog parts are good, but only the box said Moog. What came in the box was not Moog. Anyway, in both instances they were dishonest, offered knock off parts, and charged an enormous price. They are still in business, but have shut down a few stores in the chain.
Crap like this is why I do all my own repairs
So true
Cousin took her car to a Midas for a check engine light. They kept her waiting for several hours, then came back to tell her that her car is unsafe to drive and needs $2,700 in repairs. She wanted to refuse but they then pulled this scare tactic on her if they release the car "in its condition" that they'll "have to report it to the authorities." She called me in a panic, I went there myself mad as hell, shouting at the top of my lungs waving my arms everywhere causing a scene, demanding they let her car go, or I'm calling the cops.
Cut to . . . it was just her gas cap needed replaced. That was all.
They were just trying to take advantage of a young single woman. That Midas has changed management a couple times in the meantime, and has since closed. Good riddance.
Hell yes 👏🏻
Good riddance to bad rubbish 😊
I had this exact same experience with Firestone several years ago. I try to steer people as far away from those chain stores as possible. Theyre just a step up from the quick lubes.
@@BubblesTheCat1
I second the recommendation
I stopped by a Midas near my home last year to get an inspection on my work truck. They didnt pass it because the exhaust wasnt completely welded up. He then said he'd weld it up and pass it for $250.
The shop I had do the exhaust used clamps in the pipes from the muffler out. Before the muffler they had welded all up. I called Missouri State Patrol vehicle inspection division ( they oversee state inspections) and was told they don't require exhaust to be welded. But since the shop failed it I really couldnt do anything if I needed the car now. Cant take it to a different shop for inspection either. Had my usual shop weld it up for $100 and took it back. The guy at Midas grudgingly passed it.
I told him what the state said and he replied unless he had it signed
In writing from the state he don't care.
Biggest scam is charging you for repairs that don’t fix the problem.
There's *_fixing minor leaks which aren't problems._*
I agree, and frankly, I think that a lot of automotive repair and service facilities get a bad reputation because of the way that they choose to handle situations like this one. However, not all of these places have this approach. I’ll give you a perfect example. A few months ago I brought my 2005 Honda CRV in to the Honda dealership for a water leak that was coming in on the drivers floorboard every time it rained it was like Niagara Falls and since my car is a stick shift that makes it especially challenging to drive in the rain and so they diagnosed diagnosed the water leak to be coming from the front windshield which I had replaced, and to be blunt I was going to replace it because it already had a bunch of dings in it and it needed to go but that did not solve the issue of the water leak so I took it back to them and they realize that the previous Honda dealership that had replaced the hood cable prior to my ownership of the car failed to reinstall the rubber grommet going into the firewall for the hood cable, and that was allowing water to enter the inside of the cabin. Needless to say they did not charge me for that repair because they miss diagnosed it the first time around. This here is an example of good business ethics my family and I have known the staff in personnel at this dealership for multiple decades. Now we’ve purchased cars from them and had our car serviced with them over the years and they’ve taken very good care of us, and they realize that this was a mistake on their part, and they owned up to it, so I was happy to see that. I wish that more places would own up to their mistakes the same way that this dealership did.
Garage causes air condition leaks by slightly. Loosen fittings then socks other customer with high bill next summer. Meh!!!!!
@mds2465 nah, GOOD ethics would have kept you from buying a windshield by way of inaccurate diagnosis.. with water intrusion, it only takes a cup of water to prove or disprove said inaccurate diag.. they should have caught it. Be interesting to hear how a water leak makes driving a manual difficult
a lot of shops don't spend time diagnosing the car because it takes too much time. Instead they throw parts at it thinking that will solve the problem, then bill the owner for it.
It's not called "upselling". It's called FRAUD.
It's all in the wording which they go through training what to say. "We Recommend" that you this then you ask why does it need to be done they will never answer they will reply with we recommend
Exactly. Upselling is going from cheap tires to high end performance tires. Selling unneeded services is fraud.
Indeed, upselling is simply talking you into a more expensive option, very diff from fraud.
EXACTLY
I heard this one from my Dad, back in the mid 70's I believe. One of his employees told him that his retired Dad took his car to a trans shop for fluid and filter at big (back then trans shop) After a bit, they wheeled his trans out showing him all the bad parts. He then told the tech "I am a retired trans tech, my car is chrysler, and that is a Ford trans" "Give me my car back NOW! (I think he took the legal action and won)
They Ford swapped the transmission 😂
I had a car in the mid-late 90s where the sunroof stopped working and was stuck fully open. I brought it to the dealership where I bought it used. The dealership said the warranty was just engine and drive train, so it wasnt covered. I conceded that point. I sat in the waiting room for quite a while, but wasnt how long they actually looked at it. I dont remember exactly what they said was wrong, or if the knew what was wrong. However, they did say the sunroom assembly had to be removed and that was going to be $800. I said I couldnt afford that. The manager pulled out a calculator, punched in some numbers and said they could do it for $600. I said I would think about it. I was driving the car home and was passing by some podunk mechanic shops and thought why not see what they say. I pulled into one and "spoke" to a mechanic that only spoke Spanish. Mostly it was pointing that talking. He nodded and took the car into the shop. Probably less than 10 minutes later he comes out and said "Relay. $40." I nodded yes and a few minutes later it was fixed. I was very happy. I called the dealership and complained that they were trying to rob me of $800, but of course I got some BS apology stating they would have realized it was the relay and not charge me that much. Sure.
Funny that you mention dealerships -- folks any time you have anything done in a dealership they're going to charge to the hilt. (this is not "cheating", but rather charging for convenience / specific expertise) So if they say, "it's not covered by warranty," you should say, "it's not for you to fix." (with few exceptions). I heard a story from a friend 20 years ago who was going to get automotive repair training from a major mfg. He said that they had specific training on how to scam people. I'm not sure if the context was "how to discover when some other mechanic is scamming" or "how to do the scamming yourself". I think the later, because if you know your trade you can detect the former. It was not Ford or GM that he went to, it was a foreign make and I don't remember which one. He quit the course and went elsewhere.
One of the main reasons as to why i fixed all my junk myself since my very first car.
I do a majority of my repairs except for welding and some electrical. But nowadays if it's a big repair and don't have the time, I will bring it to a nearby shop that I trust. Hard to find a decent shop these days.
Same if I can avoid it. Had a bill for a rack and pinion magically jump from 1300 quoted to 1800 over night. After seeing the totaled bill charge 100 for parts listed at 40 walk-in, it made more sense. Then seeing the "10% vet discount" only take off 100 of that same 1800, I had some words for my buddy who recommended Big-O.
Same. All of my cars are over 20 years old, so it's not too hard, although I spent quite a bit of money on diagnostic tools. It's still cheaper than a mechanic.
And I started building my tool sets in about 1992. Started with 3 socket sets and one combination wrench roll. I probably have a quarter million tied up in tools now.
So for anybody just starting out, you CAN do a LOT of work with a minimum of tools. Buy the specialty stuff as you need it and keep on truckin'. And never give up. Tenacity is the key to this.
Another thing is heavy research. A huge percent of online nonsense is just that, nonsense. I'll spend 8, 12, 14 hours on research. Sometimes weeks.
I was never a professional auto mechanic, so much of what I do I'm doing for the first time.
@@jemcnair76 You sound exactly like me. My newest car is almost 17 years old, oldest one is 26 years old, and I've been slowly buying tools since 1998. I have quite a few now along with multimeters, diagnostic tools, and a few obd2 bluetooth adapters that I use with the Torque app. Picked up HP Tuners several years ago to build up my oldest car and tune it.
Before my wife met me see always went to a quick lube place and they always replaced the PVC valve. The problem is her cavalier didn't have a replaceable PVC valve. She spent over $150 on a non replaceable part. I went down to the shop in my work clothes and ask them to show me the PCV valve you replaced. They said the valve wasn't replaceable. I then pulled out all her receipts and got a refund and told them they are lucky I didn't file a class action against them.
Yes it's needed
❤❤
Now with a lot of cars switching to electric power steering I get nervous that people are going to get sold power steering fluid flush from the car doesn't even have power steering fluid. So for people that don't know much about their cars I think it's very important to know what type of power steering system you have.
@@robertknight4672 That happened to me. It was "Low and Leaking." Looked dead into his eyes and asked is it sparking. Then I was in the lobby and they guy never looked at the next person car and told her the same thing.
I had a body shop manager tell me that he couldn't let me leave because my car had a broken turn signal cover. I looked at him and told him there was no way he could stop me! Needless to say, he didn't do the work on car and after I told my insurance agent about it, that body shop was no longer on their preferred shops list.
Way to go! You made the world a better place.
I use the insurance companies preferred list as a "No Go" list.
Oh, no! A broken turn signal cover! Oh the humanity!
I have actually caught a dealership trying to replace a new part that I had just replaced the week before. I called them out on it right in the middle of the waiting room.
Ditto
Some times new parts go bad.
I once worked at a shop that was the reverse of this. One day a customer brings in his Ford Focus and tells the owner it misfires sometimes. I have a look and call plugs and wires. The wires did look worn, cracked insulation and I didn't want to risk pulling a wire off in case it breaks. The owner prepares an estimate and tells the customer. The customer explodes!!! "Do you think I'm a woman? I replaced the spark plugs last week! I said it WAS misfiring. It's fine now!" He still paid the $99 diag fee, but I don't know why you would want to pay a drivability charge on a car with no issues.
Another incident. A guy brings in his Chevy Astro van, after replacing the plugs, wires, cap, and rotor himself, for an emissions test. He says it has a misfire and thinks he didn't put all the spark plug wires on correctly. He wants that checked before the emissions test. I get it and the CEL is on, but no misfire. There is nothing wrong with the work he did. I run it and it fails on NOx. The vehicle owner is pissed that it failed. We shouldn't have run it. He agrees to the diag to find out why it failed, but it goes to the other mechanic in the shop. He hooks up the scan tool and finds P0420. Low Catalyst Efficiency Bank 1. An estimate is prepared and the customer reveals then and there that he thought the CEL only came on for misfires. That's why he replaced the parts he did. He calmed down after OBD2 was explained to him.
Whenever i go to my mechanic to fix an issue, he always tells me "Nah, just leave it alone, no need to waste money on it", I always have to insist on him to fix it. great guy.
Yes that just happened to me
I'm glad you made this video. I've been a mechanic for 36 years and have walked off the job because the boss was a crook. Carma caught up with that one. And I worked for one guy for over 14 years BECAUSE he is so honest. Like you.
Car-ma.
I see what you did there
@@starfox_wr-45e93 Thank you. It was unintentional. But, I'll take it.
I quit an apprenticeship when the same jobs price went up with customer age and then I was asked to leave washers loose under a heat shield so they would eventually start vibrating.
@@siiioxide Good for you. Integrity pays off.
@@siiioxide
Record this bs and have these mfers prosecuted. They deserve it.
My son took his car in to the dealership for a recall. HE returned, crying, as they gave him a several page list of recommended fixes, about $3,300 worth. I looked it over. "Never mind". Every item was negligiblly worn. Not a single one was needed.
That's the reason dealerships earned the name stealership.
SAME thing happened to me at a Hyundai dealer in Bradenton, Florida. Same amount too.
Don't forget also the scenarios where they were meant to do just a standard oil change and the car NEVER left the parking spot to be worked on and they tell the customer later on that their vehicle has been serviced. My friend had that happen to him where he left the car with the service to be done and he was sitting out across from where he parked his car and he went back in a couple of hours later and they said it was done. He said "I was sitting outside near the car and it never moved!"
I always just do a quick check of the mileage when I drop my car off for that exact reason. I once asked a dealer service writer how my car went through a “full test drive” when the mileage had only increased by half a mile on the odometer.
As a shadetree mechanic, you would be absolutely floored by the amount of times I take my car in for an inspection and the place tries to sell me something I literally installed a week prior.
I remember in high school, my buddy had a mechanic rebuild his 340 mopar. Before he brought it in, he engraved the carb, and other parts. The mechanic actually showed him another carb and said it was his. When he told the mechanic (the owner of the shop) that he had engraved several parts, the guy started back peddling with excuses. These scams have been around a long time.
Did much the same thing years ago with a Renault.
Being ripped off from a JiffyLube was the reason I got into cars. Embarrassing story but led to a future of car meets, garage work with friends, and money saved in the long run.
Here in Canada, we have Speedy Muffler and Midas who tries to rip you off by printing out a giant list of things to be done to your car that you don't need. Both companies cannot be trusted.
Also Canadian Tire .
pretty much all mechanic shops to be honest. and also Car wizard himself is a scam, i saw a video where he charged his parents money for fixing their car ! imagine. His parents paid for his food, school, cars and everything when he was young and now his gift is charging his parents :)
You need brake pads and struts. I need the $2000, but need to hold your car for 2 days, so you don't realize it took me less than 10 minutes.
We got Midas here in the states too and they are trash here as well.
This is sort of the beauty of having a modified car. If you have one, they make an assumption you know enough to not scam you.
I see so many people get ripped off then it ends up with me. It is so sad because it doesn't take any effort to be honest.
Yeah it's hard to find an honest shop. I work on my own cars outside of exhaust welding and some electrical, but I do have a good local shop that I trust in the event that I don't have the time to tackle a major repair.
This is why I do 99% of my maintenance my self, but also I have a close family friend who's a mechanic who has helped out when I needed.
That "Its Christmas, come on" comment is exactly what scam shops tell their employees around the holidays, get them bills as high as possible!
This is why “Right To Repair” laws are so important. If you are forced to go to only the dealer or a very few select repair shops then the scamming will increase exponentially.
Dealers are the biggest scammers around. My wife leased a Mazda 3 in 2015. First inspection after 12 months with only 3,000 miles, they told her she needed rear brake pads, 4 wheel alignment on top of the oil change. Such crooks.
I would love to see a video where you show some of your failures. I'm not being negative here. I work on machinery for a living and an occasional misdiagnosis happens. I would love to hear some stories on how you handle those situations.
A person's character can be shown in how they handle their own shortcomings. May you both be blessed.
Hey man how's your faith going? I found you through the amazing atheist like a decade ago and have since stopped being an atheist. You haven't made religious videos in a while it seems
I always wonder about shops who "sabotage" things in order to create more expensive repairs down the road. Purposely leave things loose or do something to cause a part to wear out.
Had that happen to me. Had car in the shop for a fuel pump. Since they had it on the lift and it was due I gave the go ahead for an oil change. Next time I went to do my oil, the filter was on there so tight I almost broke it off the block trying to get it off. This was the attempt to prevent me from doing it myself so I'd have to bring it in for an oil filter that was stuck. My mom used this place and I went to change her oil and same issue. Neither of us use it now
My grandpa told me that back in the day when gas stations would check your oil, belts, hoses etc. it used to be commonplace for the attendant to take a pocket knife to your belts and hoses and say “those need to be replaced, we can do that here if you like!” So my grandpa started telling these places “go ahead and check under the hood, but if there’s anything wrong with it, I’ll take it to the next shop to have the work done.” Suddenly he didn’t have to replace belts and hoses nearly as often…
@@Thinginator Perhaps this is why Shell, Esso, and SUNOCO pulled their auto service centres out of Canada 20+ years ago. Bad raps.
I bought a truck this happened to. The old owner had a shop not clamp a hose correctly so a water leak. The shop also caused a vacuum leak causing failed epa inspectuon. I did tell the guy I biught it from the failed inspection was easy fix. He didn't believe me. So I got a great deal.
I bought truck, tightened the loose clamp and replaced a vacuum hose. 2 years later no repairs needed.
The big issue with good mechanics is they are very busy and some smaller shops will have a wait time. My wizard and friend is 80km away from me, I will still bring him my car because he's awesome. The only issue is he's a nice guy and doesn't know how to say no when he should so... always a backlog. Excellent mechanics don't always have excellent scheduling skills.
Hehe, you can't be in the USA if you said km😅
@@ricebike Nope, I am your French speaking poutine eating snow covered neighbour of the north.
"Rides away in a skidoo"
There's power in the word "no"
@@CoolTI-Daniel Is that a Bombardier Skidoo?
@@CoolTI-DanielTokebek icitte
I caught a guy at a quick lube place that I brought in for a oil change and he changed the oil but only installed the dipstick partially in the dipstick tube and came back and told me in needs two more quarts of oil and that I needed a $60 air filter. I told first off, I'm a mechanic. Second, why don't you stick the dipstick all the way into the dipstick tube and check the oil properly. Third, that is NOT the air filter to my car as I just changed it. Fourth, I'm really only here to see how you guys conduct business because your company overcharged and took advantage of my mother. The manager came over and said my oil change was on the house and refunded my mom on her unnecessary items. Some mechanics should go into some of these places just to keep them honest. Thank you Mr Wizard for all your videos! God Bless!
I had that at the local Ford dealer..we took my father in laws car for a oil change because he could no longer drive and our son was buying the car....we were waiting in the lounge and I went to the bathroom and as soon as I left, one of the attendants came over and started telling my wife this and that needed replaced....have not been back since.
I struggle finding honest help in any trade. Home contrsctors, electricians, plumbers, mechanics... it's ridiculous. I know there are honest ones out there like Wizard, but seems impossible to find them. It's driven me to DIY as much as I can, but eventually projects pop up I just can't do. Recently needed an electrician and found one with with 2k+ reviews and a 4.8 star rating. Talked to the power company guy who came out first and he told me to cancel that appointment ASAP. Even with reviews it's impossible to identify good vs bad.
Reviews can easily be faked...
even dentists are often dishonest, discovering more problems than there are and try to convince you to do extra work.
As an electrician, find an independent electrician that is licensed and does work on the side. One lady was quoted $20k to wire her shop up by a large residential contractor. I did it for $5k in 2 days.
One key method to avoid a repair shop scam: check out how busy they really are. The first indicator that someone might try to sell you work that you don't need, is "business is slow". As a young sprout I once worked in a garage, where a licensed mechanic took a chisel to a flywheel to knock off a few teeth. Instead of just replacing the starter which had died, he turned a half hour job into four. Be very wary of shops with guys standing around with their hands in their pockets!
Yeah, I use probably the only reputable mechanic in town - he's always overflowing with customer cars, the USPS, all the local police departments without their own mechanics, reputable used dealers, and anyone else in town who knows better uses him, might take 9 hours to get a simple oil change done, but anything he does will be done properly the first time and they don't nickle and dime on stuff that isn't an immediate concern. Can take a couple weeks to get an opening in his schedule, but the alternative is Valvoline or Firestone, so its worth it.
Also Google tells you how long they've been in business. From my experience the shops that have been around for 30+ years and don't give corporate answers to negative reviews are the shops you can trust.
By corporate answers something like "We're sorry about your negative experience, we'll talk to the tech to prevent this in the future. "
Non-corporate answers something like "You came in yelling profanity and called our tech 'a good for nothing *racial slur*' Of course we're going to yell at you, and you're banned from coming back. "
@@GrumpyIanI also checked the Google reviews
The worst are the dealers. I brought my minivan in to fix the rollers. Car was at 85k miles. They fixed and said there was an additional 6k worth of work to be done including front and rear bushings as well as valve cover leaks. I took my car to a mechanic ( now my go to mechanic) and gave him the list. I told him let me know priority and what he thought. He went through the entire list and said the only thing needed were sway link arms at 200 dollars. There was just a slight leak in the rear valve cover and not worth replacing and tightened it Al little and it stopped leaking. He has replaced my struts at 110k and still found no need to replace the valve covers.
Ya the dealership just wanted to sell me valve cover gaskets and wanted over a thousand dollars to do it. They have VERY minor seepage but of course they didn't mention that detail
I have heard of the blown headgasket scam. Two people come to look at car. Second person distracts owner while first person pours oil on exhaust manifold while engine is running and the two claim headgasket is blown then tries to lowball seller claiming a blown headgasket or engine damage. Don't fall for this.
That's why it's important to know your car. Before I got my car checked, I looked under it before cold start. I did see a oil stain on the parking spot. I did not say a word of it to The mechanic. He found that the seal ring from the crankcase was worn. He fixed it. Now the car has a rear wiper motor with play. The car has no contact with a day time running light. And luckily for me, the start/stop system DOES NOT WORK 😂😂
I scammed a dealership with a trade in. I had a rod knock and slipping tranny. Got top dollar too 😎
Hmm... My car starts burning oil profusely right after I bring it to a shop. What a funny coincidence.
Fortunately for me the oil change location in my hometown was owned by an independent owner and he always treated his customers well never upsold anything and was always honest upfront if your car did need any work done. You know they’re good and well know when they normally have a 2-3 hour wait for service with vehicles lined up out the back. And the hilarious part is there is a jiffy lube just 3 blocks away on the same road and they never have any vehicles in sight when I go by.
I started my own synthetic mobile oil change business in late August and the horror stories I have seen from quick lube places so far is unreal. Drain bolts halfway out, cut underbelly panels, stipped out internal hex bolts. I hopefully can get to this level in a couple of years. Did a 2015 750li BMW which takes 10qts. Charged the woman $120 The oil and filter is only $60. I'm trying to put Jiffy Lube, Valvoline, Midas etc out of business.
@@elmayimbe_the_amateur_mechanic I would never go to any of those name brand companies. My ex gf took her Chevy to one when we were together and those people have no idea how to do maintenance on a vehicle. They tried to get her to change her air filter cause it looked dirty. I told them right in front of all the customers to blow it out with the air hose and put the damn thing back on. When I was in high school I had a Chevy Beretta and my local oil change place always took care of me. Even did a few minor repairs for me. They had actual mechanics working for them which is a plus. Not just someone that replaces oil lol 😂
@@elmayimbe_the_amateur_mechanic The dumpsters outside quick lube places must be full of under trays and the little doors on them. Seems they like to leave them off as if they don’t matter.
@@elmayimbe_the_amateur_mechanic tell your techs to not over tighten drain plugs and you will be ahead of the game.
@@wolfeadventures, no techs, only me. I drive to people all over. I use a torque wrench to tighten drain bolts back properly.
Always mark your oil filter before going in for an oil change if you do not do the changes yourself. This way you can make sure it was actually changed.
I took my 2005 F150 5.4 to my local mechanic after I changed spark plugs/coils and spent 3 days diagnosing a developed misfire. They picked it up with their rollback and then proceeded to take 2 months to fix it, they cut connectors and replaced new functioning coils but never fixed the issue and constantly gave me run arounds. Finally I told them enough I'll figure it out. Well i got it home and pulled the misfiring plug and instantly saw the sooty crack in the porcelain (I used a magnetic socket instead of a rubber one and if you know 5.4 plugs then you know they're a mile long and delicate). 🤦♂️ 2 months and they never bothered to pull the spark plug, granted I didnt either. But this is a mechanic that's been doing it since before I was born and I'm 38.
Some mechanics never learn to actually diagnose and spend their whole lives firing the parts cannon.
Rainman Ray just did the same exact repair recently! 2012 Ford f150 5.0L Coyote engine 😮
I had to butt into a heated conversation at WalMart a couple weeks back. Customer was extremely upset because the oil light was on and engine was extremely noisy after oil change, service manager had told the customer to drive it back (with no oil), and was in the process of explaining that because it was still running, no damage had occurred in the 2-3 miles it drove without a drop of oil. I advised the customer that he should not leave the store without a written commitment to replace the engine. The service manager, who didn't personally made the mistake, had undoubtedly been stocking shoes until recently, was extremely upset at me.
The Wizard always keeps a pretty even keel attitude in the videos, but you could see that telling some of these stories was really getting under his skin that it happened. That’s a good character trait to have. Bad mechanics make people like the Wizard’s job harder. I work for a home builder and I’m very proud of the service, quality, and value we provide but there are so many bad builders out there it makes our job harder too. Keep being you, Wizard.
I went to a AAMCO once with a family member who doesn't know much about cars because their BMW went into "Transmission Failsafe / Limpmode". And the lady at the front desk, probably the wife of the franchise owner, was adamant that the transmission had probably gone bad and needed replaced. This was before they even looked at it. I had known from before going into AAMCO during a google search that the problem most likely wasn't the transmission. Turned out to be a bad ABS switch or something.
Something I learned as a BMW E38 7-Series owner is that knee-jerk reactions because "German is scary" seems to be common and often means "easy profit" for scammers. What I had before my E38 was the other car that makes shops cry, a Mazda Rotary. FC model RX-7 with a 20B-REW conversion (from a Eunos Cosmo), and the only person to make the sequential twin turbo control system work properly. Fun fact: I am the one that certifies individuals and shops to perform work on the Eunos Cosmo. Because I wrote the Workshop Manual for it, I am the foremost authority on it outside of Japan. And a 20B Cosmo has a LOT in common with an E38 too.
Had a chain tire shop try and pull the upsell BS on me on parts I have records of being replaced by the previous owner. Before they could react, I was yelling at them in Japanese and the German word "Scheißkopf" came out at least 5 times. Think Asuka Langley Soryu from Neon Genesis Evangelion and you'll get the idea.
Bottom Line: Don't piss off someone that reads service manuals in both German AND Japanese, they just might be Batman.
ABS Wheel Speed Sensors do not cause Transmission Failsafe Mode. The wheel speed sensors report to a completely different system, commonly called ASC/DSC in most BMW diagnostic tools. Same deal as on a 20B Cosmo, which I've diagnosed in about 15 seconds from the other side of the planet in a facebook call from New Zealand at 2am. The short explanation for Transmission Failsafe Mode is "something is electrically behaving different than what it should be" and returning strange values back to the ElektronischeGetriebesteuerung. So it goes to Failsafe (4th gear only) which removes all of the solenoids from the equation so the car can be driven safely without something going bananas and causing damage. The most usual suspect is a failing solenoid, diagnosed in the same manner as an oldschool 4L60E in a Chevy or a Q4A-EL in a 20B Cosmo.
Speaking of AAMCO. I took in a Dodge 1500 4x4 truck that could not shift into reverse. I agreed to have it rebuilt. The guy wanted to charge $200 or so more for electrical harnesses and replace them along with the rebuild and I was a dummy and told him no. I then drove 800 miles up the CA-5 towing a u-haul trailer with all my belongings. (southern california, heading to middle of oregon). Right up at the border, the transmission broke down and I had to have it towed the difference into Oregon to another AAMCO. I was very impressed with the mechanics I met in Oregon both times I went to AAMCO's in Oregon, but they were not able to fix it either. And both times I offerend to pay extra for the electrical harness, both times no charge and I have no idea if they changed the wiring harness. I ended up giving the truck back to my father, who had a buddy and the buddy fixed the issue in 30 minutes replacing a wiring harness. (No idea if it was the same wiring harness). I got the impression through all this that the guy in California was adamant on the phone with these AAMCO people about NOT fixing that wiring harness. Bottom line -- I will never go to an AAMCO again. Oh and btw -- that is the only non GM truck I've ever been impressed with. ;-)
Twenty five years ago, I read that AAMCO stands for: All Automatics Must Come Out.
I'm a Honda mechanic and have been for a few years. Before that, I worked for a chain that worked on everything. I worked on a lotnof Benzes, including a lot of the side work I did for friends and acquaintances. Benzes are actually pretty easy to service in my opinion, and I actually like working on them, especially pre-2018 or so.
And yeah, I've told everyone who will listen to avoid Quik Lube places like the plague. They either upsell you everything needlessly, mess your car up, or both. My dad and uncle both got burned from it and some of the first jobs I did were minor jobs they tried charging my mom $150 for with me in the store with her. I told her to just go down the street to the parts store, buy the parts ($25), and that I'd change them for her. And this was when I was maybe 17 and still knew very little about auto maintenance, I still knew she was getting ripped off.
I worked at Sears Autocenter in the late 80's. Two of the service writers were scammers. They work on commission.
While coasting 70 plus mph on Interstate 55, my car began rattling along with all the Dash Lights coming on, my assumption was oh my God is the alternator going out it? It turned out that the positive battery cable end was loose. All I had to was tighten the cable end and not had any problems since! My advice to people is learn as much as you can about the Components of a Vehicle to where you can fix the problem yourself. Major Problems such as Timing Belt about to break, send it to Car Wizard!
A friend several years ago worked at a quick lube place and they kept a filthy air filter on a back shelf that they broke out whenever they thought they had a naive customer that wouldn't question them. Sad.
This is why it helps to know exactly what your air filter looks like.
I had company cars for years that had to be maintained at one of a couple quick lube places where we had charge accounts, and the air filter (cabin and engine) was flagged for replacement almost every visit - that should not be an every 3-4 month thing, but they knew it was a corporate vehicle and nobody was going to flag it, easy money. My boss told me to just get whatever service was advised every time, so no one at the company fleet department could ever ding us for not maintaining our vehicles, so, whatever, wasn't my money.
Here in Australia there was a major scandal some years ago involving a well-known national chain of suspension shops. At the time they offered something along the lines of a 120 point suspension "safety check" for like $19.95 or something (or in some cases, even a "special' free safety check); the TV commercials for these safety checks would usually run just before the holiday season, and implore people to get their vehicle's suspension checked out before possibly endangering their family's lives on the roads during the upcoming holiday road-trip season (scary images of freeway wrecks would be screened).
Anyway, after the customer handed their keys over & was then kept waiting in the lounge outside by the office for half an hour or so drinking free coffee & soda, an ashen-faced service manager would come in glancing intently at a sheet of paper in his hand and sombrely announce "Sir/mam, please come with me; I need to show you something extremely serious". The customer would then be taken out to the shop where their vehicle (often only 4 or 5 years old with under 40K miles or so on it) would be up on a lift, where a couple of mechanics would be waiting under their vehicle with a two-foot pry bar, where one would then lodge it up between the control arms, sway bars etc and (with a nod & a wink from the service manager) apply his full weight on the bar against the various components to manipulate them while the other mechanic would apply severe upwards and lateral force to the road wheels in jerking movements . "SEE THIS!!!" the service manager would exclaim with exaggerated alarm and point to a tie rod end or track bar etc "IT"S MOVING; THIS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!!!" The customer would then be promptly provided with a repair estimate to replace shocks, ALL the bushings, tie rods, ball joints, steering components etc and be presented an estimate for several thousand bucks and told that the vehicle was far too dangerous to drive until this serious defect was fixed.
Of course it was all a scam and the demonstrated movement was completely normal and within spec. Once all these "defective" parts were removed & replaced and the customer billed a couple of grand, the service manager would then auction off these pristine and near-new "defective" components that had been removed at the end of the day to his complicit mechanics so that they could then repair and upgrade their own personal vehicles after hours in the shop using them. Despite a class-action lawsuit and a massive finding against this company (with a court-ordered fine in the millions) they are still in business today a decade or so later, believe it or not.
And they're back at it again these holidays!
Wow, incredible. And the logic to defend/justify the behavior was probably “Well the customer saw it with their own eyes! We showed them the exact issue and they approved the repairs!”
Name 'em or STFU
Poor bastard sticks someone up for rawmen money and tampons and they don’t hesitate to send him to hell but these goons fuck 10 old ladies out of 3 grand each in a days work and its a slap on the wrist!
Pedders be peddlers
As someone from the computer world, its exactly the same with computer and electronic shops. "oh yeah uhh... let me get the service manager" "oh yeah you're right, sorry about that. that falls under warranty so you don't have to pay 300$" (but they only admit that after I explain to them my credential and how whatever they're saying doesn't make any damn sense)
You're correct Car Wizard! This is same reason that I insist on watching when someone is working on my vehicles. I don't care if someone says this is not allowed but I'm always outside the service area. Great video!
Another thing the quick lube/oil change places do is bring in a dirty air filter and claim it's from your car (when it's not), then change it out and charge you 4-5 times what one costs from an auto parts store.
I have never gone to a quick lube and I never will. Really, an air filter? It's a shame more people don't know how easy it is to change an air filter.
This is such great advice! I’m a GM for a major auto parts company. Every day I see customers come in terrified because of a dealership telling them tall tales about their vehicle.
About 99% as you say here is absolutely false.
The best thing you can do is arm yourself with basic information about your car! Even if you have a “trusted” mechanic.
Never, ever trust all your car needs to your dealership. Most of these guys are imbedded in a commission based business structered to add on everything they can. Fear is their most useful tool to accomplish this!
I mentioned this in another one of your videos that I recently had a lift installed in my building. We have 3 vehicles and I should be able to easily do my own maintenance and change out most parts. I'm changing the exhaust on my 2014 Mustang GT and boy does the lift make it so much easier. Next will be to drain the transmission fluid in the pans and replace the fluid and filters in the Mustang and the 2012 Expedition. My lift will pay for itself in no time.
I've been a self employed mechanic for 4 years now. I've had an abundance of work for 4 years. Never a slow week, but I've always been honest with customers.
I agree with you, took my SUV to a dealer for a recall and they found $800 worth of work. I replaced the battery and other filters for under $200 with better parts.
I’ve worked at a dealership and I feel like there’s a difference between upselling and and outright scam. Even on oil changes we would check safety components such as tires, brakes, and suspension just to make sure they were all in good condition. If not we would suggest a repair to the customer. We had to fire a couple techs because they would suggest bs jobs that obviously weren’t needed. We caught one guy sprinkling metal shavings from a rotor he had resurfaced into the oil then claim the customer needed an engine repair. That’s the point where I consider it a scam.
It's frustrating dealing with customers who have had to deal with incompetent mechanics. They lose their trust in everyone. As long as you do quality work, you'll be fine, Mr. and Mrs Wizard! Thanks! ✌️❤️🙂🇨🇦
Great video. This year, I experienced local versions of the Car Wizard when my used car, and used tractor need repairs.
The independent shop repairing my tractor A/C misdiagnosed the problem, and installed an unnecessary $1,200 part. The owner "couldn't in good conscience" charge me for the part, and the lost money on the successful repair.
For the first time in 20 years, I took my used car to a dealer, and they replaced the necessary electronic part, but couldn't complete calibration. Head office told them to replace other parts, but the dealer wouldn't, because everything else worked well until the original part failed. After spending many hours diagnosing, they discovered only the new part was defective, and replaced it. I was only charged for one part, and the original 1.25 hr book time.
I've experienced these sorts of things with some shops. One guy I'll never forget told me I needed the front suspension rebuilt, because the wheels could just come off going down the road. That's when I decided to call a friend of mine who has a repair shop. I'd wanted to keep our friendship completely separate from any repair business as sometimes mixing the two together doesn't work out. Well, I found out the opposite was true. He looked at the car, all it was in need of were new shocks, the clunking stopped, and the ride improved significantly. I've been going to him ever since, and thanks to this channel I have a much better understanding of how things work and the automotive terminology. Now when I go for oil and filter change I know he's going to look the car over and won't do anything else without calling me first. It's super rare that anything other than routine maintenance is needed. It's a Toyota.
Omg.. thank you for being a no nonsense straight shooter. I had this shop my company has been doing business with for 15+ years tell me this Prius I had just gotten with only 140k miles wasn't safe to drive. "Sir, do you have another car to drive?" He went on to say my shocks were unsafe(even though they weren't bouncy at all), rear drum shoes low(they were but I hadn't heard any squeaking and said I'll do it myself which I did), and "OHH BOY," he said, "your air filter? Way overclogged. Unsafe." I just laughed and said thanks for telling me, but the suspension rides just fine, and I'll do the drums myself. Is the oil change completed? I didn't even acknowledge his mention of the air filter being the dangerous thing to watch out for. I just looked at him like he was dumb when he said that part 😅 on top of everything what made it worse it that this was the shop owner.. the head honcho.. the big guns! And thankfully I was experienced enough to sniff out the scam. Educate yourselves, y'all! Do all the work you feel comfortable doing yourself and if you don't know something, try and learn it. You may be capable of more than you think!
Glad to see you're healing & starting to be yourself again. I wish you guys were closer or visa/versa, your shop would be my #1 place to go! Much success as you certainly deserve it! Stay well & happy holiday's!
Went in for a mandatory etest a bunch of years ago with an old Chevy Van with a TBI 5.0. After it failed they tried to tell me it was the fuel injectors and that they would have to take the top of the engine to pieces to get to them. I paid for the test and took it somewhere else where they changed the cat for a junkyard one I provided and it passed with no problems.
Thanks Wizard - sad to see that these types of warnings are now required as the number of auto repair scams keep increasing.
When i was 17 my girlfriend at the time got ripped off by a shop for a clutch replacement on her maxima.
All that was wrong was a bad slave cylinder, but they charged for a clutch and i could see that none of the bolts were touched except for the bleeder on the leaky slave cylinder.
Her dad was friends with the shop owner, so he wouldn't listen to me about being scammed... You could even feel that the clutch was the same, it used to shudder and that was still there after they "replaced" it.
Something like that, ask for the old parts back!
That way you can see the clutch disc and plate on how worn it is 😢
A friend recently had their mid 2000s Malibu serviced at a Chevy dealer. They replaced the gas tank, filler neck, some lines to the tank, and the exhaust including the catalytic converter. The bill was over $6000. I had her send me a picture of the invoice. First of all, I have no idea if it actually even needed a catalytic converter, since that is a very common upsell. They also charged her $400 core fee for the catalytic converter even though they kept the old one. They claimed because it was depleted, it did not satisfy the core charge. I am 99.9% sure that is absolutely yes, but if they aren't going to give her the core charge for it, they should at least give her the catalytic converter back so she can sell it to a recycler herself if she wants to. That's just the start. The catalytic converter is normally $850 direct from Chevrolet, they charged her $1300. The gas tank is normally $250, they charged her $450. It was like this for every single part on the invoice. The labor was an incredibly minor part of the bill. Now I know that every dealer can charge a different price for OEM parts, so I actually called the service department of this dealer and anonymously ask them to price each of the parts on the invoice for me. The dealer themselves overcharged her 30 to 80% on every single part on her bill over the prices at their own parts department! Which were already 10 to 20% higher than buying direct from Chevrolet online. Her bill should have been under $2500, but instead they charged her $6500. I could not believe how badly she was ripped off by the dealer! Absolutely criminal.
My state has safety inspections and when I bought my truck the inspector said that the ball joints were bad. Now Fords have a reputation for ball joints but I checked myself in my PPI and knew they were good. I walked away, let another shop do the leaking exhaust manifold and they inspected it and passed it.
Been driving almost 11 years on the same ball joints and they are still fine.
Mrs. Wizard acting looool. Love it
Been dealing with a new engine replacement after a tensioner broke on the timing belt. The cost is as horrible as the time spent dealing with it. In total, its a 4 wk ordeal with two shops involved.
Good video. I know that one of the probable reasons Sears has declined so is that their car repair shops were caught scamming customers in the 1990s. The bad experience I have had was with a Ford dealership.. I did have an honest independent mechanic tell me "Do not put one more $ in this car" The car in question was a 24 year old 1992 Ford Escort with 224,000 miles. The transmission was leaking, the engine was leaking(and not running right) and the suspension was worn out. He was right and we bought another car. (On top of all that, some raccoons had visited the interior of the Escort).
I own and drive my own over the road truck. With the way I have been treated at shops, I am now doing all of my own maintenance and repair.
This is a very interesting topic especially to us who are following these channels and refusing to buy very expensive newer cars when our cars are working properly and have the same performance even more, present and comfort that the newer cars are selling
My daughter recently took her car a to large national chain for an oil change. They told her she needed THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of repairs. She had her last oil change at the same place, they told her she needed new control arms that time. She then took it over to our regular "trusted" shop, they looked and said she didn't need control arms. The national chain shop told her again the second time she needed control arms again, so I guess they are consistent liars.
Humanity could use more Car Wizards in all walks of life! Thank you for sharing your gift with us, Wizard! You are a genuinely good man who makes the world a better place! 😎👍
So glad I found an honest and decent mechanic by reviews.
I know he's honest because he COULD have robbed me several times (where I'd have had NO CLUE what he did) and DIDN'T.
He wants the customers to COME BACK.
I've recently changed the power steering and brake fluids on my truck myself for the first time. It surprised me on how easy it was. Saved me a lot of money doing it myself. The next project is dashboard bulbs!
Local BMW garage always overtorqued wheel lugs to cause premature rotor warping soon after. It's the silent scam nobody notices.
I've been driving for 40 years and only found a trustworthy mechanic 10 years ago. My mechanic ain't cheap but I never have to worry about scams so I save money in the long run (plus they keep my 18 year old car running like a champ).
If you find a good mechanic stick with them!!!
Letting the service manager diagnose the car is the first mistake people make, most of them only have marginal understanding of vehicle mechanical systems
@@CrimeVid I fit that description (to a point). My expertise goes as far as SUCK, SQUEEZE, BANG, BLOW. If explained to me I can figure out what part of that cycle is interupted but I need the diagnosis of a pro (mechanic, not service manager).
A scan tool has also helped me avoid a scam diagnosis!!!
I no longer have to worry about that stuff, thanks to an honest & professional mechanic. My current mechanic never does anything without showing me what's wrong, explaining why it needs repair & estimating the cost. The one time, in 10 years, I brought my car in for routine maintenance & it actually needed a repair they texted me a picture of the part needing repair & an explanation then asked if they should replace it (even explaining that the repair could wait). They are more concerned with keeping long term customers than milking each one for the most profit at every turn.
They do this with cabin airfilters all the time. They have a dirty one lying around, tell you it's yours, charge you and don't even replace your filter.
I was going to a local shop. I have a 2GR-FE engine and a 2GR-FSE engine. The FSE oil filter is slightly longer than the FE one. I started doing my own oil changes and found out they were putting the FE shorter filter in my FSE engine.
Good idea to at least do your own oil changes or maybe ask to see the part or parts going on your car.
They also wanted to sell me a front axle because the boot clamp came off and grease came out. It made no noise or vibration so I put grease in and a new clamp. It's been fine now for thousands of miles.
They have 5 star reviews.
Yeah I agree DIY oil changes are easy to do and I take the opportunity to check the suspension, brakes, underbody, and check all of my fluids when oil is draining. Good to know what future repairs may need to be addressed before they become a larger issue.
@@FWDSUXARSE Sometimes they're easy to do depending on the vehicle and your location. Not fun doing an oil change on a dirt driveway when it's -10 degrees outside and snowing, lol.
@@dedalliance1 Very fair point. I do mine in an asphalt driveway in the winter and sometimes it's like 5 degrees out.
my minimum response to any quoted repair is to require old parts back and the boxes that the new parts came in.
The ones I hate are the “We can’t let you drive your car!” when it’s something unrelated to a safety concern or if they don’t have safety inspections in your area. “Your headlight is out! You can’t drive home like that! We can’t give you your car back!”
I worked at a dealership close to me, we actually had the opposite problem to this (in a detrimental way). I had a car come in with a screw in the tire and it was leaking bad. Service writer said “nah they won’t go for it anyway just air up the tire and send it”. There were many other occasions where I would go to him with other necessary and needed repairs and he refused to even try.
Appreciate the honesty and info!! Might keep someone who isn't as versed in mechanics from being robbed!
I worked at a small dealership as a technician and shop foreman. We had a policy that required any tech doing an upsell get a second opinion from a senior guy before bringing it to a service writer. We would always pre-authorize an hour diagnostic labor from the customer when dealing with any driveabilty issue. No repairs were ever completed without an approval. When we expanded and acquired another dealership mechanics quit within days because the service writers stuck to that policy. That was almost 25 years ago. Bad business has been around forever.
This reminds me of the dealership I bought my car from. I was there for an oil change and they said I needed all kinds of suspension work...a little over a grand worth. I told them I would think about it and then let another shop we use look at it. They agreed that the control arm bushings were pretty worn, but the rest was fine. They even said one of the things on the list could probably go another ten years before it would need to be addressed.
Same thing happened to me. I have an Acura. Dealership said lower control arm bushings, rear axle seal, and rear struts. Another shop said you can go several more years with no issues....
I had a 85 Chevy I put on struts and front brakes, just needed a alignment that was it ,my wife took it to sears and said struts were bad and other suspension parts, she brought it home and she told the manager that I did the work that morning.well sears is no more what a bunch of hacks😂
I was told years ago at a dealership my brakes were dying, I needed a complete flush and my coolant had been ‘poisoned’ and was no good, a $990.00 job to fix everything. I refused and drove away wondering when the bomb would drop on my car.
It never did… my car remained well until I sold it a couple years later.
I have been driving my pathfinder for a year with a bad transmission and bad catalytic. According to my old mechanic....
your oil filter skit reminds me of a time when I was young. I brought my 86 toyota pickup to a shop to get new tires. (This was probably round 1990 and I was 18) The manager came out and said "Your truck is almost done, but your shocks are leaking, and need replaced". Well.... the reason I brought it in for tires was, I just put a lift kit on it... with BRAND NEW shocks. Didn't have 20 miles on them. So, I asked if it was still up on the rack so I could see. He said sure, and we walked out to the shop. Sure enough... she saw brand new, shiny shocks (and all the new suspension parts) His response was.... "Oh.... it must have been another customer's truck". And this is why I don't let other people work on my stuff. (Except for warranty and state inspections) Thanks for the vid.
I have the opposite problem with my mechanic. He’s too old school. I buy used vehicles so I already know the reliability and common problems with them. Something will be getting old or not feeling quite right, and when it’s something I can’t fix myself I’ll ask him about it and it’s always “if it’s not broken don’t fix it”. Which get to a point and I appreciate him saving me money. But he doesn’t get I don’t want it breaking when I’m miles and miles away from even a main road since I spend a lot of time in very rural areas. It’s just like take my money and shut up lol
I agree. I work on cars but one day I was lazy and did not want to change out an intake manifold on my Caprice. I knew that that was the only thing leaking when I took it in. Went into shop, had them diagnose it and they came back with rear main seal was leaking (incorrect, had it replaced when transmission was pulled a few months ago, was bone dry when I took it in), water pump (again new cause I installed it myself) and valve covers but no mention of the intake manifold leaking causing the surge I took it in for. Was quoted $2,300 and they could get it done in 1 day. I asked them to point out with a uv light where the leaks were at. I had previously added tracer to oil to ensure there were no leaks. When they realized I knew my car more than they did, they also called their Manager. He explained that they made a mistake and the paperwork in the file was switched from another car.... I asked them if this happens often cause I noticed the more people were walking out aside from me.
They always have an excuse don't they.
This is why I've done all my own repairs for the last 45 years. I ran a repair shop for a national chain. There upsell policy was a policy of lies. I refused to follow the rules and I was fired ! I'm still around and the company went bankrupt !
Those quick lube places are the worst rip off artist places. Never use them. I got scammed in one of those places too.
Great video! Communication with the customer of the work being done!
A shop recently tried to tell my grandma that she needed an air filter for her 2020 Jeep Cherokee.......with 12k miles on it. I tool the old filter out and the bead of glue that runs across the fins was still intact which tells me they didn't fan it open to actually look at the filter. They wanted to charge her $110 for the engine air filter and cabin air filter.
Air filters are the part they most use to scam customers.
Yeah las time a I was told the air filter thing was a hour after I just changed it myself.
I just had the car at oul change place because I didn't feel like putting it on ramps and crawling under it that day myself.
We need to replace your muffler bearings is a heads up....
My niece bought a battery at Pepboys and her husband installed it in her Civic. He got the connections mixed up and the car won’t start. They towed it to Pepboys and the mechanic told my niece that the computer probably fried and it’s gonna cost her $1800. She was stress and called me and asked for my opinion. I told her to wait until I check it out first. It took me less than 1 minute to find that a $5 fuse was blown. I’m not even a mechanic.
Yeah, that's Pep Boys being Pep Boys.
Avoid the scare-tactics for sure--get a 2nd opinion or a different shop to look at the vehicle. That's good advice and basic Car Wizard, thanks!
Yep that's the best advice to give people is to go to a second mechanic
That is exactly why I will never work at a dealership all they want is for you to upsale on everything and pay Technicians crap
Where I live cars have to get an annual inspection. There are independent inspection offices but they cannot be in any way connected to any shop that does the work. Meaning that the people who look at the car are not in any way affiliated with the people who work on it. I imagine it limits these sorts of scams since suspension parts and things like that rarely ever get replaced unless the inspection office want them too.
I once had one of the quickie oil change places try a scam on me. They also did some brake work as well. I came in for just a brake job. Thirty minutes later the service writer told me that my water pump was leaking! That was a shock to me. What didn't know that I had it replaced 6 months earlier. It was a virtually brand new water pump. When I questioned as to how my recent new water pump was leaking he told me it was probably defective. I told him I was going to see how the car ran with the current water pump. Nothing was EVER wrong with the current water pump. I never went back to that shop ever again! Trying to upsell additional service I did not need almost caused me to go off on the service writer.
People are becoming more and more self centered and less moral in their dealings with others. I see this in every area area of life and in every occupation. I've been very fortunate through the years to find some good honest mechanics like you and your employees.
My alignment guy does a diagnostic suspension check before doing an alignment. He charges about 1/3 the cost of an alignment and allows me to change any defective parts myself and bring it back. He then finishes the alignment job and discounting for the cost of the pre check. Works out well for both of us.
You should make an app where people can report bad mechanics, and situations so other people know not to go to their shops. in Omaha Nebraska there’s a huge problem with reputable mechanics from their customers.
Problem with that is some people are dumb. Guy I know builds engines. He had a customer start his brand new engine with no oil in it clearly. It of course ruined the engine. So the customer is blasting him on every social media platform and review page claiming he's a shitty engine builder. The guy sued him also and it lasted about 5 seconds in court when the engine builder without a doubt proved he ran it with no oil.
Yep here to
This happens all the time at dealers and disreputable independent shops.
Love the customer rip-off skits performed by Mr. and Mrs. Car Wizard. LOL!
Getting a good mechanic is like getting a good doctor... I've got one of each, but neither are taking new patients and when they are they're very particular about who they allocate their very valuable time.
With a collection of complicated cars and an even more complicated collection of medical issues, I can see why their skills are very expensive per hour. Because they get the jobs done once, correctly.
Thank you so much for showing us the tip to avoid from getting ripped off.
I trained a new hire at my job, non-automotive job.
My trainees previous job had been service manager at a large dealership locally
Not only did he not really know much about cars.
He also verified the practices at the dealer the wizard talked about that we've heard elsewhere and worse.
He said he felt a little dirty everyday, but that was his job
I came home from work to an angry wife. I had sent her to get the exhaust welded to the local brake and exhaust place. They told her she couldn't drive the car as the front disc pads were so worn they were dangerous. I worked in a garage. I had replaced the pads two weeks before.....
Was that Hoovie trolling the Wizard with the drive-by? 😅