Shops and stealerships

I hear you ! Ive had similar issues, forcing Me to do more and more of my own work, over the years. Everyone makes mistakes, but every time I pay for a repair, I usually regret it, even after doing all I can to avoid a problem, and the examples I hear from others are outrageous. It’s worse than ever. No ones ever held responsible either, it seems.

 

I do all my own work also- The Last Stride wasI had a shop in Tennessee do a steer seal- Easy 2 hour job-Which includes Cleaning the Drum-Cam and backing plate- 5 hours later and $400 im done- Hit the Road- Frickin thing started leaking in 2 days- Never again Is anyone touching my truck

Get that? $400 dollars for a frickin seal AND they cant even install it right. This was 6 years ago- I used to do all minor stuff my whole career- Now I Do everything- People just don't care if its not theirs.

So I invested In Tools and Space- Best 4-5 Grand Ive spent in a while. Only work I dont do is Major Engine Timing-Cam Work and overhauls- But I can do an overhead pretty accurately

 

They were doctors in a previous life, run out of that profession for operating on the wrong body parts...

 

Have you ever tried to find a little shop in a small town to do your work?
They generally have to do great work because in a small town everything is word of mouth, and a bad rep spreads like wildfire.

 

I try to do most of the work myself also. I'm not immune from screwing it up also, but if I do there is nobody to blame but myself, and I'm not paying somebody to screw it up.

Used to be a day and time that you could trust your mechanic. Those mechanics are hard to find these days, and the ones that are left stay so busy it's hard to get them to work for you.

 

You’ll find that most good shops that aren’t crooks are always booked out . Many shops can’t find real mechanics and let back yard mechanics fumble through your repair while charging you for a real diesel mechanic. I had a shop do a wheel seal on a trailer a couple of years ago and it caught on fire the next day on the ny thruway. The shop came out and fixed it no charge . I had a “mechanic” at the TA in Binghamton years ago change a front hub oil cap and snap two bolts which is common , instead of getting the snapped bolts out using an ez out he just drilled out the bolts and stuck two bolts in there with silicone. this was in the middle of the night and I didn’t notice until about a half hour down the road. I called the manager and he ended up paying for a new front hub. I won’t use any TA anymore on the road. They take anybody off the street and give
Them a little training and set the loose on commission . So now you have a green unqualified guy rushing through your job to get to his next job. Anybody there that’s any good usually leaves for greener pastures.

 

I was thinking that T/A was bad but it isn't always the case.

I had a truck at a shop in Texas for some stupid electrical repair, the shop came recommended by a couple other owners so I thought "it has to get fixed so why not".

The mechanic called my manager, went through the error codes and gave an estimate, something that would not take long to fix, they could squeeze it in that night. The repairs were done, the parts "replaced" and the truck was back in the hands of the driver. The driver looked at the work they did, collected the old parts (as I require them to do) and didn't see the problems that later came up.

So the truck back on the road, it was running well until it hit Wyoming a couple weeks later ... it just crapped out in the middle of no where, the driver had to use his sat phone to call in. My manager had it towed to make the delivery up past near Riverton - $2500 and then towed to the nearest dealer ... $6500. I could not repower the load, no one was close enough so I ok'd paying the driver his share and took the loss. When the truck was finally looked at, the dealer called my manager then the manger called me.

These guys in Texas hacked the wiring harness up, they made splices for some reason in both the injector harness and in the ECM harness, they took the harness apart, cut it then just twisted the wires together, taping them up. No one could say why it was done there, the mechanic no longer worked there, he went to open his own shop. So I had to pay for the replacement of three harnesses and two injectors (not related problem) and it took a week of downtime to get it done because the dealer was soooooo busy.