Is the a Law About Auto Repair Shop Letting You Know About Going Over Esta

How Motorcar Mechanics Can Rip You Off, and How to Avert Being Taken for a Ride

... and how drivers can avoid being taken for a ride.

— -- intro:Have you ever gone to an auto repair shop for an oil change, only to take the mechanic say your car needs a new transmission? Has the "check engine" light come up on, and all of a sudden the mechanic says you need expensive new engine parts?

One seasoned auto mechanic is warning consumers to be well-versed in how a motorcar works to avoid being ripped off at the automobile repair shop.

"Joe," who has been a mechanic for forty years, agreed to reveal the secrets of his trade to ABC News' "xx/xx" on the status that his identity would remain concealed.

He said some mechanics may try to squeeze more than coin out of customers by doing unnecessary repairs. What drives mechanics to crook or push unnecessary repairs, Joe said, is the tiny profit margin at many repair shops. Most mechanics are honest, he said, but many are pressured by their bosses to perform unnecessary piece of work.

"The shop has to stay in business," Joe said. "There are pressures to do things that peradventure you wouldn't do usually."

Joe admitted that he has used shady tactics, himself, in the past.

"I'k ashamed a chip to admit it, but when your boss tells you ... 'Either y'all practise it here or the door'south right there,' what are you going to do?" he asked.

The Automotive Service Association says the majority of the service repair industry is ethical and merely charges the consumer for necessary piece of work.

"20/twenty" went hole-and-corner at several auto repair shops in New York and New Jersey to see if mechanics would add unnecessary repairs and fees to service a "xx/20" producer'southward car, which had been given a clean bill of health by two licensed mechanics beforehand.

I of those licensed skillful mechanics was Giuseppe Mendola, owner of AutoTech Diagnostic in Higher Indicate, New York.

"If they found a problem with this auto, information technology would probably be a problem they invented or that didn't exist at all," Mendola said.

quicklist:title: 1. Adding on to 'Gravy Piece of work'text:There are special names mechanics use for questionable repair practices, Joe said, such as "gravy work," which, he said, means billing the customer for more fourth dimension than a repair task really takes.

"Nearly shops will charge you an hour and a half to 2 hours to plough the rotors and put pads on it," Joe said. "If yous're good and got good equipment, you tin can do it in twenty or xxx minutes. ... That'south gravy."

quicklist:title: 2. Doing a 'Wallet Flush'text:The so-called "Wallet Flush," Joe said, is where a routine oil change tin can plough into something much more than expensive.

"An $18 oil change -- well, they lose money on that," he said. "The idea is to become you in so they can sell you lot the coolant flushes, trans flushes, power steering flushes. ... That's where the money is."

quicklist:championship: 3. Billing for Work That Was Never Donetext:Joe said it's not unusual for mechanics to neb for piece of work they don't fifty-fifty perform, such as saying they installed a new air filter without actually touching it.

"Some [air filters] are hard to change, and it's existent easy to accuse for it and not put it in," he said. "And you would never know considering yous couldn't become get it."

quicklist:title: four. Jacking Up Repairs Based off the 'Idiot Light'text:1 of the most mutual, and profitable, means to jack up a repair bill is exploiting fears over the "check engine" light, affectionately known by some in the trade as the "idiot low-cal," Joe said.

"The check engine lite will directly you to a failure code," he said. "Guys kind of have the phrase where every code deserves a part."

"20/xx" put the "idiot light" tactic to the examination. Before heading out undercover, "twenty/20" had expert mechanic Audra Fordin purposefully unplug a cord to disconnect the mass airflow sensor in the engine of a "20/20" producer'southward machine, something that would exist quickly detected and easy to fix. Both Fordin and Mendola accounted the automobile perfectly fine otherwise.

One repair shop in New Bailiwick of jersey fixed the cord issue in xv minutes without fifty-fifty charging our producer -- though ABC News' expert mechanic say information technology would be reasonable to charge betwixt $50-100 to diagnose the problem. The managing director at a different repair shop in New Bailiwick of jersey also just plugged the cord back in, but and then told our producer the light was on because the mass flow sensor needed to be cleaned. He recommended a fuel system cleaning for $99.

A mechanic in New York as well fixed the cord trouble quickly but told our producer she needed to replace the entire mass air flow sensor, a price of more than $300. He then offered to take the sensor apart and ready it for $190. For that $190 ready, a "20/20" hidden camera video showed the mechanic just sprayed and rinsed the outside of the engine.

"The light was definitely on because of the sensor," Mendola said. "And plugging it back in should have the solved the problem. ... I can requite you lot an example. If yous came home and your lamp wasn't working and you realized, 'Hey, somebody unplugged it from the wall,' y'all wouldn't leave and buy a new lamp. And so basically, all you lot had to exercise was plug it back in and you'd exist fine."

quicklist:title:5. BONUS: How to Avoid Being Ripped Offtext:"If you go to a store, and they ... spring you up for all this stuff, go notice another store," he said. "Inquire your friends, enquire coworkers. ... Try to discover a reputable shop that you tin can build a human relationship with, and they will have care of you, and that's key."

Also, he added, just read the owner's transmission.

"People don't read the owner'due south manual," he said. "They don't know how to open up the hood half the time. ... I honestly don't understand what they expect out of the car if they don't know anything almost information technology."

Marty Guerrero, 50, of Los Angeles, admitted she didn't know annihilation nearly cars when she took her red Mustang into a mechanic when it wouldn't start. She said that was all the mechanic needed to know, to take her for a ride.

"He concluded upward wanting to charge me about $ane,000 for services, and it turns out all my automobile needed was a bombardment," said Guerrero. "And the merely reason I busted him was because my car wouldn't start two days after I picked it up. After he supposedly fixed information technology, it wouldn't first."

What should have been an $lxxx battery replacement suddenly became a very expensive problem for Guerrero.

"When I think about it now I feel like a fool," Guerrero said. "I really got taken."

But Guerrero battled to get her money back from the mechanic and won. She fifty-fifty enrolled in auto repair classes and is educating others through an eastward-book she wrote, named, "Exposed: Car Repair's Dirty Little Secrets to Rip You Off!"

"I ended upwardly writing a book because I wanted to share all this knowledge with people," Guerrero said. "It really makes me angry that these mechanics are taking reward of women. ... They primarily cheat women because they think we don't know."

Guerrero had a message for the mechanic who she said ripped her off: "I got you lot," Guerrero said. "You thought yous were slick, merely I got yous."

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Is the a Law About Auto Repair Shop Letting You Know About Going Over Esta

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/auto-mechanics-rip-off-avoid-ride/story?id=25222138

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