PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

cgoodwin · #23 02-13-2004, 05:00 AM

and yes I know caps is considered yelling.

Conrad, what is wrong with you? Clearly these guys have no idea what they are doing... Other than taking your money. Is it at Jiffy Tune or some other hack shop? At least post the name of the shop so that those among us who may suffer the misfortune of breaking down near this black hole in the world of proper diagnosis, will no better than to darken thier doorway. Perhaps you could just fill your 190 with concrete right in front of thier shop and paint bit "circle, slash, NO" symbols on the doors as a warning for other Benz drivers to stay away.

Look I run a shop and I would have either shipped the car out with a diagnosis and a death sentance or repaired it long since. Think about it, I have 6 to 8 cars arrive a day with similar problems (we live in a time when many people only go to the mechanic when they HAVE to rather than practicing preventative maintenance) and they are all diagnosed the same day, if ther is a problem with a particular car, we all get on it and find the problem. That way we can fix it and get it down the road.... Are you sure they are not just charging you storage???

The biggest problem you have now is that you have no idea where to start. Originally you had a car which had been running fine and developed a problem. No you will have to have a competent tech go over everything these shade-tree-parts-changers have messed with, who knows what is wrong now except that you say it will start and die in 5 to 7 seconds. WHY IS IT DIEING?? Does the fuel pressure drop? Is the ignition loosing power? Are you loosing injector signal? Ask the shade-tree guys these questions.

As Jackd said, go to a competent mechanic and agree to pay them for say 2 hours of diagnosis, anyone who knows which end of thier body to put a snickers in should be able to tell you something in 2 hours, even if only "these systems are working properly, and these ones are not" probably followed by " if you authorize another hour we will have an answer for you" Even then you will be far ahead financially of where you are by throwing money at it. Why not just take some of the cash you are spending on all these parts and labor and give it to someone without a snickers in thier shorts!

Actually why not just have it towed to my shop in Seattle, that will run you about $600 and I can promise you that I can store it for less than what you are paying now, or perhaps even repair it! Do these guys repair cars? Are you sure it is at a car repair shop and not an institution of some sort, perhaps hiring the otherwise unemployable?

Sorry about the ragging but it sounds to me like you need a good slap. Either you are being robbed or you are for some reason foolish enough to continue giving money to people who are clearly incapable or unwilling to repair your car. Assuming you are not one of those guys with a horrible piece of junk who wants it fixed for $1.49. You really need to get your car out of that place.

I have seen a 190 start and die from fouled plugs, shorting plug leads, plugged idle valve, bad gas, etc, etc. Don't simply replace everything in sight hoping you will stumble upon the fault. Test parts and systems and replace what you find to be defective, in a shop it is sometimes more efficient to replace a part with a "known good" part than to test it and shops keep parts for that reason - I have a box of test parts, if I think a problem points to the ECU and may swap it out for a know good one, if the car runs properly I call the client and tell them they need an ECU - it saves me having to pin out the entire ECU and I don't have to charge the client for 2 hours... Imagine that you have suddenly fallen and you can't get up, the doctor comes in with an entire pharmacy and gives you a pill and a bill for $400. The pill does nothing so he takes the next bottle of pills and gives you one and another bill...Still nothing changes, would you keep buying these pills if he told you that he intended to just keep giving you pills until he happened upon one thast worked?

GET YOUR CAR OUT OF THE SHOP.... 5 1/2 months Please!