I just got my car back from the shop yesterday, the engine was over heating... that was all.... they gave us a bunch of crap with the credit card and it was a huge hassle.... they replaced the radiator completely, and the bill came to $680.00... now, u think that if you pay $680 to keep you car from over heating, you car would infact no longer over heat....

no such luck.

On my way to work today, my car began to over heat again...

On my way home from work, my car was spuddering and nearly dieing everytime I stopped at a red light... The car began to smoke non stop out of the tail pipes, untill it finially died in the middle of the street.... I had to have it towed.... now I don't have a car again... after just getting it back from the shop yesterday (BTW, the car ran fine before I took it in)

That sucks... there's no way you should have to pay for the second repair, assuming of course that the mechanic offered some kind of warranty with the repair.

a LOT of mechanics are crooked and a lot of the remaining honest ones are just inept.

It takes awhile to find a mechanic you can really trust, sadly. If you personally know someone (or a few such people) who fixes cars, then you have it made.

screw that, there is no way I am ever taking it back to that first place again... they'll probably pull some MORE crap...

Don't you have a lot of money from that movie deal to pay for it?

Report them to your local soncumer affiars department.

Sounds like you've blown a head gasket If you don't take it back and abuse the mechanic, you're looking at more than $600 to repair.

O'course, you could make just like me old man and refuse to take anything to the garage unless it's an MOT and do it yersel'.

One thing I hate about mechanics is how ****ing long they take to do the simplest of things. Should it take nearly an hour and a half to PUT A SET OF NEW TIRES ON?!?! WTF?! I can do that in 4-5 minutes.

what movie deal is that?

Sure you can.

FOUR new tires in 5 minutes? That's 1:15 for each tire. You'd have to be HAULING ***.

15-20 is a lot more reasonable.

hehe. Ahh, the memories.

Technically if you take it back 2 more times and it still has a problem, you can bring a legal lawsuit to them and make them refund your entire money, and go as far as to make you get a new car.

Lemon laws.

And you can put new tires on in 4-5 minutes, providing the car is already on the lift and brought up. I knew a guy who use to work at Discount Tire Company and he could change tires on cars (providing the tires were on the wheels and the car was lifted) in about 5 minutes. Calculating on raising the car, removing the tires, ripping the old tires off the wheel, putting new tires on the wheel, airing it up and putting it back on, that is about 20-30 minutes.

If you have a lift that gets the entire car off the ground, you don't have to switch out the wheel from the old tires to the new tires, and a pnuematic drill, it can go quite fast.

Oops, forgot about that part. been awhile since autoshop. Bet yes, thats far shorter then 1 1/2 hours.

My cousin paid something like a couple THOUSAND (or maybe it was only a few hundred. It was some bizarre amount) dollars to get his truck fixed and all they did was replace some unrelated parts that he can't say needed fixing (but he can't be sure they didn't). But he still had his original problem.

Took it to another guy who fixed it fast, and only charged $50-60 which was amazing for the actual whatever fixing he did, I understand.

Tire needs to go on the wheel though. Unless you have 4 extra wheels sitting around.

I'm lucky my Dad is a mechanic. Both for cars and for planes. He can spot bull**** a mile a way. When I needed to get my brakes replaced on my old car, we first looked into getting someplace do it for us, but NTB, for example, wanted an extra $60-70 on the brake job because they said my car uses a special type of mechanism for the parking brake. In the end, we decided to do it ourself. First off, it was so much cheaper, it didn't take that long, and what I found out, but what my Dad already knew, was that the only effort that had to go into the parking break mechanism was just a unique tool and about a minute of ratcheting when we were removing the brake pads.

It was actually quite fun, and we plan to do it again real soon, but on my new Mustang.

Even with new wheels you have to account for the time to mount and balance the tire on each one of them. You could figure 20 minutes for that and another ten to change all the tires on the lift. A half hour actual labor involved which does not include retrieving the wheels and tires from where ever they are located, how many vehicles might be in front of yours, how much room the shop has, and how many people are working. An hour to an hour and a half seems reasonable.

If you can fit and balance a new tyre on a rim in minutes, you just earned yourself a nice shiny spot in the Guinness world records. If you included a wheel alignment in that, I'm impressed. Send me the video.

Wheel alignment is not usually done nor necessary when changing tires. That's something you would want to do if you're messing with suspension or steering components.

Mounting and balancing a tire is quite easy with the right equipment. Five minutes per wheel should be an easy mark for an experienced operator.

A couple of things that I neglected to add to my last post. You can add abit of time if you're mounting the new tires on the same wheel as you have to account for breaking the old tire off. Also, there's no reason for them to try to set speed records on each wheel and tire change so that would probably add about 25% to the total time. After all, the guys that change tires aren't usually mechanics and they're probably just getting a simple hourly wage.

It's recommended by many to do a wheel alignment after new tires are put on a car. At the least, a wheel alignment is cheaper than 4 prematurely worn out tires. It also ensures that your car will steer accurately.

Another significant factor in removing old tires from a rim is the damage that may occur to that rim if not enough care is taken. I'd rather wait a few minutes extra, than to be driving around on poorly aligned, improperly balanced tires on a dented rim.

Anyway, this is hardly the original topic of the thread! Back to you, Spiral...

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You people speak of impossible feats.

well, the problem is they replaced the radiator, (the radiator hada crack in it) What I think they did was losen the head bolts, so it'll be a different part that is messing up.... SO i WOULD take it back... if I took it back they won't fix it for free, cause it'll be a different part than they replaced... My point is it was ONLY overheating before I took it in.. now it is overheating, and dieing... and making noises.... and smoking out the tail pipes

Why do you think they loosened the head bolts? Is this an unreputable shop?

I would recommend taking it back and complaining about the repairs not repairing. If they don't offer to fix your car for free or otherwise reimburse you to your satisfaction, then take your business elsewhere.

lol @ you