ridiculous incompetence

[Heo]

Stepson has a fairly new Mercedes don't remember the year but.
It started to have intermittent starting problem. He check the cables
on the battery no problem there . Leaves it to the  autoriced Mercedes
service place. They diagnosed it found no code for something wrong.
So they put in a new battery 400$ plus work no change
they put in a new starter 440$ plus work no change. they said
the new battery was low so probably bad alternator he bought a new
alternator to change it himself. The first thing he See when he went
under the car is a severely oxidised ground strap from engine to chassie
10 inches away from the starter they changed.
Remove bolt some WD40 and a steelbrush maybe 10 cent, problem solved
It is criminal incompetence autoriced service my ass over 1000$ with out
solving a problem that took half a teaspoon of WD40 a steelbrush, 13mm
wrench and 10 minutes to fix.

[428kidd]

Its easy to be a parts changer, a good mechanic is hard to find!

[WConley]

You're spot-on.  Too many "technicians" are just trained to shoot the parts cannon at a problem until it's fixed.  There's not enough money in fixing...

[Heo]

Its like if the diagnostic tool don't tell them whats wrong they are
totally lost. I mean what do you do if the car don't crank. You
check the battery cables then the ground strap, simple basic beginners
knowledge. If you work as a mechanic and don't spot a groundstrap
that's covered in white oxide on a car that intermittently don't crank
I suggest they look for another job

[Heo]

And 400$ for a battery Turns out it need some special fancy pancy
Battery since it got some start stop function he dont even use
Luckily he asked for his old battery, nothing wrong with it
Was not charging properly with bad ground.

I payed 500$ for my 86 300 E 10 years ago changed a muffler a
alternator and a waterpump repainted the driverside this winter
before it starts to rust in the rockchips, during 10000 miles
Total cost with car purchase about what those morons charged  for messing around
not knowing what they are doing.....
but he got more cupholders than me

[frnkeore]

I know you live outside of the USA so, I don't know the law, in your case but, in many/most states in the US, if you agree to the work order that your given and they don't fix it, you do not have to pay.

I was a mechanic in CA and it is the same in OR, that, I know. I just went through it here, last year, on my Mercury Grand Marquis, at the Ford dealer and got a full refund on a A/C problem, that they "fixed" (twice) but couldn't diagnosis the real problem. Had I not complained and ask for the refund, I wouldn't have got it.

I was a mechanic from '62 - '70, it was the same before that and has never changed since then. By that, I mean that Garages have always misdiagnosed repairs but, try not to pay for their mistakes. Many times they will say "that was bad but, this is also bad so, we had to replace it, too" And indicate that they can't guaranty the repair w/o it. But, they have to get approval, to add the further repair, to the original. 

[Heo]

Yes he is going to take it with them monday, lets se what that gives
It turns out... I cant believe the enginers at Mercedes did that blunder
but you cant be sure on anything today. There is a steel bolt bolted to aluminium
with a copper washer and they are sending curent through it, add some saltspray
The mother of all galvanic corosion, Are engineres that lost and incompetent today?
I know many of them think water flows upward 

[cammerfe]

Actually, water WILL run up hill---but only under pressure.

At the first sign of an electrical problem, I tend to think ground. I make my own ground straps, using '00' welding cable and both crimping and soldering the ends. Finish with shrink tube.

KS

[HarleyJack17]

The problem with Engineers are that they are Engineers.  Nowadays they are college grads that have done literally nothing but read.
I feel this way for a lot of positions but this one in particular. To be an Engineer it should be required that you spend a year or more in the field you are in as a laborer prior to getting your degree.
It is obvious that a large portion of them have never actually worked on something. We fight it here at work at times.  The only way to learn is to do...drawings are not reality..if you catch my drift.
General knowledge....common sense is slowly being eroded. Life has gotten too easy in some aspects and thus the path of least resistance. It hurts to think ya know HAHA.

You may be dealing with a one of those....its a five dollar fix, so let's turn it into more money deals too.....don't assume they did it by accident.
Reason number 101 why I work on my own stuff if I have the time and knowhow.

[mike7570]

You may be dealing with a one of those....its a five dollar fix, so let's turn it into more money deals too.....don't assume they did it by accident.
Reason number 101 why I work on my own stuff if I have the time and knowhow.

I hate to say it but it seems there are those dealers who rip people off on purpose, especially if it's a women. My Jeep Wrangler wouldn't start so I checked the battery, ground and the starter. I didn't have time to look further so I took it to the dealer. They said they would check it out and have an answer in the morning. I sent me wife by after no phone call and they told her the ignition switch was bad and it was a $600.00 repair.  I said wait do not fix it and checked on line, sure enough the internet is full of Chrysler and Jeep ignition problems with the "switch pin".  A plastic part my son broke by turning the key too hard. A new one at NAPA was about $40.00 and the repair involved 4 screws. I went to the dealer to ask the service manager to justify a $600.00 charge and he wouldn't talk to me. I took it back home and fixed it in my driveway with a flashlight in under 20 min. and I had never done one before. Damn Dealers! 

[badcatt]

Sometimes a shop can be just incompetent. My son's X girl friend(back in the  early 2000s) had a Toyota Forerunner. Her dad decided the automatic front hubs needed to be replaced with manual locking ones. He took it to a local franchise of a well known company to have that done.
She had had the brakes rebuilt at another shop just before this. The day she got the Toyota back she was driving down a local highway approaching a stop light. When she put her foot on the brakes, they hit the floor! She did a double hit and got brakes and safely stopped. Spooked she pulled over and checked every thing out, all seemed fine and the brakes were fine. The next day she took it back to the shop that did the brakes. The could not find any problems, but replaced the master cylinder again for free. The next few days it would still happen once in a while. Then one day she needed to turn around, she backed in to a driveway and hit the brakes, Nothing... She went over a embankment and roweled the Forerunner.  She broght it to me the next day to see if I could find the problem and to see what I could do with the body damage.
I took it for a test drive and had no problems, I know a guy who had parts and know how they were put together. So I had her leave me the truck for the day. I took it out to my buddies place, but on my way I wad gaining on traffic and went to use the brakes, There were none! After nearly shitting myself I had hit the brakes a second time and they were back. I got it to my buddies and home with out killing anyone.
So after cleaning my self up I set out on a telemarketers dream calling any and all 4x4 and Toyota shops I could find. Finally I found one that had an idea. He said to jack up the drivers side front and see if the wheel will rock back and forth. He said iif it did that meant the shop that put in the new locking hubs had not procured the spindle locking nut set. That is not required with the factory automatic hubs, but needed with the manual ones.
Sure enough the wheel rocked back and forth, This would push the pistons in the fixed calipers back in to the bore taking an application of the pedal to reset them.
I took the runner back to that shop and had heated words with the owner. I also got told to never come back to his shop. As if I would have after that.
I knew of other problems from his shop too, these happened before the story above did. An early Ford Taurus voltage regular bad, they replaced the Alternator but not the regulator telling the lady they would have to Troubleshoot it at $65.00 an hour. I fixed that one in 15 minutes. And my son's Honda CR-X Si. It had a bad front wheel bearing. I didn't have time to deal with it and he took it to them. They told him the trans axle was bad. So off to the transmission shop. The called and said there was nothing wrong with the trans axle, it had a bad wheel bearing.  He got it fixed else where.