And today is one of them. I grew up under the hood of a car, not much you can do to pull the wool over my eyes. I've pulled and refurbished more engines than I care to remember and a few tranies as well. Most mechanics just entirely tick me off with their 'you can't know squat because you're a woman' attitude.
We cranked up a '97 ford explorer that had been sitting for 3 years. We hit a deer then and really couln't afford the repairs to make it road worthy at the time. Darn thing cranked right up, shocked the crap out of me, I was preparing to at least have to dump the tank, flush the lines and adjust the fuel injection system. Nope, cranked right up. Managed to get my hands on a used grill, light assemblies, etc to put it back on the road, the windshield still has a crack in it but that's tolerable for now. Drove it around for a few miles, added super premium gas, worked the worst of the bad gas through when we realized the transmission pan was leaking. On this truck it's a bit of a pain so I drove up to the little mechanic shop here in town and it's fixed in an hour or two for less than most places charge. I change oil among other things, get it back on the road and about 300 miles in the engine light comes on and starts blinking like mad. I take it back in.... 2 fuel injectors are bad and the fuel filter trashed. Have him fix them because I just don't have to tools to do it myself and really don't want to either, almost HALF of what most places would charge and he told me exactly what was done.
Back on the road again and the same blinking engine light... same codes come up but we know they are brand new, he checks a few things out and we both just shake our heads and decide it's a computer glitch that is refusing to reset. Since then I've put a couple thousand miles on it with that light just a blinking, drives GREAT, better than before we hit the deer that caused us to park it... until last week....
It started shuttering in the front end, two things popped up in my head, the driver's side tie rod we knew was going a few years ago or the drive shaft that we didn't have to replace just yet in 2006 when we moved down here, had the other one replaced then. By the time I get it to the tire place, hoping like heck it was just the tie rod I hear ringing. As soon as he got it up on the rack I knew I was royally screwed. Drive shaft is shot, wasn't even seated in the transfer case and the joint was so loose I was shocked I hadn't felt it going in the last thousand miles.
I took it back to my regular mechanic today, walked home, prepared to be without a vehicle for 2 or 3 weeks while they either find a used part or I break down and buy a new $500 part.
Got a call about 10 minutes before they were supposed to close letting me know I could pick up the truck. I was dumbfounded to say the least. When I got there they let me know I could still drive it with the one newer shaft. I've NEVER owned or worked on a 4wd before. Didn't know you could just drive with one shaft. Had I known that I would have taken the thing off last week and just left it with him! Then he let me know he has a rep coming in that may have an OEM part for the original part number, they've recently stopped making the old part, for about 1/4 the price of new. And if not there may be a way to rebuild it for the same price. All else fails he'll hit up the junk yard when he goes out to one later this month.
When I had the other one replaced it cost me almost a grand. Now I can get it done for around $200. I really like having a real mechanic that doesn't try to inflate his bottom line.
We cranked up a '97 ford explorer that had been sitting for 3 years. We hit a deer then and really couln't afford the repairs to make it road worthy at the time. Darn thing cranked right up, shocked the crap out of me, I was preparing to at least have to dump the tank, flush the lines and adjust the fuel injection system. Nope, cranked right up. Managed to get my hands on a used grill, light assemblies, etc to put it back on the road, the windshield still has a crack in it but that's tolerable for now. Drove it around for a few miles, added super premium gas, worked the worst of the bad gas through when we realized the transmission pan was leaking. On this truck it's a bit of a pain so I drove up to the little mechanic shop here in town and it's fixed in an hour or two for less than most places charge. I change oil among other things, get it back on the road and about 300 miles in the engine light comes on and starts blinking like mad. I take it back in.... 2 fuel injectors are bad and the fuel filter trashed. Have him fix them because I just don't have to tools to do it myself and really don't want to either, almost HALF of what most places would charge and he told me exactly what was done.
Back on the road again and the same blinking engine light... same codes come up but we know they are brand new, he checks a few things out and we both just shake our heads and decide it's a computer glitch that is refusing to reset. Since then I've put a couple thousand miles on it with that light just a blinking, drives GREAT, better than before we hit the deer that caused us to park it... until last week....
It started shuttering in the front end, two things popped up in my head, the driver's side tie rod we knew was going a few years ago or the drive shaft that we didn't have to replace just yet in 2006 when we moved down here, had the other one replaced then. By the time I get it to the tire place, hoping like heck it was just the tie rod I hear ringing. As soon as he got it up on the rack I knew I was royally screwed. Drive shaft is shot, wasn't even seated in the transfer case and the joint was so loose I was shocked I hadn't felt it going in the last thousand miles.
I took it back to my regular mechanic today, walked home, prepared to be without a vehicle for 2 or 3 weeks while they either find a used part or I break down and buy a new $500 part.
Got a call about 10 minutes before they were supposed to close letting me know I could pick up the truck. I was dumbfounded to say the least. When I got there they let me know I could still drive it with the one newer shaft. I've NEVER owned or worked on a 4wd before. Didn't know you could just drive with one shaft. Had I known that I would have taken the thing off last week and just left it with him! Then he let me know he has a rep coming in that may have an OEM part for the original part number, they've recently stopped making the old part, for about 1/4 the price of new. And if not there may be a way to rebuild it for the same price. All else fails he'll hit up the junk yard when he goes out to one later this month.
When I had the other one replaced it cost me almost a grand. Now I can get it done for around $200. I really like having a real mechanic that doesn't try to inflate his bottom line.
