Question Of The Day: Did A Mechanic Ever Save Your Hide?

Steven Lang
by Steven Lang

Beads of sweat start to form.

Dollar signs. Bills. Lots of money flowing into that great abyss known as repair costs.

Does this car have a blown head gasket? Are the valves bent?

Did I really betray my enthusiast bent and ignore a little problem until it became big?

JFK was quite right when he said, “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” We never want to admit our mistakes.

But when it comes to cars, you can’t blame it on the dog. Mistakes of our own making don’t go away. They serenade us with their presence and in the case of a car, often multiply due to carelessness and neglect.

Like a sad pound puppy staring for affection, a car will look downright despondent with an open hood and parts laden every which way from the engine bay.

That desire to fix it yourself. Or get it done on the cheap. Or simply just ignore the problem. It can awaken you to a world filled with automotive hurt and heartache.

Then it happens. You get it towed or hauled off to someone who actually knows what they’re doing.

They diagnose the issue. Fix it. Make it as good as new.

The bill may have been high, or jaw dropping cheap. One thing is sure. You ought to thank the guy.

So go ahead and do it right here.


Steven Lang
Steven Lang

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  • Poggi Poggi on Jun 21, 2012

    A bunch of years ago, running 90 mph north of Ocala, my '97 Camry ate a valve. The car was towed to a Toyota dealer in Ocala. That was on a a Sunday night. The following Friday, the tech was reassembly the motor and explained what happened and how he'd not seen the same failure in 20 years as a tech. Anyway, he asks, "Can you bring the car back after a few hundred miles so I can check it over? Never know what I might have missed." I replied, "When you hand me the keys, I'm heading north 900 miles as fast as I can." He begged me to "try it out" for a while, but, 13 hours later, I was home. He was humble, talented and really cared about his work and my satisfaction.

  • Ciddyguy Ciddyguy on Jun 21, 2012

    I've been fortunate that in my years of being alive (47), I think I've only experienced a handful of strandings from any of my parent's cars or mine. Chalk that up to keeping up on at least the basics in maintenance and having cars that were in decent shape mechanically for the most part. But when something's needed done at a shop, I've also been fortunate to not have felt to have been ripped off. Some places, definitely better than others that's for sure. I think it also helps that I come across like I know what I'm talking about and when I can say this is what it's doing in such a way that the mechanic knew where to begin. I think you are more likely to have issues if you go in and say, I don't know what's wrong, please fix it. For a time had an independent mechanic who did great work at reasonable prices as he did it in his spare time in a large garage behind his house, that is until he retired. I think the last thing I had him do was replace the carburetor on my 78 Ford Fairmont as I never took the Civic that I bought to replace it to him and he retired in the late 90's if I recall. I once had to pull into a gas station who still did car repairs that was still open somewhere in Oregon (I want to say near Roseburg) on my way home from a job interview in Klamath Falls back in 1990 and was heading back to my parent's place in Tacoma when I felt the transmission in my dad's '83 Citation begin to slip some. The guy on duty I think checked the level and found it low, topped it off and I think charged me for the fluid and sent me on my merry way. The car ran fine after that but had Dad have it checked for leaks and we never had a recurrence of the issue the rest of the time he had it - and that would be until 1997. The most recent situation was having to hit Midas about a block and a half away from work because of an issue with my truck back in January and they found that the idle air controller was not functioning, they did a full going over and found that my cooling system was indeed leaking (been told that via Jiffy Lube and Precision Tune in two different oil changes) so that verified that, the serpentine belt was really needing to be changed and my battery was even worse off (still functioning, but not for long though) and it WAS 6 years old too. They also found a couple of other small things but found the tires, brakes and hoses all good and noted the oil leaks I mentioned and found 2 unrelated codes from the OBD I system and when I had them adjust the IAC a week later on the day I drove it down to Tacoma to trade it in a week after buying the Mazda P5, they said they'd try and were able to and didn't charge me for that. And when I went to drive to Tacoma where I bought the car to the dealer, the shifter bushings went. Two other strandings were not of my cars but my parent's. One, around 1990, the 85 Accord SE-I suddenly stopped running. Either the timing belt jumped a tooth or broke while on our way to Mt Rainier National Park with my grandmother and it occurred on an isolated curvy foothill highway and Dad had to find someone with a phone to call for a tow. The truck that got the car back into town was a pretty ragged '67 Ford that had rolled once and the tranny fluid, I think it was had spilled. fortunately, it was all cleaned up stains remained. And the other big break down was in 1973 I think on our way back home from Yakima, heading over I-90 and Snoqualmie Pass loaded with fruit, my sisters and both parents when the transmission finally, I repeat, finally went in our then nearly 10 YO Dodge wagon with the 225 slant six and torqueflite. Mom and my sibs and I got a ride from a family in an '65-66 Plymouth Valiant (or was it a Dart, I can't recall now) to bring us home and would not take any money from us, but it WAS a tight squeeze and they obviously didn't have a lot. They ended up putting in a used tranny and the poor old thing soldiered on until we finally sold it in 1977 with over 140K miles on it, maybe closer to 145-150K.

  • Saabaru Saabaru on Jun 21, 2012

    As a Saab enthusiast hopelessly devoted to the C900(pre-'94) model, I have, out of financial necessity, become a bit of a DIY'er. My safety net has been a Saab specialist in upstate NY who has been a great resource for parts, tools and expertise when I get in over my head. Most recently, he saved me close to $200 by selling me a good used inner driver for my car.

  • Dynasty Dynasty on Jun 21, 2012

    I had somehow wrongly replaced a power steering pump on my Riviera when I was stationed in the middle of nowhere New Mexico when I was in the Air Force. So I drove to town with the car, and pulled into a random shop. There was a guy there by the name of ____ who said he would be glad to fix it for much less than the going rate the shop would charge by doing at his house on the side. It might just cost me a bottle of Jack Daniels from the Class Six on base, plus some cash. This mechanic eventually became a good friend, and he and his family sort of adopted me. He would help me with all of my projects on the car. Wish I would have kept in touch after I got out of the military.

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