Wondering how many people here have ever had a mechanic try and rip them off. As a girl, I think it happens more often to us than men. Ive had 3 different mechanics try and stick with me a large bill on stuff my car didnt need but I was able to surprise them with my knowledge on my car.

 

Hey now, its not the mechanic ripping you off, its the service writer or as i call them salesmen that are.

 

lol, yeah. idiot here in town tried to tell me my EGR valve needed replaced on my tib. i asked him how the hell he was going to install it first,lol.

 

I've told the story 100 times, but I had a dude take me for over $800. Said he replaced the rear axels and stubs on the 944 after I hit a massive incognito speed bump and ramped her hard. But when I picked up the car she was still making a gawdawful grinding noise and he wanted another 1k to replace the rear dif. Over a year later I went to do a full rebuild on the rear and found the wheel bearings were beyond borked (which need to be relpaced with the stubaxles and were so bad off they crumbled in my hand) and the stub I was most worried about was still bent. And still had the VW/Audi stamp left over from the pre '86 days; all new units came with the Porsche stamp. So basically there was NO way in hell he did the job. I went back and confronted him and be basically told me "tough sh*t, warranty's up and don't bother coming back around here." In hind sight I could have sued him for the cash, but... not after I lost my temper.... That and I'm 99.9% sure he's illegal so he'd never show.







Yes, I clocked him with the bent stub, and I am proud of it.

 

funny how people associate "ripping you off" with "recommending other services"



i was a service writer for 8 years before i decided i wanted to do something different



not cuz of the lies and deceit, but cuz i got tired of the long hours customers demand i work(think about it, if you work 8 to 5, when would you be able to drop off your car....i had to be there before and after normal working hours) and the fact that everyone thinks im trying to take money out of their pockets



also, if you know so much about cars, why are you at the damn shop in the first place



i sware everyone thinks they are smarter than the guy actually fixing their car

 

As a mechanic, I've had people bring me estimates from dealer's for things that weren't broken. Just the other day, A guy came in with an estimate from the dealer that said his '05 Xterra needed two new motor mounts. They were fine.

 

Assuming you're referring to my post, the noise wasn't coming from the Diff and he knew it. That was a brand new 968 Posi that was installed like 3 months prior. On top of that the sound was coming from the hubs. Replaced the bearings and stub, whamo, sound gone. Go fig :/

So yeah, I kind of know what I'm talking about.... Just a wee bit



The reason I did at the time was I didn't know know squat about Porches at the time. Took that incident learned from it, and what do you know? Within the year I had a happy house, a garage and time to tinker.





But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, having worked in a shop for a long time that most people think they know everything and really don't know squat. I didn't either at the time but a bit of healthy skepticism never hurts.