Fixing Cars

Car repair can be an expensive problem but there are some things you can do to minimize this expense.  For starters, when you first notice something going on with your car don’t put it off even if you think it could be a big expense.  There are all sorts of ways your car will show signs that somethings not quite right from a check engine light to some strange noises that you’ve never heard before.

If you all of sudden see that check engine light illuminate don’t fret it because thats just an indicator that some sensor picked up an error and stored a code that can be referenced to indicate why the light came on.  It can be something simple as not fully tightening the gas cap, or you floored it and RPM’s reached a dangerous level.

If your car is 1996 or newer you have an OBDII system which stands for “on board diagnostics”.  Older vehicles used OBD1 and the devices used to read the code isn’t as readily available.  Autozone offers a free service to read the code for you on OBDII cars.  Simply pull in to the parking lot and ask them if they can’t pull a code for you.  It literally takes minutes for them to plug in the reader and then tell you what code you have set.

The code is one data point you can provide to a repair shop if its something you’re concerned about.  If you demonstrate some level of knowledge about the problem it helps the shop determine the most probable cause and they can give you some additional information over the phone.

The other types of problems that arise like brake problems, engine problems or transmission problems may be a little more difficult to find out the cause without a deeper knowledge about your car.  The good news is that you aren’t totally out of luck, the internet makes it easy to do some research.  If you know how to describe the problem the odds are good you can find others who’ve had the same problem.  So try entering your year / make / model and the symptoms you have like “brakes squeaking” or whatever you are dealing with.  You might not find the exact answer but after you read a few results you may notice that a common cause is that you might be hitting the metal indicator thats designed to let you know the pads are dangerously low and in need of replacement.  If you notice the brake pedal shaking it could be the rotors are warped and may indicate a slightly more expensive repair.

No matter what, now that you’ve gathered a bit of information you can find out what it would cost to get repaired.  You can simply call a couple shops and ask them for their rates for new pads and rotors and compare prices, ask them if they only use dealer parts or if they use aftermarket as the bill will be more expensive for dealer parts.  Keep in mind that scams do exist, and though it may appear to be a legit family run business, there are some things that mechanics just don’t want you to know about.

If you have a serious need to save money then here are a couple more tips to keep in mind.  You can research the price of the actual parts to see if the shop is marking them up too high.  You can call the dealer and ask them for the part numbers for the pads and rotors and enter those numbers into google and see what you find.  You can call a local Autozone, Napa, Shucks etc. and ask them to cross reference the number to an aftermarket replacement and also ask about the warranty they offer on the parts.

Now that you’ve done your research and have a figure in mind you can walk into the shop and negotiate a better deal with them.  Print out the parts you found online and see if they can match the price.  It may be a long shot but odds are you’ll be getting charged quite a bit less than walking in off the street without a clue.

If this was helpful to you and saved you some money just remember TuneyFish when someone else has a car problem and how you dealt with it.

Tags: Auto Repair Manuals, auto shop, car repair, Everyday driving, find a good shop, Fix Your Car, ripoff car repair, twitter car repair

This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Auto Repair Manuals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.