Once upon a time there was a 1973 Ford Maverick that needed a tune up and new spark plug wires. The owner took the Maverick (with a 302 V8) to Pep Boys. Mind you the car did not run bad, but did not run real good either. So after the owner picked up the car it notice that it ran worse than when he dropped it off. He got home and noticed that when someone started the car a spark would come out of the ignition coil spark plug wire near where it connect to the coil. The owner thinks to himself "Hummmmm, I think these wires are cheap and for sure this wire is bad so I will take the car back to Pep Boys". Well before the owner takes it back he reverses the ignition coil wire so that it won't spark near the coil. This works just fine and the car still runs bad but at least it is not sparking. So the owner goes back to Pep Boys and tells them his story and tells them why he had to reverse this wire. So when your machanic comes out and says "hey the wire is reversed!" you can tell them why. Of course any good mechanic would see that the wire going into the distributor cap should (Like the others) be curved and the other end that goes into the coil is the straight part of the wire. So Pep Boys says "it must be your carb - We can't get it to run any better - come pick it up". So the owner reluctanly picks the car up and goes home with it. The next day the owner says "hey I paid for a tune up and spark plug wire change and it runs worse than it did when I took it in and the carb is new anyway!) The owner takes it in again with the same complaint. The manager says OK we will look at it again. Two hours later the owner gets a call.... "we replaced the ignition coil wire come pick it up". Owner picks it up and gets it home noticing that it still runs bad. Owner thinks to himself "hey I got this new gas filter maybe that is the problem" so he went to change the filter in his front yard. The owner is shocked at what he finds...... The ignition coil wire is STILL reversed! Owner thinks to himself "hey would a certified mechanic lie about changing this and just got caught red handed or did they think that it was the way it should go since he brought it in that way". Owner calls store manager and with great frustration tells him about the wire still being reversed (as they were warned it was). Store Manager says let me talk to the mechanic and see what happened. Store manager finally calls back with the news that the wire was on correctly when brought in and the "mechanic" put the new wire on that way as that is the way it should go. The owner laughs and laughs and finally gathers himself to bring in the car again one more time. The owner meets the store manager and invites him to look under the hood in the parking lot to see the wire and to put his hand on top of the distributor cap spark plug wires when the car is running so that he can get shocked just like the owner has since getting the new spark plug wires. Manager agrees that that should not happen. The manager finally calls the owner back and tells the owner that they put on the best quality triple insulated spark plug wires in the market and and guess WHAT!!! The car is running good now. Surprise Surprise! So the moral of the story is... Make sure your "certified" mechanic has a valid signature on his GED before trusting that they can do simple work on your car! P.S. Yes this was me and my experience. To give Pep Boys some credit they did not charge me any additional labor or the extra cost of the better wires. So
No kidding. When my Comet caught fire the last time and burned off all of the wiring, changing sparkplug wires and the like was quite easy.....finding and changing out the whole front harness proved to be a BIG PITA, (wound up dropping a '74 harness in it, complete with the 'seatbelt bypass switch,' now known as the 'bump the starter button.'
I would have done it myself and have done it in the past but working outside when it is 110 degrees is not my idea of fun. The minor cost was worth it to me but I may go ahead next time and do it myself.
The "owner's" first mistake was taking his Maverick to Pep Boys to have a tune-up (or any other work) done on it. Those guys know nothing about our cars, not to mention that they charge a lot of money...
my suggestion would be to find someone in the neighborhood with a classic ford of any type that runs great, and ask them what shop they go to for the difficult stuff. I found a mech when i first moved here that way. when i arrived at his shop he had his own classic ford flathead parked in one of the bays covered and he even ran it for me. I go to him for anything i cant do or just dont feel like doing.
Parts only. That's what chain car parts places are good for. This is exactly why I don't own anything I can't do everything on myself. Open the hood, battery-check, carb-check, engine-check, radiator-check, that's about all I want to see under there. Anything else just means someone CALLING themselves a mechanic is going to get too much of my money for screwing things up further and then I'll have to go figure it out anyway. Gave up on mechanics long ago, if they do manage to fix something then it's going to cost 5 times what it should and take 3 times as long as they told you and/or the 3 trips like you made. Yeah, I'm a little bitter but throwing money away does that to me. Ask me about the "we replaced everything we could think of until something finally worked but you need to pay for all of the parts" "mechanics" sometime if you really want to hear a rant.
I've had my fair share of mechanics horror stories myself. I once took my Mustang to a place to have the oil changed. The jerks changed the oil filter and drained out the old oil and that was it. They never replaced the oil, but they sure charged me for it. I got two blocks before the oil light came on. I walked back and ripped them every which way but loose. Another time I took my car in for state inspection at a place I had never been to before. It was near were I worked so I took a chance with them. Bad idea. When they put my car up on the lift, they punched a huge hole in my frame. ( they claimed it was already there ) Then they told me I needed new wipers. Funny, they were a week old and I still had the bill of sale in the car. Then they tried to tell me I needed new brake pads. That was funnier yet. They were two weeks old. Then they had the nerve to fail my car's inspection for all those parts they claimed I needed. I refused to pay the bill and threatened to turn them in to the State Police. That must have scared them, because I never did pay the bill. I got halfway home when the back of the car started to shimmy. Turns out the jackasses never tightened the lug nuts on my right rear wheel! Two of them had already fallen off. When I finally got home I DID turn them in. Guess what? A month later they were shut down. Since then I taught myself to do as much mechanical work myself. If I screw up, the only one I can blame is me.
As a "master mechanic" I have spent more on tools than most people have invested in their car. I also have spent college education levels of money on training. No offense to anybody here but let me give you a piece of advice, don't make comments that groups all people together. I repair on the average 7 cars a day and have for the past 11 years. I'm pretty sure I know enough to get me by. Still there are few cars you end up throwing parts at just to see what if. It's not always the mechanics fault. If you want the car fixed sometimes you have to treat the symptoms much like a doctor does. There isn't always a clear problem. Try finding an intermittent short someday on a newer vehicle and I gaurantee you will show more respect to those in this business. I know there are some idiots in the industry but please don't assume all mechanics just guess As far as price goes. You pay for professionalism. If you have an electrician come out and put a wall socket in it cost 125.00. If you do it yourself it cost $5.00 so.............
What bothers me is that I can throw parts at a car myself for trial-&-error trouble-shooting. A trained and experienced mechanic should know how to diagnose a problem. But the thing that pi$$es me off is that they want you to pay for all the parts that they tried that were not the problem. So you end up buying a bunch of parts you never needed along with the part you did need, to help the mechanic do his trouble-shooting. The reason you take your car to a shop is because they are supposed to know more than you do. They are the experts, right? Anyone can try this & try that until they find the solution to the problem, who needs a mechanic for that?...
Bear in mind most garages only charge 1 hour labor to diagnos a problem. In reality it can take 3 or 4 hrs. Think of it this way, mechanics are the following, heating/air condition repair men, Glass replacers, electricians, welders, metal fabbers, machinists, and apparently Gods as we should know everything about everything and be perfect
As a group. I think I called it right "as a group". The good ones are by far the exception. And I almost did include a disclaimer, but "as a group" they don't deserve it. You want to hear something sad? I'm probably a better mechanic than 90% of the people making a living at it. But that's because I only work on stuff I want to get fixed now, as correctly as possible, for the least money, not see how much money I can suck out of it. The mechanic profession has a well deserved bad reputation. If you're the exception, more power to you.
