Well, what convinced me that their diagnosis about worn clutch packs was right was that though they found the solenoid screens clean, the ATF was not only pretty dirty but had a burn smell. Then it came to me that lately I also smelled some strange burn smell in the car and I could not figure out the source. So I tended to think that perhaps it was from a passing car till I noticed it even when I started up the car in my driveway in the morning. It reminded me a bit of overheated plastic. But I am just guessing here.
Yes, they noted that the power streering fluid was seeping. But I don't really see any oil spots on the floor of my garage.
They noted that the right outer CV joint boot was torn and/or leaking and recommended replacing the drive shaft. That is possible, because something similar was done on the left side a year or two ago.
They found engine oil seep, but again, no spots in my garage.
Yes, tubes! The justified it with engine oil seep.
Now you really made me curious. Come on, Tegger, lay it ot for us.
cameo wrote in news:k29esk$j5l$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
Turn the steering wheel all the way to the right. Now walk around to the front-right corner of the car, and peek inside the wheel well at the inside of the wheel. If the boot is split, it will be abundantly obvious.
You WILL need to get this done. An independent can do this for less than $403. Be warned that there's a possibility that you may go through a couple of aftermarket shafts before you end up with one that doesn't make noise out-of-the-box. And make sure the garge lets air into the inner boot after installation! If they forget, the boot will be puckered, and it will split in a week! Make sure they show you that they've let air into the boot.
WHERE was this "seep"? If it wasn't on the spark plugs, and there are no drips hanging down from the engine, then you don't need to do anything.
It is rare to find a car with 300K on it that does NOT leak oil from somewhere!
It's simple:
1) they don't want comebacks, which are expensive and are bad for public relations, and
2) they want to minimize the chance that something will go wrong soon after the customer leaves the shop that they'll blame the garage as having caused.
Those two reasons generally mean that dealers tend to be especially careful when they inspect cars in their shop, and report everything they find.
And, with the neglect that most owners visit upon their cars, garages more often than not DO find problems with customers' cars that the customers are unaware of. My independent guy once told me that even if he wanted to, he wouldn't ever have to rip anybody off: folks create their own problems because nobody takes care of their cars.
A lot of people have hate-ons for auto garages and are deeply suspicious of them -- especially of dealers -- and they walk in with big chips on their shoulders. People are always on the lookout for ripoffs when other factors (including simple incompetence) are usually to blame. Unfortunately, garages don't help much when some of them get really aggressive pushing unneeded servicing in order to boost revenue.
Mind you, it's not a BAD idea to fix all those things, and it's certainly a GOOD idea to do them. Whether or not you DO get those things done depends on YOUR priorities: is it IMPORTANT enough to you to fix? There's a gray-zone a mile wide, in there.
People forget that they can ask their dealer/garage these questions:
1) what are the possible consequences of NOT doing a particular service?
2) will something IMPORTANT get dangerously damaged if I don't have a certain thing done?
cameo wrote in news:k29f01$j5l$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
That's typical. Nobody will give you a warranty on the labor, because that's a whole day's worth if they have to cough up on it. Too expensive and too risky.
Thanks for the tip. I will definitely have that done but not by the dealer. However, the dealer's diagnostic check kist will be a handy thing to compare it with my independent shop's own opinion and prices.
I have no idea where the seep was but if it was serious I would see some of it on the garage floor. But I see none. In the past the mechanic found some seepage at the distributor but after replacing it, the seepage stopped.
I do have some oil loss between oil changes at every which I replenish in the interval; about 1-1.5 qt in the 3,750 mile interval. I figure that's just oil burned up.
In my experiences most garages usually tell it even without asking.
OK, the transmission swap job is finished and from what I can tell after half a day of driving around, it feels good again. The gears shift pretty smoothly without any flare-ups between gear shifts. I hope it will stay that way till I finally get rid of it.
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