Car Repair Information
Posted by deneb7 on July 6, 2011
My car’s rotors are shot – in addition to screeching when I press the brakes, I now have vibrations. The vibrations are due to warping of the rotors, which can happen in several ways, but is part of normal wear and tear.
I will try to share my personal story later, but I wanted to share some things I’ve learned along the way. Partly because of the 6 people I asked, only one really knew what he was talking about (I’m sure it helps that he’s fanatic enough about cars to fly to Germany to get one..). The other part is because I’m sure I will need to refer back to this in the future.
The list is as follows:
1. Consumer’s Guide: California has a consumer’s guide to automotive repair that everyone should know about.
2. Parts: If you’re worried about getting overcharged for a part, it’s easy to look up the price of a part online. I found this link to be helpful for my ’96 toyota camry, but there are plenty of other sites out there and you could probably find a site that only sells OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts. Just google something like [year make model parts], without brackets or quotes.
3. Labor: labor costs I think are typically $60-100/hr (at least that’s what I’ve seen in my price comparisons).
4. Know Car Stuff: If you want to know how important something is (and whether you should fix it), howstuffworks.com is a great resource. For example, a friend sent me this link on brake systems when I was confused by misinformation.
5. Know your Car: Before going to the auto repair, have a good idea of what might or might not be wrong with your car. If you were having problems with the brakes and all of a sudden the mechanic says you have a problem with your timing belt (and you had not noticed any other noises or symptoms), you may want to get a second opinion or at least, get out of that garage fast. 
I just did a quick google search for timing belt symptoms that should help with determining if it was a pre-existing problem or not.
6. Don’t be Paranoid: If what the mechanic finds is fairly consistent with how long it’s been since you’ve replaced a part, trust the mechanic. It’s so easy to be paranoid about mechanics these days with all the stories we hear that we almost need to learn not to be too skeptical of the good ones.
That said, the verdict is still out on the one I found as they haven’t begun repairs… but I’m leaning toward thinking they’ll do a good job.
That’s all, but I’m sure I’ll come back and add more as I find more resources.
