My '96 Outback (just bought it) rattles under the hood. It's something when I go over bumps and potholes etc. Something loose or worn. Took it in and they replaced the links and struts but no joy. Any ideas what may be causing this folks? Sorry, I don't know anything about cars and the terminology.
-- John B
Just out of curiosity..... What do you do if they replace parts and it turns out that those parts did not need replacing, and that having those parts replaced did nothing to solve the issue that you brought the car in for? Can you question the validity of the mechanics assesment of the problem, and therefore ask for a reduction of the cost of the "repairs" that the mechanic has done?
I had an issue with a previous vehicle and I brought it in for repair... the repair seemed to solve the problem, but it came back after three months and the warranty on the work had expired, so I was unable to argue that the correct servicing was not really done and that the garage had improperly evaluated the problem.
Are mechanics and garages held responsible for incorrectly evaluating a problem on a vehicle once you sign off on the work that they say they are gong to do?... It seems they should be, but if you are unfamiliar with their processes and the inner workings of a vehicle, how do you know that their evaluation is accurate?
.... just a curiosity that stuck me....
PaulW
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I don't know of any mechanic/dealer who will charge gratis for a misdiagnosis. The problem is that there are often a multitude of possible reasons, and they'd lose money if they had to give the parts/labor away. I have heard of maybe free diagnoses until they got it right.
Guaranteeing the quality of the assembly and parts is usually the most one can expect.
Exactly. Cars are pretty complex, especially these days. Sometimes a problem can have several simultaneous causes, and fixing one cause might make it go away for a while, only to have it come back. A stupid, basic example is an oil leak - they can replace the obvious bad seal, but another one might be leaking as well, just not as bad, and a few months down the road, it's back again.
I had a car once that broke in the strangest ways. I wasn't too car-inclined in those days, at least not as much as I am now, I couldn't tell a timing belt from an accessory belt. Anyway, the car would break, the mechanic would fix the obvious, and it would be something else. Several times I had that car in to several garages, and in each one the mechanic would tell me (with a geniune look of awe and astonishment) that he'd never seen anything like it. I remember one occasion where the vehicle was running with some critical piece broken. It wasn't running well though, that's why I had it in, and the mechanic couldn't believe it would start and run without that part. (Can't remember which part it was, like I said I wasn't a car guy until I got my Subie and became interested.)
-Matt
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