A little scratch: $1500. A wear out device replacement: $3500. A fresh trunk-release switch cover: $150. All these are genuine repair costs related to AOL Autos since drivers took their vehicles to the auto shops with apparently small problems that resulted in excessively expensive repair bills. Not all motorists can choose to repair his vehicle himself or purchase a new one as trouble occurs in the existing one. Most of the car owners are left with limited options like gathering the big bills and paying it. Let us focus on some of the regular repair jobs that resulted in exorbitant repair bills.
Stump up for the Bumper
Deana May, at Los Angeles-based AC Auto finishing, is aware of the surprises a store has for even a car brought in with just a minor scratch. According to May, "It's a scary thing -- looks can be deceiving. You can do an estimate on a front bumper then take it off and behind it there's all kinds of damage. Low-profile cars with low-profile tires go over a bump or up a driveway, they don't take an angle, often they need a whole new front end." In addition, problems of these types arrive frequently at her shop. Last month a Lotus driver was billed a sum of $5,400 for his car repairing; however, after verifying the condition she had to agree. She informs about the possible dangers and costs of drivers receiving incorrect quotes for the upkeep with high-performance components, like for an AMG, for a Mercedes or Brabus.
Up in Your grille
Willy Stroppe, president of automotive engineering firm Bill Stroppe and Sons in Paramount, Calif declares that once he observed trivial damage on the frontage of a Ford pickup truck that in due course turned into a giant repair bill. "It looks like the front plastic grille got broken with a light hit, but when we got into it the housing behind the grille was cracked and broken all the way up. Replacing everything from the fenders forward, the headlight vessels, a new front end, it all adds up. In a lot of cases you gotta pull out the radiator. That's not something you can do in a couple hours." He discovered similar troubles on a Ford Explorer. Stroppe, primarily works with Fords and result in surprise repair bill costing nearly $1200. "It's not like the old days when everything was steel," he adds. He too states that car owners must know bit about techniques. He has witnessed ample of car businesses through half century. He repeatedly says that a fraudulent shop will turn the vehicle worth driving with a careless patch up job, and then put up for sale to an innocent buyer, lending a big future repair bill as the repair work falls apart.
$150 Cover Up
Mark Essig, is a writer in a small town in North Carolina, who was surprised with a bill of $150 by a local repair shop for altering a lost cover for the trunk-release toggle. It was terribly shocking in his ten years repair history of Mercedes 320 CLK. As pricey repair bills are not unusual for posh European marques, Essig says, repair bill charging $2,000 was a real shock for him. He also noticed that it arrived as an added cost that was not at all mentioned in the estimate. He says: "It was part of a $2000 repair bill that included valve cleaning and brake work, and I was so sick to my stomach that I couldn't quibble over $150. Best part was, I didn't ask him to do it." Meanwhile, Michael Russell owner of Porsche 944, an AOL Autos friend, discovered that bringing in an old-school German car charged a lot more than he negotiated for. Replacement of a $15 exhaust valve charged him $3,500 as work was recorded. Fundamentally, he says, they needed to split out the engine to reach the valve, that was burned out, an ordinary ailment in older vehicles. He says, however, repair was essential to get to work.
Cool Conditioning, Not-So-Cool Cost
Taking my wife's 1995 Nissan 240SX S-ER to my local mechanics to fix the air conditioning proved to be a costly affair. I had taken the car a week before that to get the air conditioning fixed. They found a leaking gasket that had depressurized the system. So they fixed the gasket, re-filled the system with Freon coolant and pressurized it. The bill came to be $300. I heaved a sigh of relief until two days later I found to my utter dismay that the system was again blowing hot air. So much for getting it repaired. I took it back to the shop for a second look only to be told that another seal had broken and this time it was in a hard-to-reach spot which meant extra labor that ultimately translated to an $800 dollar repair bill. I pointed out the fact that the original fix was under warranty. My mechanic argued that a different component had malfunctioned this time and therefore the additional repair was not under warranty. All attempts at bargaining failed so I was $300 out of pocket, and my wife has a hot summer ahead (unless she decides have mine). Here a word of advice: Always get a second opinion in situations like this besides assessing the general system integrity when replacing individual components on older-model cars.
Coolant Chills
Ken Lavacot of www.2carpros.com advises you to never ignore little signs. A bit of steam coming out of the exhaust may seem like nothing, but it could be a warning of huge repair bills. For example, he says, "Coolant is normally used to cool the engine, but if coolant gets into the combustion chamber, the engine will burn it, generating white smoke and steam." Among the expensive solutions is gasket replacement. "If the gasket that seals the intake manifold to the cylinder head fails it lets coolant into the intake port and then the combustion chamber. In which case, the intake manifold will need to be removed." And getting to the gasket and reassembling the parts once it is replaced is the expensive bit. If there is coolant in the combustion chamber but the gasket is functioning, Lavacot says the engine must be taken apart. He adds: "This can be tricky because it is difficult to tell what is causing the problem. For example: A repair shop has told you the cylinder head is cracked, and as they start disassembly they can discover it was the intake manifold gasket that has failed. An honest repair shop will inform the customer that the repair bill will be lower. Or the opposite can happen. A repair shop may tell you that your engine has a blown head gasket, but once the disassembly is complete they inform you that the head gasket is fine, and so is the cylinder, which has been pressure checked. This only leaves the engine block as the failure and must be replaced, and that can be costly."
Paintwork Blues
My brother-in-law got a little more than he bargained for when he lent his Jaguar convertible to a family member. The car was returned with a scratch in the back panel on the drivers side. This can be fixed at minimal cost as a bodywork shop can buff out a scratch but the Jaguar XK8s aluminum shell meant that a costly adhesive had to be used to fix the scratch so as to prevent further deterioration or warping of the cars monocoque shell. It cost a whopping $1500. Most luxury carmakers like Audi, Mercedes and BMW harness the aluminum-shell technology which is very expensive to repair. He was told that he was lucky the scratch was not in any other part of the car as it could have easily doubled or tripled his cost. Get several estimates for the paintwork and think twice before lending your Jaguar.
Stump up for the Bumper
Deana May, at Los Angeles-based AC Auto finishing, is aware of the surprises a store has for even a car brought in with just a minor scratch. According to May, "It's a scary thing -- looks can be deceiving. You can do an estimate on a front bumper then take it off and behind it there's all kinds of damage. Low-profile cars with low-profile tires go over a bump or up a driveway, they don't take an angle, often they need a whole new front end." In addition, problems of these types arrive frequently at her shop. Last month a Lotus driver was billed a sum of $5,400 for his car repairing; however, after verifying the condition she had to agree. She informs about the possible dangers and costs of drivers receiving incorrect quotes for the upkeep with high-performance components, like for an AMG, for a Mercedes or Brabus.
Up in Your grille
Willy Stroppe, president of automotive engineering firm Bill Stroppe and Sons in Paramount, Calif declares that once he observed trivial damage on the frontage of a Ford pickup truck that in due course turned into a giant repair bill. "It looks like the front plastic grille got broken with a light hit, but when we got into it the housing behind the grille was cracked and broken all the way up. Replacing everything from the fenders forward, the headlight vessels, a new front end, it all adds up. In a lot of cases you gotta pull out the radiator. That's not something you can do in a couple hours." He discovered similar troubles on a Ford Explorer. Stroppe, primarily works with Fords and result in surprise repair bill costing nearly $1200. "It's not like the old days when everything was steel," he adds. He too states that car owners must know bit about techniques. He has witnessed ample of car businesses through half century. He repeatedly says that a fraudulent shop will turn the vehicle worth driving with a careless patch up job, and then put up for sale to an innocent buyer, lending a big future repair bill as the repair work falls apart.
$150 Cover Up
Mark Essig, is a writer in a small town in North Carolina, who was surprised with a bill of $150 by a local repair shop for altering a lost cover for the trunk-release toggle. It was terribly shocking in his ten years repair history of Mercedes 320 CLK. As pricey repair bills are not unusual for posh European marques, Essig says, repair bill charging $2,000 was a real shock for him. He also noticed that it arrived as an added cost that was not at all mentioned in the estimate. He says: "It was part of a $2000 repair bill that included valve cleaning and brake work, and I was so sick to my stomach that I couldn't quibble over $150. Best part was, I didn't ask him to do it." Meanwhile, Michael Russell owner of Porsche 944, an AOL Autos friend, discovered that bringing in an old-school German car charged a lot more than he negotiated for. Replacement of a $15 exhaust valve charged him $3,500 as work was recorded. Fundamentally, he says, they needed to split out the engine to reach the valve, that was burned out, an ordinary ailment in older vehicles. He says, however, repair was essential to get to work.
Cool Conditioning, Not-So-Cool Cost
Taking my wife's 1995 Nissan 240SX S-ER to my local mechanics to fix the air conditioning proved to be a costly affair. I had taken the car a week before that to get the air conditioning fixed. They found a leaking gasket that had depressurized the system. So they fixed the gasket, re-filled the system with Freon coolant and pressurized it. The bill came to be $300. I heaved a sigh of relief until two days later I found to my utter dismay that the system was again blowing hot air. So much for getting it repaired. I took it back to the shop for a second look only to be told that another seal had broken and this time it was in a hard-to-reach spot which meant extra labor that ultimately translated to an $800 dollar repair bill. I pointed out the fact that the original fix was under warranty. My mechanic argued that a different component had malfunctioned this time and therefore the additional repair was not under warranty. All attempts at bargaining failed so I was $300 out of pocket, and my wife has a hot summer ahead (unless she decides have mine). Here a word of advice: Always get a second opinion in situations like this besides assessing the general system integrity when replacing individual components on older-model cars.
Coolant Chills
Ken Lavacot of www.2carpros.com advises you to never ignore little signs. A bit of steam coming out of the exhaust may seem like nothing, but it could be a warning of huge repair bills. For example, he says, "Coolant is normally used to cool the engine, but if coolant gets into the combustion chamber, the engine will burn it, generating white smoke and steam." Among the expensive solutions is gasket replacement. "If the gasket that seals the intake manifold to the cylinder head fails it lets coolant into the intake port and then the combustion chamber. In which case, the intake manifold will need to be removed." And getting to the gasket and reassembling the parts once it is replaced is the expensive bit. If there is coolant in the combustion chamber but the gasket is functioning, Lavacot says the engine must be taken apart. He adds: "This can be tricky because it is difficult to tell what is causing the problem. For example: A repair shop has told you the cylinder head is cracked, and as they start disassembly they can discover it was the intake manifold gasket that has failed. An honest repair shop will inform the customer that the repair bill will be lower. Or the opposite can happen. A repair shop may tell you that your engine has a blown head gasket, but once the disassembly is complete they inform you that the head gasket is fine, and so is the cylinder, which has been pressure checked. This only leaves the engine block as the failure and must be replaced, and that can be costly."
Paintwork Blues
My brother-in-law got a little more than he bargained for when he lent his Jaguar convertible to a family member. The car was returned with a scratch in the back panel on the drivers side. This can be fixed at minimal cost as a bodywork shop can buff out a scratch but the Jaguar XK8s aluminum shell meant that a costly adhesive had to be used to fix the scratch so as to prevent further deterioration or warping of the cars monocoque shell. It cost a whopping $1500. Most luxury carmakers like Audi, Mercedes and BMW harness the aluminum-shell technology which is very expensive to repair. He was told that he was lucky the scratch was not in any other part of the car as it could have easily doubled or tripled his cost. Get several estimates for the paintwork and think twice before lending your Jaguar.
About the Author:
Rand Stuck is a BMW master mechanic with over 12 years of experience. He is currently the manager of the online parts department of a BMW parts retailer. You can find additional information on Repair and Maintenance and BMW parts and accessories at AutoWerks.
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