Now ya done it....... I don't know what PEP Boys calls diagnosis but I will say that going there likely gets you what you deserve....
What jiggles my branches is your reluctance to pay for diagnosis.... DIAGNOSIS..... I have yet to get the OK for the repair and I cannot do the repair without the OK. If I spend one hour performing diagnostics on your car (BTW, the IS a text only NG), I like to get paid...... much like you enjoy recompense for your efforts.... I will spend that hour performing diagnostics that I deem logical for the concern. If I am unsure as to the history of the car, my job is that much harder.
I'm going to wager that your car has a fair to middling taste for oil (a fact you don't think worthy to mention) and I'll also wager that a lower intake gasket is in your future.
You have just received an armchair diagnostic for free - based on my familiarity with the patient. The validity of my diagnostic is suspect since I haven't had the opportunity to charge you for "looking at" your car. I might add that knowing what to look at should count for something. If you think someone like me doesn't deserve to be paid for this service, perhaps we could use our current knowledge to do your taxes instead...... AHHHH, you'd like someone versed in that sort of stuff to do that.
Believe it or not, the "code thingy" isn't the God-send to auto repair that you think it is...... it is a valuable diagnostic tool (depending on its capabilities), but isn't a magic bullet. If it is help you are seeking, you should remain politically neutral...... this is a nice way of saying that you need to be sure the foot you're pissing on today isn't attached to the ass you'll be kissing tomorrow.
Tell you what, why don't you spend half of your day working for free....
hey yall, just wanted to mention a thank you to Abitrip for the advice and
> to all who read the thread of mine here is the update. a word to the people
> who go to pepboys...when they charge 89.99 for "diagnostic" they basically
> mean looking at the engine.....not touching anything or extracting the
> codes.. just looking,. that is where I took my 94 exploder on July 17th to
> figure out why it was missing. well...on top of the 89.99$ charge for
> diagnostic and the 6.45 for new plugs they charged me 74.00 for labor to
> put them in. ridiculous.. I had figured they never hooked up the code
> thingy to my truck because this is what happened :
>
> when I took it in, I knew I had a couple dry rotted vacuum hoses and I
> mentioned that to the customer service guy who had actually written that on
> the invoice
> ****customer comments*****
> **pos.missing (possibly missing) customer also stated that vacuum lines > damage**
> that was what I had told the guy....here is what the technician wrote
> to all you with a broken gas gauge you might get a laugh...
>
>
> ***technician comments*** (this is verbatim from the invoice)
> #2cyl plug oil fouled(will happen again) also one vac cap was dry rotted
> (replaced also) {notice he states CAP not hose 2 of them infact were
> broken clear thru}
> #2 cyl (center plug on drivers side)
> TRUCK NEEDS GAS ( I had a full tank gas gauge broken) I think that was
> the most diagnostic I got
> check engine still on (due to weak cyl)
>
> so I thought about this techs comments and realized after this morning (July
> 23rd ) after going to auto zone and buying $2.10 worth of hose that he never
> replaced
> the engine light went out and the guy at the AutoZone said that's probly
> what it was..anyways...I called up my local pepboys and after 15 minutes of
> waiting on the line and getting transferred back and forth the guy on the
> line says to me ...why don't I come down so he can see what I did that the
> tech DIDN'T do. I got down and let him see and he actually understood what
> I was getting at that the diagnostic was just a way to get an extra 89.99
> outta a me. I had to argue a little about what diagnostic meant because i
> was under the impression that they would extract codes ( how wrong i was )
> ..he ended up refunding my money and asking him to call it even I said ok
> and went along my merry way.
> So that is my story my truck is still running pretty good the same as when
> I got it
>
> anyway, i called another place and they said they would do a leak down and
> compression test to see if it is an easier job than having the whole thing
> rebuilt which is what the other guy that i dealth with at pepboys said i
> would need to do... ( to the tune of 2,000)
>
>
>