And no, not in a good way.

My car is being a piece of crap. It was running fine this morning, but at lunch I drove it across the street and it started shaking violently. I turned off the AC, which solved the problem, but it's way too damn hot outside to be without AC. I took it to a Midas and an engine mount is loose and something else is wrong with it. Honestly, I don't understand. I'm not a car guy. I can barely change a flat tire.

I get screwed every time I take my car to a mechanic. I was once charged $75 for an oil change, for Christ's sakes. They definitely know I'm a sucker when I come in and say "My car, is like, I don't know how to explain it. It's shaking, but only when the AC is on." I can tell they're like "Oh yeah, really, that's great, because your wallet is about to get raped, son!"

I called about 3 hours ago for an estimate. No one returned my call, so I followed-up and he is still giving me the run around. He was telling me the engine mounts on my car were hard to find. Translation: squeeze your shoulder blades together, because I'm about to titty bang you from the back.

How in the world do I avoid getting scammed?

I'm kind of like you, I'm absolutely cartarded. What I generally do is say "wtf are you crazy, [insert other business here] estimated it at nearly half that. STFU and give me a good price or give me my keys back." And if they have some sort of VIP program throw in a "is this how you treat your vip customers?"

It usually works and sometimes when you "catch" them they'll knock it lower than what it should be anyway, but if you're dealing with some low level hourly mechanic or whatever who couldn't care less it could potentially be -EV.

It's also good to have a car nerd friend. I usually ask him first to see if it's reasonable.

My brother and father are car nerds. They nearly beat me to death with a wrench when I told them I spent $75 on an oil change.

that is a serious lol, if you have two close family members that are car freaks why don't you just go to them or at least have them teach you a few basic things?

I live really far away from my family now.

I probably would too. Even I'm not -that- bad. They must really peg you though if someone would even think to even try to charge you that much.

It's part of life, man. You get a scholarship for college, quit half way through because you're tired of having to work part-time at some ****ty fast food restaurant, join the Air Force, finish degree in the military, break up with long time girlfriend at the end of your enlistment and drive 600 miles north until you reach a city/town that you like. You know, that old story.

well an engine mount being loose is like a 5 min job to put a socket on it and tighten it up. I really doubt that is the problem though. It's not going to make ur car shake violently only when the a/c is on either.

If I were you i'd find the forums for whatever car you have and post the question there first. Odds are someone else has had that problem and can tell you what it is and what is needed to fix it. Find out from the forum how much it's going to cost and ship the difference to me for being such a good guy and telling you this imo.

Busted engine mount wasn't the only problem. Something is wrong with my AC, too, which for some reason is making my engine shake. The engine mount just makes it worse.



Thanks for the advice. If I didn't just withdraw my entire bankroll to try my hand at Stock Marketing I'd ship you over something.

It sounds like you're running low on halogen fluid in your headlights. Either that or you're running without a transmission. Might think about putting two in there just to make sure this kinda thing doesn't happen again.

good points, have you been checking your halogen fluid OP? that is something you should be checking every time you drive.

all too familiar. when i got my first real job a few years back, i bought a new infiniti. a month into owning it, i walked out of a club to find half of the tailight cover had been busted. (its just a ***** piece of red and clear plastic) took it too infiniti and almost $400 later, i had a new tail light cover. ***** scame. nobody else had one like it because it was a new model car. they will always find a way to stick it to you

No, but it sounds complicated so I better just ignore it until it becomes a major disaster.

Is it fubared or fubar'd? We've had several discussions on this at work. I always say it's fubared. The fubar'd group always says fubared would be pronounced fuba-red.

was going to type a poast but poop is about to asplode out of my rectum

brb

yea, just poast on car forums, they may be able to let you know what the problem is and how much it should cost you.

That's ridiculous.

the boyfriends best friend is a mechanic...it help not only keep me from getting screwed over, but he gives me awesome rates and does stuff for free when he can

man up and learn how cars work?

Everytime I open this thread this poast tilts the hell outta me more and more each time.

You need to make friends with someone who knows about cars LDO.

(I don't have any friends like this -- but I don't have a car either.)

Look for my car thread in EDF, find the forum for your car.

So which is it?