Are there any good shops left anymore

[max harris]

I use to have a good shop just up the road from me that I would take the cars to when the repairs may have been beyond what i could do or didn't have the tools available to do the job. a couple of years ago i took my Bonneville over there due to a misfire problem, they said it was a bad head gasket, another shop in a different state said it was the MAF. I used the MAF out of my GP to trouble shoot the MAF issue in the Bonneville. After doing the head gasket the problem ended up being a short in the main wiring harness. Now I'll get down to my truck which is a 96 F-150 with a 5.8 in it, I had an ignition problem in the truck about 2 years ago also. I had put on new wires, plugs, distributor cap, and coil pack about 6 months before. This last week the thing would barely run, i pulled the coil wire and the electrode stayed in the wire, so that got replaced. The problem still there, so the ICM failed on the bench test, replaced it with no joy. the last part was the 2 year old distributor with less then 10k on it. When pulling the distributor I found the bolt holding it in the block was hand tight(bad QC on the shop). Once it was out the cover over the pickup coil only had one screw which was loose. The other screw was missing with tooling marks evident on the cover that there had been one in place at some time also a lot of soot from parts rubbing. Now this part that failed prematurely cost $75 and somewhere between the rebuild facility and the shop nobody noticed the missing screw. It took a dumb squid to figure that out.

[FordMan77]

It appears it's getting harder to find a good shop anymore. Most shops I've seen work on newer stuff that rely on the computer telling them what is wrong without good ol common sense. Sure, the ECU can spit out the code but if you don't know what else to look for then they just start throwing parts at it, at your expense. Another reason why I do all my own work, minus mounting tires and trans. rebuilds. Sure it's more work for me but in the long run at least I know what/how something has been done.

[WarStryker13]

I second this ^^^^^^^^ wholeheartedly.

I've found so many "half-assed" repair jobs on so many vehicles, my own GP included.

There's so many little things I've found, some of which make sense, others it's like happened here? But doing all of the work myself, finding and fixing all of the jury-rigging that has occurred, knowing that when I put my tools away, that the job was done right or at least to my standards...

It makes me that little bit happier, being able to trust the car and knowing that it will still be just as reliable as ever.

Also, I've saved so much money doing my own work, that I can afford new toys, and more mods. Lol

[98grand]

^^^ same here! I just don't trust others working on my cars. I would rather do the work myself knowing it is done right.

[04lss]

I had a ford dealer fail to correctly diagnose my car. They said it was the cats. pulled the exhaust and they were pristine. Call the dealer for a refund. and I was told that because it had Cat codes and he "looked" at something else that they wont refund. The funny thing is, I TOLD them the exhaust was aftermarket, and that's why it had codes. Idiots.

[Explicit_Spade]

A short in a wiring harness isn't exactly a common problem. The mechanics you talked to diagnosed that air was getting into the motor that wasn't being properly metered. That could either be a MAF or head gasket issue. I don't see those mechanics failing to do their job.

The other mechanic issue... I mean... It was a Ford, so....

[max harris]

It wasn't the MAF since I pulled the one off my GP and the problem was still there. When replacing the head gasket the old gaskets showed no signs of being bad (my next door neighbor was a mechanic at one time). The funny thing was when the car went to that shop it had a miss but started up fine, when i picked it up to bring it home it would barely start and ran like it only had 3 good cylinders.