Rip off mechanic
 

Gets caught by an honest one...warning, long 47 minute video, but pretty entertaining and interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ7BuYKVknE

Yea, it would be nice to find that rip off mechanic and break his hands so he can't work on cars ever again. I wonder how many people he has ripped off.

Years ago (1970s) when my grandmother was still driving her 1961 Impala, literally back and forth to church, and the grocery store in her neighborhood she was told her tires needed to be replaced. She stopped at a tire shop and they saw a sucker coming. They sold her some high performance radials with a H speed rating. That old Impala had not been above 45 in many years.

I went with her to the tires shop and played the pissed off grandson, and it was not acting. They removed the high dollar radials and sold a set of cheap bias ply tires. She honestly only drove in her neighborhood at 25 MPH max most of the time.

Fake news . Mechanics never lie

From 1992-1995, I worked at a retail auto parts store. I heard about and/or discovered many, many instances of crooked mechanics in that time. There was at least one case where I'd like to have used violence to make it impossible for perpetrators to screw someone like that ever again.

I was working one morning and a lady came in with 3-4 very young girls in tow (probably all younger than 5 or 6). She looked like she was working hard and living hand to mouth with those young girls. She came up with 8 quarts of oil, and however the it came up, she said that she needed the oil to get to/from work that day (something like 5-10 miles each way) because she had a leak. I couldn't imagine any oil leak that would use 4 quarts of oil in 5-10 miles of driving.

She had an appt to take it to the Firestone shop that weekend. They had diagnosed an oil pan gasket as the problem and it was going to be $400. She was going there because she had a Firestone credit card.

I asked if it would be OK if I took a peek at her car before she left. I don't remember what her car was, but it was a low end, fwd, economy car. The oil filter was in the middle of the block facing the radiator and was plainly visible as soon as the hood was popped. The oil filter was unscrewed so much that I could put my fingers between the gasket and the block. It was a miracle that her car was still running at all. I screwed the filter back on and told her that her leak was fixed and that the Firestone folks had been trying to defraud her, and that she should either never go back, or at least, go to a different location.

hahaha

Well, I have no doubt that at least 75% of the stories that we hear about dishonest mechanics should be attributed to "Hanlon's Razor."

…..……………..don't hate the playa...…...hate the game

For forty-seven minutes I looked forward to some sort of final "You're busted, Mofo" moment.

Nada.

_

I was a bit disappointed about that...but like to think the dishonest one found himself in small claims court and receiving a visit from a state consumer protection agency.

That said, I was impressed with the honest guy's ability to check and find the rigging that the dishonest one had done. So, guess I was satisfied with the ending.

Not you, Fred...Hell, if I lived in Valencia, I'd be talking to you about installing a Bilstein shocks/struts kit on on '09 Bullitt Mustang. Originals getting a bit worn at 30,000 miles, methinks.

Back when 60 minutes had the original crew they used a hidden camera and showed a gas station attendant squirt oil on shocks, then show the car owner leaking shocks that needed replacment. They would just happen to have the shocks in stock and change them on the spot as a "much needed safety" thing.

I think it was a Portland news crew, some thirty years ago, that inconspicuously die-stamped a freshly built transmission then, after some "artificial weathering" of the case, and playing the part of an unknowing consumer, took the car to a local AAMCO . Customer was told the trans was shot and needed to be replaced with a fresh AAMCO unit.

They quoted the customer an astronomical amount for the replacement, but then gave them the good news: a sister shop had the correct transmission in stock, and would send it over the next morning. Because of this good fortune, the customer's car would be ready the next afternoon.

The next day, they paid the bill, picked up the car and drove it immediately to previous shop. The formerly dirty and greasy case was clean and, wonder of wonders, the die stamp was right where they thought they might find it.

No longer the unknowing customer, the reporter went back to the shop the next day. As I recall, it didn't go all that well for local AAMCO shops after that.

_

While I’m sure there are mechanics who do that sort of thing, I do not put much faith in any “reporting” I see on 60 Minutes. They are the ones who killed Audi with an unintended acceleration story. I know for a fact (I’ve done it in an Audi 5000) that with the gas on the floor the car can still be stopped with the brake pedal. It was only with a tiny blurb at the end of a show several months later that they “reported” that NHTSA had exonerated Audi. Meanwhile Audi couldn’t sell anything for a long while. If you’ll recall they also got caught doing another story about a Chevy pickup truck catching fire in an accident…after they had pre-rigged it. I know there are dishonest mechanics out there but 60 Minutes is no better than they are.

Figured you were talking about Ray with the title. Been watching his channel for a few weeks now. I find it a bit therapeutic to watch a real professional work. He seems like a really honest and good mechanic and pretty funny at times. Watching his channel has caused me to waste a bit on tools I probably don't need recently though.

Title is clickbaity which is the youtube way these days though.

I recently had something come in that was similar, but was not fraud, just negligence on the last guys part. In chasing down some electrical problems, he put fuses back in places where they did not belong, and left fuses out of slots where they were needed, plus probably caused a few other blown fuses along the way .
Simple fix, but still took me a few hours to sort it all out

[QUOTE=porsche tech;11520188]While I’m sure there are mechanics who do that sort of thing, I do not put much faith in any “reporting” I see on 60 Minutes. They are the ones who killed Audi with an unintended acceleration story.


That was such a travesty that I can't believe that 60 minutes/cbs didn't suffer the same as Audi did.

My mother in law approached me asking “ what is a timing belt”? She had taken the car to her mechanic for an oil change and he told her she needed a new timing belt. I opened the hood and on the timing cover is the sticker that says her timing belt was changed two years and 10,000 miles ago. I told her to get a new mechanic.

Boy, that happens...remember "saving" a guy on the Bullitt Mustang board by simply taking and posting a pic of my untouched fuse box.

Glad it happened when it did...ever since we got windows 10, I don't have a clue how ro save pics for posting. I click on "save this pic", computer says pic is saved, but then...damned if I can find it anywhere.

I digressed...in this video, a dishonest mechanic had done some sneaky and tricky things to make the vehicle owner think he had some problems that didn't exist. (edit for those commenting without watching the video.)

Payback to AAMCO? Back in the 1980’s, a high school buddy built a sweet Cuda with a ginormous 440. Felt like a jet taking off.

He ripped up an auto trans.

Got one from AAMCO. It broke, so he got another. And another. And another. And so on.

Can’t remember how many transmissions he burned up. But more than three.

Happened in Portland. Reynolds High. Sweeeet car!

A lady I worked with checked with me on car issues. She complained to her mechanic that there was squealing coming from the engine. He said you need a new belt and tensioner. He did the work and it still squealed. She took it back and he said nothing can be done must need a new water pump. I looked - the adjustment for the belt was the manual type. I said take it back and tell him it is the manual type and to adjust it. Issue was fixed and the mechanic was embarrassed.
Somehow I don't feel bad for Audi as mentioned in the above story. I do remember the 60 minutes story on the shock oil. As I remember they went back to the station and showed the mechanic the video - he denied doing it after seeing the video. I wonder what that mechanic is doing now.

What rigging was done?