[Noah930]

Maybe not along the same lines as the above ripoffs, but even the shadetree mechanic within me gets angry at some of the garbage that goes on.

I had a good friend have the alternator die on her Odyssey minivan. She took it to the dealer, and they swapped it out but also charged her for a new radiator, because that supposedly was on its way out as well. Having replaced the alternator in my own Odyssey, I know exactly what happened to require a new alternator--the hamfisted mechanic put a hole in it while trying to remove the alternator. That's exactly why I removed the top two bolts mounting the radiator and canted it forward to give enough clearance to get my hands/tools in there and remove the alternator. And it still was like trying to remove something the size of a coconut from an opening that would only fit a softball. She (my friend) didn't know better, but I was pissed for her.