Re: Having trouble starting car...Corolla
- From: "Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom>
- Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 21:10:51 -0500
"Ernie Sty" <fake_email@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Good observation. There is a difference between a mechanic and a
"Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote in message
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"Ernie Sty" <fake_email@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Ray O" <rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote in message
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<henree21@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Check out the contacts on the starter relay. I doubt if it is anYeah I am pretty sure the solenoid contacts are a good choice of
exhaust
problem.
culprit. But I don't know anything about cars. If I go to a mechanic
to
look at the starter. How do I approach him, without looking like a
complete imbecile. I have always been a sucker for cons. The mechanic
may tell me I have thousands of dollars of work that needs to be done.
I like to be specific as possible when I have to get work done at the
shop. That way they think I know what I am talking about.
Pick a shop that employs technicians certified by the National
Institute of Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), preferably a shop
that also has AAA certification. A shop that goes to the trouble of
going through the AAA certification process and employs techs who take
the time and effort to become ASE certified is more likely to be honest
and competent.
It is never a good idea to go to a repair shop and ask them to repair
or replace a specific component, i.e., the starter or starter contacts,
unless you are absolutely positive of your diagnosis. If your
diagnosis was incorrect, you have nobody to blame for the unnecessary
work except yourself. One should go to the repair shop and describe
the symptoms as clearly and completely as possible so that the
technician working on the vehicle can come to their own diagnosis and
recommended repairs. When I take one of my vehicles to a shop for
service, I describe the symptoms, even when I am pretty sure of the
diagnosis myself. That said, having an idea of the cause of the
problem is a good reality check for the shop's diagnosis.
Another good tip is to have them write on the estimate exactly what
problem it's intended to fix. A couple times I've taken a vehicle to
some place for a specific problem, they diagnosed a bad whatsis, asked
me to approve replacing it, they then replaced the whatsis and the
problem was still there. If you have them state on the estimate what
the specific problem is you want them to fix, you have more leverage
when you say "Please replace the part(s) you took out, take back the new
one(s) and I'd like a full refund since you did not fix the problem and
clearly this faulty whatsis was not the cause of it."
I've never done that, but at a Precision Tune I asked them specifically
if replacing a certain part would fix the problem, and when it didn't,
they put the old one back in and gave me a full refund after very little
pushing. They tried to use the excuse that the part they replaced was
indeed bad, but I countered with the fact that bad or not, I would not
have paid to replace it if they had not told me it would fix the
problem. In retrospect, I'm amazed that worked since I didn't have
anything on paper, just a verbal understanding.
Good advice! Especially at an independent or chain operation.
--
Ray, I know you are aware of this but for people who don't know:
Poor mechanics (and maybe even good ones at times) will often guess at
what's causing the problem and replace the most likely culprit. If the
first part they replaced doesn't fix the problem they'll try replacing
another one. The problem is, they rarely take off the new parts and
re-install the old ones if the old ones were not causing the problem,
charging you full parts and labor costs for replacing several parts that
aren't defective (and the replacements might even be cheap aftermarket
junk what will wear out prematurely) so you end up paying many times what
it should actually cost to fix the problem.
And this is one of the LEAST dishonest things bad mechanics do. They have
all kinds of tricks up their sleeves. If they were as good at fixing cars
as they were at extracting cash from suckers, they could fix it by
thumping the hood, like Fonzie on the jukebox...
technician. An automotive technician goes through the trouble to have
current training on automotive systems and is capable of diagnosing a
condition without having to shotgun parts.
Most people define "quality " as the absence of failures or problems, and
this is technically incorrect. "Quality" is manufacturing a part or
component so that it adheres to a design specification, which is not quite
the same thing as absence of failures or problems. A more accurate analogy
for quality would be consistency. A part that is defective is one that does
not adhere to its design specification. A good design will provide a part
that does not fail and that can be produced consistently, and good
manufacturing quality controls will yield parts that are consistent.
Toyota is probably the most consistent automaker in the world. As a result,
one finds very few one-of-a-kind problems with Toyotas, and under the same
operating conditions, the failure of a part or component is very consistent.
In other words, they all do the same thing. Technicians at Toyota
dealerships are consciously or unconsciously aware of this, so they tend to
be pretty quick at diagnosing a problem because they have seen it before.
On the other hand, they do not have as much experience diagnosing a problem
they have not run across before so they sometimes struggle.
--
Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)
.
- References:
- Re: Having trouble starting car...Corolla
- From: Ernie Sty
- Re: Having trouble starting car...Corolla
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