The economy sucks, but cars should be breaking down at the same rate as normal...We're not getting near the work we did last summer, and people are waiting before bringing them in for "normal" stuff, and waiting until they are literally BROKEN.
While it's good monies for us as it's a lengthier dio, and takes longer to fix the problem, it's NOT GOOD for the client who owns the vehicle in the first place. While I know this is a Ford forum, if you have a vehicle that has a problem, please get it fixed before it breaks down and costs even more money to have it repaired in the long run if you can't do it yourself.
I have a 2006 5.4 KR F150 with 41k on the odometer (with the fail safe cooling sytem) sitting in front of me whose upper radiator hose blew, so he replaced the hose, removed the thermostat and ran some leak sealer crap through it. (for reasons known but to God) Well, he had an air bubble in the block apparently because he didn't get enough coolant in it. Now the radiator is partially clogged, and he blew the passenger side head gasket, and possibly warped the head. (which I won't know until I have it off the truck) I'm currently waiting for a gasket set, and am preparing to pull the heads, but I have some time to rant about it, so I am.
As soon as I got the pressure pumped to 14psi, his head gasket was bubbling like crazy. Upped it to 16 to see if anything else was leaking, and it was spraying vapor. It took a bit to get to 14psi, so I attribute that to the air bubble. He had about 4qts of coolant in it. Who knows, maybe his block is cracked. I hope not. I have to send the rad out for testing too, along with a good cleaning.
yep i hear ya about service work commin in!
im in the boat business and a month ago i had more work than i could handle!! now its almost completely dead i went from 20 boats sittin around, got em all done and now my yard has been empty! now the work that seems to be trickling in is all the cluster f**Ks that other dealers have turned away some how end up at my shop! and the know it all owners seem to think that a "tune up" will solve a completely unrelated issue that there aware of but fail to tell me when they drop their hunk of junk off. one genius brought his 2006 boat with a 5.0 MPI in for a tune up and complained that it was a little sluggish and sometimes hard to start. i asked him 3 times "sir is it out of gas" which he responede with an offended "NO!" I climed up in that damn thing and looked at the gas gauge BONE EMPTY!!!! He didn't seem so smart when he forked over $200 bucks for some gas and a fuel filter lol!! another good one this month was the customer who came in and said that he needed a new starter cause his boat would not start. so i sell him a starter and the next morning hes back with his boat and was pretty upset. he said that i sold him a bad starter and wanted his money back and an apology. amazed that someone would talk to me like that i asked him why he brought the entire boat, he told me it needed a tune up and he wanted me to install the new starter. so i climb in this one (with him breathin down my neck mad as hell) to see what he had done. Long story short the first thing that caught my eye was the empty battery box, needless to say he was too embarassed to yell anymore and left without his tune up!! and dont even get me started on the ones who take the keys out of the boats!!!
i had to rant too, it feels pretty good!
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Alex
2004 F-150 XL 4.6 Triton, Heavy Duty tow package
1999 Taurus SEL 3.0 24V
The Toys:
2007 Viking RV Pop-UP
1989 Sea Ray 180 "Serenity NOW"
Work in general
