Meeting people as a mechanic.

[EW]

And lose business.

I vote for keeping it as is.
Next thing you know some dumbass make a blatant racist comment, the customer in question gets wind of it and it's game on.

x2
Don't do it.

As for strut replacement man, do people do ANY research before working on a car? If he can pick up a wrench, he can pick up a manual. He should have known not to do that.

[LaserSVT]

So I had two Corvettes show up yesterday. An 01 and a 00. Nearly identical except the shock package. Both customer complaints "Making bad sounds." One customer is in a fairly nice suit, the other is in jean shorts, has a mullet and is missing two teeth. It was late so i didnt check the cars out until this morning. Oddly enough both cars had identical problems. Basicly a brake/suspension/steering overhaul as well as rear wheel bearings. I call both customers and tell them that its will be just shy of $3000 to repair each car and that both are in serious danger of losing the rear wheels due to bearings and that the tire is rubbing the body because the bearings are so bad.

Both want to come see and both show up within a minute of each other. I show them the issues and explain my main problem is rear toe links are no longer made for the car and all the aftermarket companies are out of stock so I will just order a few styles of outer tie rods and see what fits.

Suit guy: *very distressed face* But I only make $9.25 an hour. I cant afford that. Can we just do the wheel bearings so it can make it home?

At this moment the mullet dude says exactly what I am thinking.

Mullet: "Why the hell do you have a Corvette? You need a Hyundai." (pronounced Hey-un-duh-i) *looks at me* "Fix it all! I aint skeerd." And proceeds to pimp walk back to his truck.

LMFAO!! Now that is a time I wish I had a camera.



Now on to the hunt for C5 Corvette rear toe links!

[line-em-up]

So I had two Corvettes show up yesterday. An 01 and a 00. Nearly identical except the shock package. Both customer complaints "Making bad sounds." One customer is in a fairly nice suit, the other is in jean shorts, has a mullet and is missing two teeth. It was late so i didnt check the cars out until this morning. Oddly enough both cars had identical problems. Basicly a brake/suspension/steering overhaul as well as rear wheel bearings. I call both customers and tell them that its will be just shy of $3000 to repair each car and that both are in serious danger of losing the rear wheels due to bearings and that the tire is rubbing the body because the bearings are so bad.

Both want to come see and both show up within a minute of each other. I show them the issues and explain my main problem is rear toe links are no longer made for the car and all the aftermarket companies are out of stock so I will just order a few styles of outer tie rods and see what fits.

Suit guy: *very distressed face* But I only make $9.25 an hour. I cant afford that. Can we just do the wheel bearings so it can make it home?

At this moment the mullet dude says exactly what I am thinking.

Mullet: "Why the hell do you have a Corvette? You need a Hyundai." (pronounced Hey-un-duh-i) *looks at me* "Fix it all! I aint skeerd." And proceeds to pimp walk back to his truck.

LMFAO!! Now that is a time I wish I had a camera.



Now on to the hunt for C5 Corvette rear toe links!

Good example of "you can't judge a book by its cover".

[4bangen]

From the other room at work just now.
"If I had a large amount of money, I'd get me one of them Dodge Hell cats."
"oh ya?"
"Ya I'd get one just to say I had one, you know they aren't maken them anymore because they cost more to build than there selling them for."
"What would you do with it race?"
"Nah I'd just have it to see how fast I could burn the back tires off."

[Cooter]

From the other room at work just now.
"If I had a large amount of money, I'd get me one of them Dodge Hell cats."
"oh ya?"
"Ya I'd get one just to say I had one, you know they aren't maken them anymore because they cost more to build than there selling them for."
"What would you do with it race?"
"Nah I'd just have it to see how fast I could burn the back tires off."
"And that's why I don't have a large amount of money..."

hurrrdat

[NoClassic]

So I had two Corvettes show up yesterday. An 01 and a 00. Nearly identical except the shock package. Both customer complaints "Making bad sounds." One customer is in a fairly nice suit, the other is in jean shorts, has a mullet and is missing two teeth. It was late so i didnt check the cars out until this morning. Oddly enough both cars had identical problems. Basicly a brake/suspension/steering overhaul as well as rear wheel bearings. I call both customers and tell them that its will be just shy of $3000 to repair each car and that both are in serious danger of losing the rear wheels due to bearings and that the tire is rubbing the body because the bearings are so bad.

Both want to come see and both show up within a minute of each other. I show them the issues and explain my main problem is rear toe links are no longer made for the car and all the aftermarket companies are out of stock so I will just order a few styles of outer tie rods and see what fits.

Suit guy: *very distressed face* But I only make $9.25 an hour. I cant afford that. Can we just do the wheel bearings so it can make it home?

At this moment the mullet dude says exactly what I am thinking.

Mullet: "Why the hell do you have a Corvette? You need a Hyundai." (pronounced Hey-un-duh-i) *looks at me* "Fix it all! I aint skeerd." And proceeds to pimp walk back to his truck.

LMFAO!! Now that is a time I wish I had a camera.



Now on to the hunt for C5 Corvette rear toe links!

Assuming its the outer Scoggin Dickey has one and could likely get you another in a couple days.

88955488

GMpartsdirect also shows to have them

http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/oe-gm/88955488

[4king]

That's no shit. I ran commercial for 5 years and people would not believe the amount of calls I got from "mechanics" (more like parts changers) asking for advice and to run their diagnosis by me.

A lot of it is real basic stuff too. I had one shop up here call me and ask me why he couldn't get an 89 F150 ignition timing right. I asked him if he pulled the spout connecter out. He didn't know what that was and I had to explain it to him. Lmao.

Usually my shops are decent. I say that but a few weeks ago I had a shop that couldn't figure out how to get a wheel bearing off of the knuckle. I described how to do it and sent him all the tools and my driver came back with all the tools and the spindle and said the guy didn't know how to do it and asked if I would just do it for him lol.


What still bugs me is people who don't have check engine lights asking me to scan their car. I'll tell then it won't say anything to me but I will read it, they still want it done, and sure enough I scan the car and no active codes and they sat thank you and leave. Just wasting my time.

I've had a few good stories, I wired in a set of headlights in an eclipse last thursday. The older couple who had just bought the car couldn't get the headlights to work. Turns out the car had a completely butchered hid kit installed and they cut the headlight bulb harness for it. I told them to come back at 2pm and I would re wire everything when we were slow. So they came back and I found the low beam power wire and sold them some h1 bulbs and wired them in. They were very appreciative but no tip, so just the $12.99 for two bulbs. They kept saying they couldn't believe I got them to work because another shop wanted $300 to do it. I didn't ask for a tip but some consideration would be nice lol

I did have a young couple couple come in who just had their grand father replace the battery in their montero who were still having starting problems. They were very polite and waited till we were slow to come ask for help. Their grand father told them the car needed new terminals but he didn't know how to do it but they just had bought some from me (the battery was from battires plus ). I went out to the car and the hold downs on the battery were all loose and the negative terminal needed a shim. I cleaned up everything and put protective coating on them and they were very appreciative. They tried to slide me a $20 bill but I refused, I'm not going to take your money for something that took me 5 minutes.

We're surrounded by shops that either have too much pride or too many customers to help with simple stuff, common courtesy items like those battery terminals a shop would charge an hour labor for and do nothing to help a returning customer or some one in need

[JC316]

Now on to the hunt for C5 Corvette rear toe links!

Just google "Corvette Catalog" and you will find a bunch of sites that have online catalogs. They don't show up on a standard search and they usually have everything imaginable for any year corvette.

The C4 is the same way, you can barely find anything at local parts places and the catalog inventory doesn't show up on a google search.

[351Coupe]

What still bugs me is people who don't have check engine lights asking me to scan their car. I'll tell then it won't say anything to me but I will read it, they still want it done, and sure enough I scan the car and no active codes and they sat thank you and leave. Just wasting my time.

Every. Single. Day.

[mstng86]

Every. Single. Day.

maybe its people thinking if no code pulls they can go try and pass an inspection?

[4king]

maybe its people thinking if no code pulls they can go try and pass an inspection?

No they give you their full life story. I was driving yesterday to yada yada yada to meet so and so and on my way back I went around a corner you know that corner on such and such lane, and my car is acting funny now. It makes a noise when I do such and such, so can you hook up that computer thing and tell me what's wrong?

9 times out of ten even if there is a check engine light they have no idea what I'm talking about and the concept of an oxygen sensor is mind boggling. You can try to explain what it is, how it works, why they need one, and every single time every time, the next question is: can you fix it for me? Do you think I could do it myself? Even though you've just explained it and where it is and how it works and how to replace it: Well can't you just do it for me? You said it was easy to replace!

The main reason I don't have many stories anymore is I can spot the clueless ones who I need to tell to see a mechanic, and the ones who do their own oil changes and spark plugs. I'll go in to detail with the guys who are doing their own oil changes And basic maintenance because they have the mentality to do it themselves. Ive literally done ball joints for people when they bring in their control arms because they cant get it to budge with my rental tools, ive pressed in new bushings etc, But if you're driving a 99 cavalier and have to ask me where the oxygen sensor is and what it does, I'm going to refer you to my best mechanic shops to help you out. How you can be over 35 driving a $2000 car and have no idea how to do anything car related to me is mind numbing.

[Frank]

I had a 2000 Buick I bought for a family member recently. I was only going to have it a few days and knew nothing about GM. The check engine light went off on its own before I had a chance to check codes, so I asked the guy at AZ if he could check "stored" codes. He did, and I was relieved to find it was just a miss on one of the cylinders and not something catastrophic. At least I knew it could be fixed fairly easy.

[4king]

I had a 2000 Buick I bought for a family member recently. I was only going to have it a few days and knew nothing about GM. The check engine light went off on its own before I had a chance to check codes, so I asked the guy at AZ if he could check "stored" codes. He did, and I was relieved to find it was just a miss on one of the cylinders and not something catastrophic. At least I knew it could be fixed fairly easy.

Usually we have to explain what a misfire is, and if it's misfiring on all cylinders they make us print out all codes for every cylinder.

Have yet to see a catastrophic check engine light.

[LaserSVT]

Depending on cyl number it could be an easy tune up or an expensive intake gasket. I hate 3.1,3.4,3.8 FWD GM engines.

[LaserSVT]

Do here is one of the nastiest concoctions I have had to deal with. Its the slickest thing I ever felt and when you get it on you it does not come off. Mixture of Dexcool and Dextron mixed over a few months due to a bad trans cooler inside the radiator.