Big Repair Bills - A Large Dent In Your Bank Account
Consider these numbers: $1500 for an insignificant scratch on the bodywork; $3500 for a new exhaust valve; at least $150 for a new trunk-release switch cover. These aren't figures from the realm of fantasy, but actual repair expenses that drivers have provided to AOL Autos after having coughed up these amounts for repair jobs that only seemed small. The alternative is to do the job yourself, or buy a new car. That seems extreme, right? So just pay up like a good citizen and suffer in silence, seems to be the mantra.
Bumper Damper
Deana May of AC Auto Finishing, Los Angeles, knows the nasty shocks that customers can face even with a minor matter like a bodywork scratch or scrape. Its a scary thing " looks can be deceptive. You can calculate an estimate on a front bumper, take it off, and behind it there's all kind of damage. Particularly with low-profile cars with low-profile tires, they often need a whole new front end if they go over a bump or up a driveway, or don't take an angle. May says she sees a lot of this in her shop and recalls how a Lotus driver was quoted a staggering $5,400 to repair his car, though from the outside she couldn't see much that was wrong. May also warns of the dangers " and expense " of drivers getting incorrect quotes for repairs that involve high-performance parts, such as an AMG or Brabus for a Mercedes, and receiving stock components in their place.
Cracked Grille and Fender Bender
Willy Stroppe, the president of automotive engineering firm Bill Stroppe and Sons in Paramount, California, says that once he had seen a minor damage to the front of a Ford pickup truck turn into a major repair bill. "It looks like the front plastic grille got broken with a light hit, but when we got into it the housing behind the grille was cracked and broken all the way up. Replacing everything from the fenders forward, the headlight vessels, a new front end, it all adds up. In a lot of cases you gotta pull out the radiator. That's not something you can do in a couple hours." Stroppe, who works mainly with Fords, has seen similar problems on a Ford Explorer and the pickups repair bill was more than $1200. "It's not like the old days when everything was steel," he adds. In his nearly half-century of experience in the car business, he has seen a lot of instances where a car whose frame and shell are in good condition but it needs a lot of work on its suspension is bought and sold off to an unwary buyer after doing a shoddy repair work on it. This leads to a gigantic repair bill in the future for the unsuspecting customer when the repair work crumbles.
$150 Cover Up
Mark Essig, is a writer in a small town in North Carolina, who was surprised with a bill of $150 by a local repair shop for altering a lost cover for the trunk-release toggle. It was terribly shocking in his ten years repair history of Mercedes 320 CLK. As pricey repair bills are not unusual for posh European marques, Essig says, repair bill charging $2,000 was a real shock for him. He also noticed that it arrived as an added cost that was not at all mentioned in the estimate. He says: "It was part of a $2000 repair bill that included valve cleaning and brake work, and I was so sick to my stomach that I couldn't quibble over $150. Best part was, I didn't ask him to do it." Meanwhile, Michael Russell owner of Porsche 944, an AOL Autos friend, discovered that bringing in an old-school German car charged a lot more than he negotiated for. Replacement of a $15 exhaust valve charged him $3,500 as work was recorded. Fundamentally, he says, they needed to split out the engine to reach the valve, that was burned out, an ordinary ailment in older vehicles. He says, however, repair was essential to get to work.
Air Wear
This is a first-hand experience. I took my wife's 1995 Nissan 240SX S-ER to my local mechanics to fix the air conditioning. However, Id already taken it into the shop the week before, to be told about a leaking gasket that had depressurized the system. So they fixed the gasket, re-filled the system with Freon coolant and pressurized it, for a paltry $300. I thought Id got off lightly, until two days later, when the system began blowing hot once again. At the shop, they told me another seal had broken, but it more complicated this time, meaning extra labor. When I was handed an estimate of $800, I pointed out that the original fix was under warranty, and my mechanic agreed but pointed out in turn that a different component had was to blame this time and therefore the warranty was not valid in this case. Having failed to negotiate a lower repair cost, Im poorer by $300, and my wife faces the prospect of a long, hot summer. Lesson learnt: get a second opinion, and evaluate general system integrity when replacing individual components on older-model cars.
Chilling Coolant, Hot Cost
Ken Lavacot, of online mechanics 2carpros.com, says its better not to ignore a little steam coming out of your exhaust, which could seem like nothing initially but it can blow into something major and cost you later on. He says: "Coolant is used to cool the engine during normal operation. If coolant is allowed to enter the combustion chamber, the engine will burn the coolant creating white smoke and steam. He says the gasket replacement is among the most expensive solutions. "If the gasket that seals the intake manifold to the cylinder head fails it can allow coolant to enter the intake port and then the combustion chamber. To check for this condition the intake manifold will need to be removed." Most of your money goes in getting to the gasket and reassembling the parts after its replacement. Lavacot says that the engine must be taken apart if nothing is wrong with the gasket and there is coolant in the combustion chamber. He adds: "This can be tricky because it is difficult to tell which is causing the problem. For example: A repair shop has told you the cylinder head is cracked, and as they start disassembly they can discover it was the intake manifold gasket that has failed. It's up to the honesty of the repair shop to alert the customer the repair will be less. Or the opposite can happen. A repair shop has told you your engine has a blown head gasket, once the disassembly is complete they inform you the head gasket is OK, and the cylinder has been pressure checked and is OK. This only leaves the engine block as the failure and must be replaced to repair the problem, and that can be costly."
Silver Scratch, Green Fix
My brother-in-law had lent his Jaguar convertible to a family member who took it to a wedding. He returned it with a scratch in the back panel on the driver's side. Generally, a good repair or bodywork shop can erase scuffs at minimal cost, but the Jaguar XK8's aluminum shell demanded a costly adhesive to repair the scratch to prevent further corrosion or damage of the car's monocoque shell. The whole repair work was as costly as $1500. The technician told him that he was blessed the scratch was light otherwise repairs might turn out double or triple in cost, an increasingly general incident as more luxury carmakers counting Audi, Mercedes and BMW harness the aluminum-shell technology (taking advantage of its increased strength and lighter weight). So, it is better to get several estimates for the paintwork. It is also better to think twice before you lend your precious car. - 21396
Bumper Damper
Deana May of AC Auto Finishing, Los Angeles, knows the nasty shocks that customers can face even with a minor matter like a bodywork scratch or scrape. Its a scary thing " looks can be deceptive. You can calculate an estimate on a front bumper, take it off, and behind it there's all kind of damage. Particularly with low-profile cars with low-profile tires, they often need a whole new front end if they go over a bump or up a driveway, or don't take an angle. May says she sees a lot of this in her shop and recalls how a Lotus driver was quoted a staggering $5,400 to repair his car, though from the outside she couldn't see much that was wrong. May also warns of the dangers " and expense " of drivers getting incorrect quotes for repairs that involve high-performance parts, such as an AMG or Brabus for a Mercedes, and receiving stock components in their place.
Cracked Grille and Fender Bender
Willy Stroppe, the president of automotive engineering firm Bill Stroppe and Sons in Paramount, California, says that once he had seen a minor damage to the front of a Ford pickup truck turn into a major repair bill. "It looks like the front plastic grille got broken with a light hit, but when we got into it the housing behind the grille was cracked and broken all the way up. Replacing everything from the fenders forward, the headlight vessels, a new front end, it all adds up. In a lot of cases you gotta pull out the radiator. That's not something you can do in a couple hours." Stroppe, who works mainly with Fords, has seen similar problems on a Ford Explorer and the pickups repair bill was more than $1200. "It's not like the old days when everything was steel," he adds. In his nearly half-century of experience in the car business, he has seen a lot of instances where a car whose frame and shell are in good condition but it needs a lot of work on its suspension is bought and sold off to an unwary buyer after doing a shoddy repair work on it. This leads to a gigantic repair bill in the future for the unsuspecting customer when the repair work crumbles.
$150 Cover Up
Mark Essig, is a writer in a small town in North Carolina, who was surprised with a bill of $150 by a local repair shop for altering a lost cover for the trunk-release toggle. It was terribly shocking in his ten years repair history of Mercedes 320 CLK. As pricey repair bills are not unusual for posh European marques, Essig says, repair bill charging $2,000 was a real shock for him. He also noticed that it arrived as an added cost that was not at all mentioned in the estimate. He says: "It was part of a $2000 repair bill that included valve cleaning and brake work, and I was so sick to my stomach that I couldn't quibble over $150. Best part was, I didn't ask him to do it." Meanwhile, Michael Russell owner of Porsche 944, an AOL Autos friend, discovered that bringing in an old-school German car charged a lot more than he negotiated for. Replacement of a $15 exhaust valve charged him $3,500 as work was recorded. Fundamentally, he says, they needed to split out the engine to reach the valve, that was burned out, an ordinary ailment in older vehicles. He says, however, repair was essential to get to work.
Air Wear
This is a first-hand experience. I took my wife's 1995 Nissan 240SX S-ER to my local mechanics to fix the air conditioning. However, Id already taken it into the shop the week before, to be told about a leaking gasket that had depressurized the system. So they fixed the gasket, re-filled the system with Freon coolant and pressurized it, for a paltry $300. I thought Id got off lightly, until two days later, when the system began blowing hot once again. At the shop, they told me another seal had broken, but it more complicated this time, meaning extra labor. When I was handed an estimate of $800, I pointed out that the original fix was under warranty, and my mechanic agreed but pointed out in turn that a different component had was to blame this time and therefore the warranty was not valid in this case. Having failed to negotiate a lower repair cost, Im poorer by $300, and my wife faces the prospect of a long, hot summer. Lesson learnt: get a second opinion, and evaluate general system integrity when replacing individual components on older-model cars.
Chilling Coolant, Hot Cost
Ken Lavacot, of online mechanics 2carpros.com, says its better not to ignore a little steam coming out of your exhaust, which could seem like nothing initially but it can blow into something major and cost you later on. He says: "Coolant is used to cool the engine during normal operation. If coolant is allowed to enter the combustion chamber, the engine will burn the coolant creating white smoke and steam. He says the gasket replacement is among the most expensive solutions. "If the gasket that seals the intake manifold to the cylinder head fails it can allow coolant to enter the intake port and then the combustion chamber. To check for this condition the intake manifold will need to be removed." Most of your money goes in getting to the gasket and reassembling the parts after its replacement. Lavacot says that the engine must be taken apart if nothing is wrong with the gasket and there is coolant in the combustion chamber. He adds: "This can be tricky because it is difficult to tell which is causing the problem. For example: A repair shop has told you the cylinder head is cracked, and as they start disassembly they can discover it was the intake manifold gasket that has failed. It's up to the honesty of the repair shop to alert the customer the repair will be less. Or the opposite can happen. A repair shop has told you your engine has a blown head gasket, once the disassembly is complete they inform you the head gasket is OK, and the cylinder has been pressure checked and is OK. This only leaves the engine block as the failure and must be replaced to repair the problem, and that can be costly."
Silver Scratch, Green Fix
My brother-in-law had lent his Jaguar convertible to a family member who took it to a wedding. He returned it with a scratch in the back panel on the driver's side. Generally, a good repair or bodywork shop can erase scuffs at minimal cost, but the Jaguar XK8's aluminum shell demanded a costly adhesive to repair the scratch to prevent further corrosion or damage of the car's monocoque shell. The whole repair work was as costly as $1500. The technician told him that he was blessed the scratch was light otherwise repairs might turn out double or triple in cost, an increasingly general incident as more luxury carmakers counting Audi, Mercedes and BMW harness the aluminum-shell technology (taking advantage of its increased strength and lighter weight). So, it is better to get several estimates for the paintwork. It is also better to think twice before you lend your precious car. - 21396
About the Author:
Rand Stuck is a BMW master technician with over 12 years of experience. Rand is the manager of the online parts department of a BMW parts retailer. You can find more information on car repair and BMW parts and accessories at AutoWerks.
posted by X - Men @ 2:55 AM
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