Comments on: Mechanic Woes…

By: ray

ray — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:11:52 +0000

A check engine light means an emissions system fault. All 1996 and later cars have standardized systems & are pretty much very similar. It doesn’t matter if you have Ford, Chevy, Honda… Although, Mercedes & BMW have a few more bells & whistles, but they’re the same too. Diagnosis shouldn’t take more than an hour & a half. This should cost you some where around $90-$120. Try to give your mechanic as many details about the situation the where the problem occured. ie. it was raining, climbing a hill, it was cold out… sometimes leaving your purse on the passenger seat will affect the airbag system. Hope this helps.

By: Blogging Away Debt » Blog Archive » Mechanic Update and a Lesson Learned

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 02:06:31 +0000

[...] After thinking it over, our car went back to our regular mechanic to get it diagnosed and fixed. It went in at 10am and my tummy has been upset ever since. After fearing the worst for hours, I heard from his shop around 5pm and are you ready for how much it cost? You really ready? [...]

By: Tricia

Tricia — Tue, 02 May 2006 12:24:00 +0000

My car has around 63K on it, and I’d say it’s probably taken us the past six months to put 3K on it. So, it’s probably not due to that.

My husband was the one who talked to our mechanic and he had some ideas of what could be wrong – but my husband forgot almost all of the details. He did remember that there were three error codes and that’s about it.

Well, it’s going in Wednesday so I guess we’ll see what happens. I’m trying to keep thinking good thoughts

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 02 May 2006 01:22:00 +0000

mapgirl makes a good point. Sometime if you need a mileage service that light will come on.

By: mapgirl

mapgirl — Mon, 01 May 2006 03:15:00 +0000

Was there actually a sound that was made when it happened? Did you hit a magic number for taking your car in for servicing, like 10K miles or 60K miles? Sometimes that light comes on to remind you to go to the dealer, even when nothing is wrong.

Good luck. I hate going to any other mechanic than my dad and now that he’s retired, I neglect my car to my frequent chagrin.

By: Tricia

Tricia — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 20:06:00 +0000

I’ve been taken for a loop by a dealer before. Just to get an oil change, recall work and to look at a noise (not fixing, just looking) cost me $356.00. I was quite upset and vowed never to go back there.

I sometimes wish my hubby was a grease monkey, but he’s not. I’ve tried to learn some, but lack the time to really learn.

I’m still thinking about what to do, but I think I will take it back to the mechanic I trust and give him a shot. I just don’t know where else to go and well, I like him alot.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 02:41:00 +0000

Sorry to hear about your car troubles. I am very lucky to have married a gear head. My hubby knows everything there is to know about almost every car. He is actaully a manager of Kauffman Tire. They sell tires do services to your car and what not.

I don’t know what to tell you about your check engine light. It could be somethigng simple like a wire or soemthing needs to be change or it could be something serious. I don’t know if I would take it to a dealership. They will charge you more than a regular mechanic would. Maybe you could ask for another mechanic to look at it. Two heads are better then one. Although I will say this sometimes taking it to the dealer is the best thing b/c they should know those cars inside and out. Something happened to my Corvette a few months ago. we didn’t take any chances and we took it up to the dealer. Thankfully it wasn’t anything bad. I just ran over something and it knock the tranmission out of gear and it scared the crap out of me. But we walked out of there paying $365.