Monday, May 24, 2010

That's One Expensive Rat

Last night I had a horrible nights sleep. I must have eaten something bad because I woke up at 3am feeling awful. When the time came to leave for work I just couldn't do it. I called in sick and went back to bed.

A few hours later I was feeling better but my truck was also sick and couldn't get me all the way to work. The repair shop said they could give me a ride back home so I dropped off the truck and went back home for lunch. I got a call with a total estimate of $630. They had taken the truck apart and found that the pack rat had chewed a spark plug wire and the spark plug had melted. They finished up around 2pm and picked me up. I paid the bill, jumped in the truck and drove out.

Unfortunately, the truck still shook like it did on Saturday. I turned around and went back to the shop. They tested it again and found that the injector pin was misfiring intermittently. Sooo, I had to wait around while they got a new pin and put it in. That was another hour and a half and $80. They said they only charged me for the cost of the pin and not labor but I have no idea how much a pin costs so I don't really know. I imagine it is true because it seems that nothing costs under $100 except an oil change. Total cost was $735. Ouch. Now I keep the hood up when I am parked at home. This is supposed to make it a less appealing habitat for the furry little guys. I hope it works. He built an expensive home in my engine and I don't want him to do it again!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you need to find a new shop. This kind of garage will ruin your budget. $600 is enough to buy gas for a whole year.

A misfire cylinder is a very easy thing to find and fix. It should never need to take the engine apart and should never cost more than $600 for spark plugs and wire. All you need to do is to remove each spark plug boot one by one from each cylinder while idling. When there is no further rougher in the idle after the removal of a boot, that would be the cylinder in question. A new set of wires and spark plugs would cost around $50. A set of cheap socket wrench to change spark plugs would cost less than $10 in Walmart. And requiring a second try to locate the real problem " the injector", would shown that they are incompetent. Luckily they felt guilty and only charged you $80.

Daizy said...

This is why I hate auto maintenance. I don't know anything about it. At $90 an hour the bill climbs quickly especially if they don't know what they are doing. $360 of that bill was labor. $75 for diagnosis. Ouch.