Mechanic diagnosis, does expensive repair, car still screwed

[burn_this_city]

Sounds like a crappy transmission or engine mount. Is it less lumpy when the clutch is to the floor?

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Locke

I'm no mechanic but that doesnt sound right to me. There are a million things that could cause a 'lumpy/pulsing' idle, most of them are fuel/air/ignition/sensor related.

Flywheel? I'm guessing this is a manual vehicle, but still.

It uses a dual mass flywheel which was only used for 3 years until they realized the design sucked. Some get so bad they fly apart and crack your transmission bell housing.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by zamler

Did you get the old parts back?

Just because you get the old parts back doesn't mean a thing. Problems can be caused by many different things. Some shops will just start replacing parts til they find the part that fixes the problem. Unfortunately all the previous parts that were replaced probably didn't need to be.. but do they take the new part off and put the old and still good part back on? NO.

Thus the large repair bill for labour to replace good parts and for good parts that were replaced by new parts.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Sounds like a crappy transmission or engine mount. Is it less lumpy when the clutch is to the floor?

Hell, to me it could be something as simple a faulty MAF sensor or crummy spark plugs. Depending entirely on what kind of car we're talking about here.

I'm imagining that when he means pulsing idle that you can see the tach wandering between lower and higher than normal idle.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Locke

I'm imagining that when he means pulsing idle that you can see the tach wandering between lower and higher than normal idle.

Sorry, I didn't explain this well. Tach is dead still. Just the whole frigging car is vibrating intermittently. I have done engine mounts on this car twice, last one I switched from the self hardening ones (dumb system that always fails, mounts are fluid filled and have a solenoid controlling a valve to change the stiffness) to solid mounts.

But yeah, given how it's behaving mounts seem way more likely than anything else at this point.

I found out the car was already on it's second clutch (I bought it with 40,000km on it) so I've likely got less than 70,000km on the last clutch that went in the garbage, and I baby my clutches, double clutched downshifts every time because I used to drive straight cut non-synchronized forklifts so now I'm forever anal. So a perfectly good clutch replaced for nothing...

[prarieboy]

Originally Posted by prarieboy

I dropped it off tonight so I'm waiting to see what they say tomorrow. If they claim new codes are showing up it's pretty clear to me that they are not dealing with me in an honest manner. I'll take my buisness elsewhere.

Got a call from the shop. They missed a part during the initial diagnosis. They are not charging for the diagnosis today and are not charging for the part they missed. I will be charged for installing the new part.

Pretty fair if you ask me.

[Northendzone]

for the poster that complained about the $5 seal on the waterpump costing $600 - i understand your complaint, but the first thing you need to understand is that the seal likely is not availible on it's own, and if it is, would you really want them to take apart your WP replace the seal and reinstall the whole thing only to have a $5 bearing go a month later. In some vehicles, you may need to do a lot of work to remove and reinstall the WP.

Generally speaking I take my vehicles to Advantage Ford and when my bill is high I complain a bit and then ask if they can reduce in recognition of our long term relationship and it generally gets lowered 10% to 15% - now it is likely still mroe than I might pay at a regular shop, but to me it is worth it as I have never felt "ripped off" leaving there.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Just because you get the old parts back doesn't mean a thing.

Getting your old parts back means everything. If I see the old parts, I can tell if they needed to be replaced, and I can tell if they actually returned the parts they claimed they replaced. The old parts are valuable evidence.

...If I had to guess, I'd say this car is a Volkswagen.

[Dynamic]

Egr valve? We had the same symptoms on a 04 Mazda and that is what was wrong.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

for the poster that complained about the $5 seal on the waterpump costing $600 - i understand your complaint, but the first thing you need to understand is that the seal likely is not availible on it's own, and if it is, would you really want them to take apart your WP replace the seal and reinstall the whole thing only to have a $5 bearing go a month later. In some vehicles, you may need to do a lot of work to remove and reinstall the WP.
.

This. I just did my Mazda P5. The water pump is under the timing belt. 40$ part and it will easily be a $600 bill. An older Chevy v8 it's a 70$ bill. Cars are getting increasingly labor intensive. Parts are still reasonable, and more reliable, but the design is not labor friendly.

I was going to change a head on a ford escape that I bought for a project. Dohc v6. Once I got in the books I let that thought go. Any labor on that engine will outweigh the cost of just grabbing another motor and throwing it in. Its totally doable, but you wouldn't want to pay shop rates. Haha

[speede5]

To the op, I'm thinking your mechanic should have done a little bit of des nagging before changing such an expensive part. It would have been worth an hour at shop rte to have them run a diagnostic, do a good visual on the mounts and things.

I would suspect if something substantial like your flywheel was u/s, it wouldn't come and go. A solid steel disc with a flaw should be consistent in vibrations/noises. A motor mount should be similar.

Make sure you let us know the outcome.

What kind of car, I'm not familiar with the flywheel your describing.

Edit: just went on youtube, I see why that could be a problem. What a way to over complicate a simple part.

[Bill Bumface]

Update. The guy offered to offset a bunch of costs on future work my car would need. Also warned me of a massive service I was likely to need in the future, and advised me dumping the car may be a good idea.

I knew he'd be good for it, so I was good with that.

I trade the car in Monday, so I no longer felt good about our arrangement. I called him today and said so, he asked what I thought was fair, I said if he ate 80% of the labor I'd feel like we shared the burden of the situation. He agreed instantly. Big thumbs up from me, I have never had something like that happen with so little confrontation.

[prarieboy]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Update. The guy offered to offset a bunch of costs on future work my car would need. Also warned me of a massive service I was likely to need in the future, and advised me dumping the car may be a good idea.

I knew he'd be good for it, so I was good with that.

I trade the car in Monday, so I no longer felt good about our arrangement. I called him today and said so, he asked what I thought was fair, I said if he ate 80% of the labor I'd feel like we shared the burden of the situation. He agreed instantly. Big thumbs up from me, I have never had something like that happen with so little confrontation.

Thanks for posting that. I guess if you don't ask you don't get.

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

for the poster that complained about the $5 seal on the waterpump costing $600 - i understand your complaint, but the first thing you need to understand is that the seal likely is not availible on it's own, and if it is, would you really want them to take apart your WP replace the seal and reinstall the whole thing only to have a $5 bearing go a month later. In some vehicles, you may need to do a lot of work to remove and reinstall the WP.

Generally speaking I take my vehicles to Advantage Ford and when my bill is high I complain a bit and then ask if they can reduce in recognition of our long term relationship and it generally gets lowered 10% to 15% - now it is likely still mroe than I might pay at a regular shop, but to me it is worth it as I have never felt "ripped off" leaving there.

Also on a lot of cars if you were needing the water pump changed they should change the timing belt if they're 'in there'. Does the idle lope when it's warm or only if the engine is cold?

Another thing on the vibration that I didn't see anyone post but what does your harmonic balancer look like? is it a 4cyl? because a lot of balance shafts inside the motor to help offset the terrible balance of a 4cyl engine.

[PIMking]

CRAP just read the update