Damn mechanics

[fastpace]

Well yesterday I dropped my car off at a mechanic shop to see if they can narrow down the problem for me because I am still having idling problems. I take the car there, tell them the situation and 3 and a half hours later they tell me it is normal and the car is idling like that because of the weather(about 50 to 60 degress in college station). I was pissed as hell because I wasted $65 bucks to get an answer that I already knew. I don't think they even put the car on the computer to see if anything came up. I really don't think that I can trust another mechanic because of this incident, except for one back at home. I think this will inspire me to learn more about my car, not just the basics, the engine, and the suspension, but especially the electrical system and emission system. Well I was just wondering if any of yall have gone through any thing like this with mechanics that give you the runaround?

[Bbandit]

ugh tough luck fastpace!
so you brought it to a mechanic?
some mechanic... 65 bucks for that kind of answer...
bah!
i think i know how to solve that problem man
just sell the KA to me! and i will give you my 150k KA for free!
:p

lets take a look at it again next weekend before/after autoX

[Natty]

Cars are just tempermental. I brought mine in one time for poor acceleration and a wheel shimmy.

He said it ran great, and the tech spun the tires in first leaving the lot. There was no way in hell I could do that before.
He blamed the shimmy on the driveshaft, which really is bad, but I think there is something else.
It was free though. A great mechanic, did my old Dub and my dads car as well.

Jeff

[Jeff240sx]

You shouldn't have paid them.
-Jeff

[s13rookie]

last year a buddy of mine brought his 96 eagle talon to a mitsubishi dealer to have it fixed. it was having a problem of not revving above 4k rpm, i was in the car when my friend and the head mechanic took it for a ride around the block. we came back to the lot and the mechanic said " wow, your turbo is really shot"
too bad my friend didnt have a turbo, he had the 420a and not the 4g63, after yelling at the service manager about how he didnt want that clown to touch his car, my buddy took his car to a few other dealerships, none could help. i posted the problem on zilvia one night and some one recommended checking the rockers, sure enough, we pulled of the valve cover and 3 rockers were shattered. fixed it ourself for under 60 bucks

mechanics are great, we all use them, we all need them , but they are not perfect, 9 out of 10 times tey hit the nail on the head with diagnosing the problem, but they are not perfect

[tnord]

i definitely would not have paid them. i always refuse to pay for diagnostic work unless it actually involves tearing something apart (ie WORK). i tell them they can have my money when they actually fix something.

[AKADriver]

If it's idling funny, 50 degrees isn't gonna do it. I've fired up my 240SX in temperatures down to about ~20F and it always idles like glass (well, comparatively, damn soft motor mounts).

That mechanic totally sucks.

I'm glad my 240SX hasn't ever stumped me with its problems. My GTI has, but thankfully my VW mechanic wouldn't charge me $65 if they didn't do anything. But they always talk me into fixing things that I know are broken but I just ignore because they're hard to fix :p

[whateverjames]

he told you it was idling bad because of 50-60 degree weather? you need to get your money back, or beat it out of him or take out a store window or two if he doesn't refund the money ;) that's a scam.

[BRB240]

You shouldn't be worryin about the idle... cars just get old and start to develop personalities and have funky ways of makin you worry about it. Any car that has over 100k miles will have wierd unexplainable things. These get more noticable as the car gets older. They are just things to make us worry but they don't cause any major probs. Unless the sound of metal shattering happens then that is something you might want to look into ;)

My Jeep(160k) will sometimes run like it was Hungry Rossie O' Donnel(Mean!) and other times it will run like a new Bimmer :D

So don't worry about the wierd quirks of your aging car...

As for the Mechanic.... Eh' burn is house down... That'l show him not to rip you off! :rolleyes:

Good Luck!

[d240t2]

If the car has a funny idle, the first step you should take is to buy a can of carb cleaner and spray it in the IACV hose underneath the intake manifold. You just pull the hose off the intake pipe, have someone start the car and rev it a bit (to keep it from dying), and spray some of that in. 9/10 times that fixes funky idles.

Dennis

[Nerfdude]

as stated above me, carb cleaner. spray it into the IAA valve's tube off the intake, and then hose down the throttle body and MAF. made mine run like it's got 90k instead of 190k....
also, that mechanic is a dick. car places tend to be that way, minus the ONE shop i take my car to.... like, back in sept. when i was getting new exhaust cat-back, i went to meineke, where they quoted me 360 bucks for 2.25" mandrel-bent pipes and a magnaflow muffler. said the muffler was $250. i went online and bought the same exactl muffler for 125, went back to them with it, and they told me that the pipes would cost me 300 bucks due to the fact that there were so many bends. assholes. i went to car-x and they did the pipes for 90 bucks. ****ty job though.... i never should have attempted a custom catback. next summer i'm getting a 5zigen...

oh, and quotes for bodywork are nuts, too. i need a passenger mirror, fender, and door. body shop quotes: 150 for the fender, 200 for the door, and $318 for the mirror!! i'm buying power folding mirrors off ebay for about 150, getting the fender for the same price, and i may be getting a door for about a hundred...

painting, that's always cheap too, isn't it? Maaco told me it'd cost 2200 to paint my car, assuming they do everything. i'm now doing all the prepwork (body filling, sanding, primer, etc etc) and they're charging me 450 for a two-stage paint job. i don't trust myself with paint, short of primer....

it's always better to do it yourself if you have the ability.

[Apparition]

What kind of idling problem are you having? For me, my air filter was dirty as hell. Cleaned that up and it idled perfectly again. Otherwise before, the revs would drop and the car would compensate, then it'd drop again, and the cycle continues.

[fastpace]

i believe it is immature idling. When I am making a turn in second the rpm will go down to about 100 to 200. If I just put the car into neutral it will still go down, but to 400-500. But at times it does idle right, but stills ****es me off. I don't think it is suitable for autox which is this weekend. I am going to do some trouble shooting during the week to pin point where the problem is. But I am leaning towards the egr valve right now. But I will check everything. Yeah next time I will learn to just trust my instinct and go from there and go to the mechanic that I usually go to when I know I can't do the work.

[sanmiam]

Try the carb cleaner as stated earlier. I was having almost the same exact problem, and actually ended up getting a whole BG throttle body cleaning service (cost me $15 instead of $125, my buddy works at a shop and the BG guy gave me half off after I helped him get his keys out of his locked van) But basically glorified carb cleaner is all it is. Have driven city with it for almost 12K since, with an idle smoother than my Dad's Maxima. Wow did that **** him off!:D