Popular Post Arman Posted May 13, 2021 Popular Post Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 Prelude: When i bought my car back in October 2020 a combination of trust in professionals and a lack of knowledge and time led me to sign a third party service contract for my car along with (at least internally) committing to going to said garage for all my repairs and the such. Over the past couple months i've been quite disappointed with my experiences as prices were very high and as time went on kept feeling like i couldnt trust the work being done or if the work i was asking for was being done at all. This has culminated in a recent visit to my garage of choice where i presented them with a list of symptoms and observations after which i received a bill that was about half the rice i bought my car for. I will use one of the items on the list as an example: Car details i presented: CEL (check engine light) is on, the TJ has a dashboard diagnostic feature, it is basic but very useful so the code that was displayed after i input the konami code was P0431 (Catalytic Converter efficiency below expected threshold) Car passed registration in October with near perfect emissions Noticed wires dangling from the engine bay that werent there before OBDII diagnostics port broken by previous owner Garage assessment: OBDII port repair : AED1500 (they wish to plug a diagnostic tool in to figure the issue based on the O2 readings in the PCM) Replace Catalytic converter: AED1100 I then took that car back and did what i normally do, cleaned it up properly and took a look myself when i had some time, albeit this was probably a week later. My observations: O2 sensor in Bank 1 Sensor 2 had it's wires ripped clean off (my assumption is that we went over bush or something and it got caught as the connector unfortunately has a poor mounting location under the chassis. I then tracked the wires that had been tangling and they went into the connector for said sensor. A simple visual inspection in my garage with the light in my phone has given me the answer to which the solution is 10 minutes of my time (if you dont count the time it takes to ship the part from the US) and AED160. I've attached relevant files like the Locations of the cats and sensors and the old sensor. Epilogue: With all this in mind, im willing to accept that i perhaps got unlucky on many fronts. Im a low value customer because i do a lot of my own work on the car, i aslo dont have much money to spend on frivolous addons and such, and i could just have drawn the short straw and gotten the laziest of their otherwise good mechanics. This all though leads me to this, would there be any space in carnity for a DIY car maintenance section or even a day teaching each other how to diagnose issues and fix them? How often do you check your car yourself? How often do you lubricate joints and metal bits that are likely to rub? How often do you check your Oil, Coolant and Steering fluid? Are you willing do something as simple as screwing in an AED160 piece in your car yourself to save AED2600? 6 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaurav Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 Very well said @Arman but sadly people after spending 2600 instead of 160 don't tend to share their story and learning like yours. Either they are too busy / rich / afraid to tell the saga. Here's the section you can use: https://carnity.com/forums/forum/268-offroad-mods-diy 6 1 Let's root for each other & watch each other grow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaitanya D Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 Absolutely agree with you @Arman on the way the "trusted" off road garages or mechanics behave. If you dont agree with them , and if you dont do a lot of mods with them they will be least interested in doing your simple works. DIY checks is good because it always helps you understand your car better atleast for the minor or easily doable fixes. Some tiny bit of it is included , and will be explained when you do your advance lead/ recovery trainings as you progress in your levels with Carnity. 23 minutes ago, Arman said: How often do you check your car yourself? How often do you lubricate joints and metal bits that are likely to rub? How often do you check your Oil, Coolant and Steering fluid? For a desert car , check every week better. Especially cleaning the air filters , oils , coolant . You will be surprised to see how much sand will be there in the air filters . 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawrence_Chehimi Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 I lost trust in mechanics many years ago, even car agencies here know nothing and cannot be trusted. Most of the times I have to tell them what to do and what to check because I had to spend some time online reading what other people did that had similar symptoms. I like to work on cars, I also help my friends resolve small issues from changing a coolant tank, changing disks, brake pads, engine mounts, shocks,etc... I tend to save a lot of money by doing these simple jobs. For example, when my mercedes had 30k on its odo, the agency wanted 4000 aed for changing the brakes!! I ended up purchasing the parts from them, and got from amazon two different types of grease (one is rubber safe to lubricate the pins and another one for lubricating the other moving parts) and a brake cleaner, I replaced all parts in my parking. Took me around an hour and half but I saved around 2000-2500 aed. I once replaced a coolant tank for a friend, got the parts from the agency for 120 aed and the coolant for 100 aed and replaced it my self then bleeded the system also was a 30 min job and saved around 1000 aed. I did same thing on an older car I had and replaced all shocks and springs. Just look online you can find tons of videos, and most of the jobs are quite easy. I have tons of stories with agencies here and back home, and some salesmen try to fool you if they think you don't have much knowledge on cars. I had a fight with Nissan few years ago over an AC compressor, they wanted to change the whole assembly but it was only a faulty clutch, they couldn't fool me on that so the salesman wanted to convince me later to do a system flush for 400 aed saying that when the compressor's clutch fails, it contaminates the system😂, so I made a scene im front of other customers and ended up getting 50-60% discount on the part and no labor charges... The worst stories are with private garages that work with insurance companies😂 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Seidam Posted May 13, 2021 Report Share Posted May 13, 2021 There is a saying in my language “ no better than your nail can scratch your skin” so I learned since I joined Carnity not to cut my nails till Saturday night 🤣 and yes I agree with the DIY concept more or less at least for the basic stuff on weekly basis or let’s say after the weekly drive ! ... from after leaving the inflation point back home listening to what she might whisper to my ears! To visual inspection to fluid levels , under car , cv boot cracks , springs , leaks , filter cleaning and replacing , towing points integrity especially after many pulls ...etc ..and if I can’t DYI at least I know somehow what’s going on and recheck . One time I have been told by my mechanic that what you hear is your differential is dying ... but I was not convinced .. digged my self with taking pictures and videos that he him self was convinced it’s not and issue solved in 10 min standing work and refused to take one dirham from me ! Unfortunately there are some situations we need a scratcher when the thing is in the back and our nails can’t reach 🤪 but at least we know where the itch is located 🤣 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederic Posted May 14, 2021 Report Share Posted May 14, 2021 Very good topic @Arman many amongst us have that initial fear of trying something ourselves, but there is so much we can do with some common sense, elbow grease, and the occasional Youtube video to help us out. I don't think every mechanic is trying to rip off their customer. In most cases they are just not interested in digging a little bit deeper into the problem and want to kill the mosquito with a bazooka. On the other hand i have seen small workshops doing wonders with what they have. But it takes time to find good reliable workshops but yes even then you'll need to keep an eye on them and be a critical and difficult customer to get it done properly. 4 1 "Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arman Posted May 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2021 On 5/13/2021 at 6:27 PM, Chaitanya D said: Absolutely agree with you @Arman on the way the "trusted" off road garages or mechanics behave. If you dont agree with them , and if you dont do a lot of mods with them they will be least interested in doing your simple works. DIY checks is good because it always helps you understand your car better atleast for the minor or easily doable fixes. Some tiny bit of it is included , and will be explained when you do your advance lead/ recovery trainings as you progress in your levels with Carnity. For a desert car , check every week better. Especially cleaning the air filters , oils , coolant . You will be surprised to see how much sand will be there in the air filters . Exactly, just like in medicine, maintenance is always better than treatment, if you're able to do an inspection on all the common maintenance items on your car then you could predict possible major problems in the future as well as prevent the minor ones. Some 4x4 cars have greasable joints similar to farm trucks an other metal on metal contact equipment which with some very affordable tools can extend the life of a part exponentially. Perhaps a forum post with information on maintenance checks that you can perform yourself on popular cars in the club like JK wranglers and Pajeros, as well as general info on what oils and coolants to use might be worth a look. There's also trying to hunt down the service manuals for our cars, they make diagnosing issues quite easy and also help you decide if a job is personally doable or if it's best left to a professional. On 5/13/2021 at 6:07 PM, Gaurav said: Very well said @Arman but sadly people after spending 2600 instead of 160 don't tend to share their story and learning like yours. Either they are too busy / rich / afraid to tell the saga. Here's the section you can use: https://carnity.com/forums/forum/268-offroad-mods-diy I'll do my best to fill this up with stuff, although my experience has been with my TJ....which there are only 4 active ones in the club i believe? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arman Posted May 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2021 On 5/14/2021 at 11:59 AM, Frederic said: Very good topic @Arman many amongst us have that initial fear of trying something ourselves, but there is so much we can do with some common sense, elbow grease, and the occasional Youtube video to help us out. I don't think every mechanic is trying to rip off their customer. In most cases they are just not interested in digging a little bit deeper into the problem and want to kill the mosquito with a bazooka. On the other hand i have seen small workshops doing wonders with what they have. But it takes time to find good reliable workshops but yes even then you'll need to keep an eye on them and be a critical and difficult customer to get it done properly. I can imagine that it's a matter of profitability, the risk of spending an hour to look for a 5 minute definite solution that costs nothing to fix is a is outweighed by the alternative AED3000 solution that works in 30mins and probably solves the problem. Im actually experimenting with garages now, since my car is a daily i do about 25.000-30.000 km a year so i have very regular maintenance visits. I've found that specialized garages tend to be more likely to fall victim to this practice, perhaps because they possible pool of customers is lower than a general garage so they're prices have to make up the difference in profit margins. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niki Posted May 16, 2021 Report Share Posted May 16, 2021 3 hours ago, Arman said: There's also trying to hunt down the service manuals for our cars, they make diagnosing issues quite easy and also help you decide if a job is personally doable or if it's best left to a professional. I'll do my best to fill this up with stuff, although my experience has been with my TJ....which there are only 4 active ones in the club i believe? Hey @Arman #1 Service Manual for your TJ #2 Parts Catalogue for your TJ #3 Jackpot for all Jeep TJ Owners - all years documents I love your idea of a 'hands on' session to learn some of the basics! living in an apartment I am forced to hand my car over however would love to build skills on learning the basics. I found a garage space with ramps we can hire in the Green Community and lets work on getting some like minded people together in the near future to share the cost of that facility and learn together.! Hope the above helps and pls do post on your Jeep channel if it can benefit the others. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arman Posted May 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2021 21 minutes ago, Niki said: Hey @Arman #1 Service Manual for your TJ #2 Parts Catalogue for your TJ #3 Jackpot for all Jeep TJ Owners - all years documents I love your idea of a 'hands on' session to learn some of the basics! living in an apartment I am forced to hand my car over however would love to build skills on learning the basics. I found a garage space with ramps we can hire in the Green Community and lets work on getting some like minded people together in the near future to share the cost of that facility and learn together.! Hope the above helps and pls do post on your Jeep channel if it can benefit the others. Hey man thanks! I've already got the service manual for my 05 and parts list printed out hehehe, there's another Garage in DIP called U-Fix-It that i rent a lift in every few weeks if i dont get a chance to work on it with my TJ buds on the weekends. I think i'll start a mini TJ maintenance post here with all this stuff put in there when time and life allows. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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