Post your " WINNING STORY" - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

mike690003 · #1 06-09-2003, 11:27 AM

Has anyone in here actually went to a mechanic, gotten a huge price quote for a fix,went home frustrated and angry,and ended up fixing the problem yourself for less than half of what the mechanic wanted to charge you??

Heres one of my many winning stories.

I was pulling into traffic one day and my 300e basically had no acceleration. My transmission would not kickdown. I was frustrated because the trans was repaired by the dealer and the warranty had just expired on the rebuild. I took it to a Mercedes certified trans shop and the mechanic told me that"The car is flaring,the car holds gears too long,it shifts too hard and there is no passing gear", total price for a fix $700. I felt angry and shocked. I went home in disbelief. Well, when I was getting out of my car, I saw a black piece of plastic on the drivers mat. I tracked it down and it was a piece of my kickdown switch! I went to the parts shop and bought myself a new kickdown switch, $14 bucks. I saved a ton of money that day,and I felt so relieved.I fixed the hard shifting with a little adjustment of the Bowden Cable.

rickg · #2 06-09-2003, 11:34 AM

Man, I'd been back down to that service guy and rub his nose in that one!

mike690003 · #3 06-09-2003, 12:06 PM

ahh c'mon no winning stories?? Dont tell me that you guys are all being "taken to the cleaners" by mechanics.

rickg · #4 06-09-2003, 12:12 PM

No. That's why I do my own repairs.

ned2683 · #5 06-09-2003, 12:15 PM

when i was a FOB i took our family jeep into get our brakes fixed because it was locking up.

they charged like 120 up front (75 to look at it, bull **** fee's) and quoted us 600 bucks. we didn't have the money and so i decided that i will find a way, or at least try. took the thing apart , it was a spring holding the drum brake assemply together that was busted. cost to fix? 5 bucks (came in a set but i only needed 1 spring in the set). ofcourse it sounds easy now but i didn't know crap about cars back then.

what pissed me off was that they charged the $75 inspections fee and they couldn't have inspect it with out taking the wheel off and have the thing fly out. so we spent 120 bucks having them hoist it up in the air. stupid Meidas.

placo1 · #6 06-09-2003, 12:21 PM

I have a very good mechanic and have never run into this type of situation with him. He's honest and does great work. In many instances he's saved me money by properly isolating the source of the problem rather than giving me the most expensive route.

Sounds to me like you need to find a new mechanic.

mike690003 · #7 06-09-2003, 12:44 PM

mechanics in miami are out for a buck. To a mechanic---->"Honesty is the best policy...to get less money from a job"

#8 06-09-2003, 05:42 PM

Came home a few weeks ago and the house was too warm. Main A/C was having problems. Shut the system down and started it up later. Everything was fine for about 10 minutes and then I could smell overheating motor.

Called the installer (6 year old system) on Monday and the lady is taking my info and then she say "we will be out there on FRIDAY." All I could say was "OK."

Thought about it that night and figured I had a week to fix it myself and if I screwed it up too much they would show up on Friday to fix it anyway.

Long story short, pulled out the blower motor, took it down to an A/C parts store and reinstalled myself. Was pretty easy and I saved a good $300-$400.

The best part was calling the repair company back and telling them I had fixed it myself!

Randy
'94 E500

mike690003 · #9 06-09-2003, 05:44 PM

oh yeah! i love that feeling of accomplishment.

mike690003 says--> "DIY till the day i die"

Pete Geither · #10 06-09-2003, 06:06 PM

Mike,,, Just wondering, why didn't you paint your car yourself? What I'm getting at is that everyone doesn't have the resourses and the tools to DIY till they die, and have to trust others to get their repairs done. As someone said above,,, find a good mechanic and trust him. There are a LOT of honest ones out there who will admit if they make a mistake and make it right. IMHO.

mike690003 · #11 06-09-2003, 06:16 PM

the story behind my cars paintjob:

A friend of mine owed me money, he had no way of paying me back with cash, so he offered to paint my car, well, I agreed, but the catch was that I had to prep the car myself. That was easy though because I had worked at a body shop. I sanded and primered my car(it needed little bondo) and he painted it for me. Hey, my paintjob was basically done by me.Adding a basecoat and clearcoat is not as hard as it looks. All my car needs now is a good colorsanding to make it showroom shine. I will post pics of the process ASAP.

Ashman · #12 06-09-2003, 08:11 PM

ok heres a winnning story. Not related to cars, but.....

I was having a blue screen of death problem on my pc. This happened only after a Certain USB device would initilize at bootup. I contacted microsoft and the manufacturer of the device, and none could find a solution to the issue. After spending a lot of time, including formatting the computer and still getting the crash, I got fed up and unplugged the device. The computer booted fine, and I reinstalled the device and all was well.

I submitted the information on how I repaired it to microsoft, and it became a listed fix in their knowledgebase.

ITs interesting how no-one could figure out a simple hardware conflict, and how neither person at either the software or hardware companies could come up with the idea of simply unplugging the device and rebooting the system.

All in all, I felt really good.

Here's one more for ya....
My brother's range rover was overheating. we tok it to the range rover specialist he would use for diagnostics, and they tell us the block is cracked, even though their block test kit did not change color signifying a cracked engine block.

a Radiator recore and a new thermostat, and now we cant even get the car much over normal operating temp, even when towing our 5500 lb boat up the grapevine.

Had I listened to the range rover guy, he would have replaced the engine at the tune of Thousands..... But because I was able to actually fix the problem, which was a bad thermostat and a slightly clogged radiator, the repair was under $400. instead of over $3000.

Alon

The Warden · #13 06-09-2003, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Dont tell me that you guys are all being "taken to the cleaners" by mechanics.

Quote:

No. That's why I do my own repairs.

Same here! I have yet to have a truly positive experience with a shop mechanic. I remember one time I had one of my old cars ('65 Chevelle with a 6 cylinder engine, the last g@$$er that I've owned) towed in to a shop after it died on the road. I told them to make it right...so they charged me $300 to tighten up one intake bolt (supposedly) and the car drove fine while going home. It barely ran the next day. I wound up rebuilding the carburetor to little avail (after that, it ran, but with a severe miss at idle), and eventually wound up selling the car and giving up on gasoline engines (at least I know how to repair a diesel

). To this day, I don't know what was wrong with the engine...plugs, wires, cap, and rotor were new along with the fuel filter, and the points were set properly...

The reason I mention this is because of what the shop did, and even after I went to them and told them that it wasn't fixed, they refused to even take a look at it without charging me another $100...

Primarily as a result of this, I do all of my own maintenance unless I'm incapable (with my back having serious problems, this happens from time to time)...this way, I know that it was done properly and was not rushed.

hill · #14 06-10-2003, 12:21 AM

I was either 13 or 14 years old and my dad took me to a CHP auction. He was looking for a car to pull a trailer with. One of the cars had a big cardboard sign on the windshield that said "Rod Knock". Well he started it up and I saw that one of the two torque bars was loose and banging the fender at idle. (These run from the intake manifold to the fenders) Well anyway he bid a few bucks over minimum bid for a as is car and got it. The funny part is not only was the car real cheap and it had 30,000 less miles since it was retired from service early.

PaulG · #15 06-10-2003, 05:27 AM

A few years back I had a problem with a Granada that I had just bought.

The gears would shift at about the right point, but would then shuffle between two gears for about 4 to 5 seconds. It would then be ok until the next gearshift, when it would do it again.

Auto transmissions are not that common here at the time, and I had no personal knowledge, so I took it to a "transmission Specialist" and told them to have a look at it.

To make sure I wasn't handing them a blank cheque, I told them that if the bill was big, I would sell the car rather than fix it.

Anyway, the next day they rang to say that the transmission needed a rebuild and would cost me about 75% of the value of the car

"Do you want us to go ahead?"

I said I'd think about it went back to the transmission place to pick the car up.

When I got there, one of the mechanics said he'd be interested in buying the car as a "fixer-upper" (with a consequently low price). I said I'll let him know and went to drive off.

He seemed very keen for me to sell him the car then and there, and even upped his offer. I was in no mood to be rushed, so I said I'd think about it.

Strangely, the transmission was now perfect.

Having a look underneath, they had replaced the vacuum modulator (which looked like a bastard job) and kept quiet about it !

I guess the mechanic thought I'd just sell him the car and take the easy way out. He didn't bargain for me being naturally distrustful !

So at the end of the day, I had a perfect transmission for nothing. And I didn't even get my hands dirty.....

All because thge Transmission place was trying to screw me