Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire f-cking mechanics

my 81 yr old dad took his truck to get an oil leak fixed that was supposedly coming from the plug in the block behind the camshaft. I noticed it was leaking oil pretty bad today and crawled under there and the oil was coming out the little hole in the bell housing and that it had obviously not be taken apart and worked on. going to take it to the guy who works on my diesel once in a while to verify this and go have words with the owner of the other shop who charged my dad for work that was not done.

Theres a guy around me known for his honesty. I told my neighbor to take his grandaughters car to him because she was having trouble. She was getting all kinds of oil warnings. One mechanic told them it needed a complete engine wiring harness, another told them she needed a complete engine replacement. Took the car to the guy i told them and he fixed it for $78 including an oil change. I do 99.9999% pf my own work on my vehicles but it pays to know who the honest guys in town are. Turns out it needed a sensor reset with the computer. A common issue he had seen with those models.

Google Scotty Kilmer...ask him your questions or search his videos to see if they have already been answered.

it does and I usually do our repairs but not having the garage anymore makes it hard, 95 dg in the sun, out on the concrete is more than I can take anymore. waiting for fall to do some repairs on my truck.

Not much better than a good mechanic, not much worse than a dishonest mechanic.

I absolutely hate taking anything to a mechanic. Many are nothing but parts changers....hell I can throw parts at a problem. Good, honest ones are hard to find.

That would and should piss anyone off.

The one I use is an honest one. He'll give a quote for the minimum work needed, what he recommends to be done, and what else he sees that should/needs to be done and it's priority. That helps to see future problems and plan to pay for the repairs.

We know each other well enough that I am comfortable letting him decide if a repair should be done without my approval. The only time I questioned his decision was when he offered me $100 for my 2000 Civic that had broken the timing belt. I thought that was a bit high for that rust bucket but he figured he would get $250-$300 for it. As that included the tow from where I broke down, I figured I came out ahead.

An honest mechanic is such a blessing they should have their own Bible verse....

yep.

Love that dude (no gay), hope he is still kickin'!

Not just mechanics: A new neighbor was having heat pump issues, called a heating/air guy and was quoted about $20K for two new systems as lightening had fried the whole system all the way to the junction boxes. Had some other issue a short time later, and a new guy in town came to address that one. While he was there, the new guy took a look and fixed his system for about $200.

When I lived in MN, I used a mechanic that charged more than any of the major car dealers in the Twin Cities....

Guy was from Florida, and had a PhD, some sort of scientist, started a company, made a lot of money... read millions and then retired and did what he loved to do the most.. tinkering on cars.. particularly Jags, Porsches, Ferraris etc....

Opened a service station with an auxiliary car repair garage....

and honest as the day is long and didn't charge flat rate... he quoted you what he calculated to do the job... which was usually about 20 to 25% of the time quoted in a flat rate manual...

More than once I had him quote me say $250.00 for a repair, and then called me to tell me that the car wouldn't be ready until tomorrow and the repairs were going to take more than he had quoted me...one of his mechanics had screwed up on something, or he himself...

I'd get over to pick it up, and he'd charge me either the $250.00, or at times even less....He charged me what he quoted...and at times even less if he had to keep it overnight, doing a deduction for the inconvenience to the customer...

Other times he would do things like quote me $250 and charge me $150 when I picked it up.. telling me it took him or his staff less time to do it than they anticipated...

Was always excellent with the work he did.. there was no warranty on his shops repairs... if you had to bring it back even say 6 months later, he just fixed it again, and with no charge...

only mechanic I ever met like Scott Drake.. but he certainly was a peach of a guy....

I always turn my heat pump AC units off during thunderstorms. Had a unit get lightning surged a few years ago. I keep a high ins deductible, that was no fun.

I’m really OCD about that chit. I can live for 2 hours without my AC on while a storm passes. I aint some sweathog that needs the air running 24 hours day. JFC


I’ve been in Grand Cayman, check the weather radar back in the states, drill down to my county and see a storm. Text my son...turn the goddamm units off now!!

For the past 15 years I was so fortunate to have a fantastic mechanic living right around the corner. Never had a problem that Ed couldn't fix. He'd always figure it out. Didn't charge a lot for his services, only accepted cash. Nice guy to just hang out with. Ed passed away last week from metastatic esophageal cancer, age 55.
What a treasure he was. R. I. P.

Well-said sir... Kudos..

was going to sell a car to a guy, he takes it to his mechanic. Always leary of the idea of paying a mechanic to find something wrong with a car.

He comes back and tells me it has an oil leak and you'll have to pull the engine to fix it, says its going to cost over $3K.

I didn't argue with the guy, I'm not going to beg someone to buy anything from me, but with that kind of oil leak I'd have to notice oil on the floor of my garage.

So I get to looking around and turns out its leaking around the oil filter housing. Its a $7 gasket set and takes about 30 minutes to fix.

Go back to the place after dark and dump a gallon of used motor oil on the front door.
Then drop a plug in the middle of the pool.

I have a good mechanic close to me. He isn’t cheap, but he fixes my vehicles right. I know a great AC guy too. If I can’t fix my AC, he will come over and help. I fix his plumbing, do tractor work for him.

I had to remove the MAF sensor from my Toyota 4Runner. There is an electrical connection with a weird plug. I called my mechanic, and he drove over to remove it for me. Turns out it had tiny metal clips built into it that had to be released. He saved me from ruining it. Cost me a beer.

Those honest guys are really appreciated. There are enough of the others.