REPAIRING MY CAR > Pay Attention to Your Mechanics Advice

Pay Attention to Your Mechanics Advice

red buick roadmaster tail finListen to Your Trusted Automobile Mechanic – It Can Be a Learning Experience

Here I will discuss just how important it can be to listen to your trusted mechanic. There have been several occasions when I just “knew” what was wrong with my car – only to be quite surprised by the true problem. I will share my story about repairing my Mazda. Man, I knew what was wrong!!

Early on in my car career I purchased a Mazda MPV all-wheel drive minivan. The kids were starting ski school and I wanted something to get us up to the mountains. Also, I have always been a big fan of all-wheel drive vehicles. But a small issue with the car drove me to demand a repair, and taught me an important lesson about listening to what a trusted and trained mechanic recommends. Sometimes we OCD car owners can really jump to conclusions – even wrong ones. Yours truly is guilty as charged.

The Suspected Problem

After driving the car for a few months, I began to be concerned by a very slight – and I mean slight – ticking sound coming from the top of the engine. I was fully convinced that I knew the cause: bad lifters. They are part of the valve train, which controls the inflow and exhaust of combustion gasses by opening and closing both the intake and exhaust valves.

Well, my mechanic listened to the noise and said it was nothing to worry about. Undaunted, I insisted on having it fixed. After a week in the shop I got the call that it was ready to pick up. We went out and started up the van to check out just how quiet I knew the engine would be. I could still hear the original sound. WHAT?! They said that it was just a normal engine sound – and that it never needed to be fixed in the first place. Which was exactly what they told me at the get go. But I had insisted. Remember that the customer is always right – oh yeah!

Money Not Well Spent

So, I spent hundreds of dollars on something that really was not a problem at all. My mechanic’s advice for this type of problem? Just turn up the volume on my radio and drive the car! I’ve been pretty good at following that advice – however, from time to time I turn down the volume and listen to my car for a bit. I still want to catch little issues before they balloon into big problems and repair bills. If something sounds funny, get it checked. No one wants to be stranded on the side of the road.

As I have said before: If you trust your mechanic, listen to their advice. Some of the best repair shops I have ever worked with will fix the issue that brought you in – then they make note of any upcoming needs the car may have. And they prioritize them. Not every issue needs to be fixed at once. Sometimes you just don’t need to do anything at all. In this case, I learned a serious and expensive lesson. Don’t make my mistake.

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