What should I do about my car?

[Luanne]

Some background on the situation:  I took my car in to have the front struts replaced back in late August.  I gave the place that fixed it $316 to fix it.  It is a small shop that only employs one mechanic.  (They have a 90 day guarantee on all work and parts.)   It wasn't fixed properly the first time but it took me almost a month to get back to them due to too much stuff going on in my life.  When I called to ask them what they were going to do about it, they said the mechanic who had "fixed" my car had quit.  It was three weeks from the time I called them back until they finally had a mechanic hired.  This past Monday I took the car back in and they replaced the right strut again.  The problem is the car still shakes like crazy when I drive it.  Is it supposed to do that?  I don't know what to do about this situation.  It is getting tiring driving it like this.  It is getting tiring leaving the car with them for two or three days each time to have them "fix" it.

[Flowing Brook]

I'd send your dad over to talk with them. Sometimes mechanics are more likely to ignore a women telling them something is wrong than a man. Also if they need a little bit of leaning on to get the job done right.  Your dad might be the one they are more likely to listen to.  Sorry about all of the trouble. I hope you get it straightened out soon.

[MomtoCandJ]

Try the ball joints, my car shook with bad ball joints. Also if they replaced the struts they should have done a front end alignment- will also cause shaking if not aligned. I'm getting a front end alignment and new tires next month. The stupids that replaced my ball joints (had to have the passenger front done twice, not even a year apart) didn't redo the alignment which screwed up my tires.

[Pawz4me]

"Deal with it until I can afford another car" probably isn't a viable option unless you're planning on being able to afford another car very quickly.  'Cause if it's shaking very badly, you're probably risking messing up other stuff if you don't get it fixed.

[Luanne]

My father thinks it might need new front tires (I'm sure it does) and that that might fix the problem.  I was thinking about the alignment thing too. 

[MomtoCandJ]

i'm not sure where you buy tires but I get mine at Walmart. They are on sale right now until January 15th, I pay an extra $6.00 per tire for lifetime balance and rotation. The guys at my local Walmart are the ones that let me know I had a bad ball joint, they can't officially diagnose but they can at least give you an idea :) As far as a front end alignment, make sure they use lasers to make sure it's right, there are some who just eyeball it which isn't accurate.

[Jerico]

I really wanted to say blow up the car lol. We had major car problems the last year and its been draining. 4 major issues (like the entire engine being rebuilt amongst others). We finally just sold it as we could barely afford the car much less the incessant repairs. My husband took care of most of it- he is very assertive and he isn't going to e pushed over. So I voted to have your dad help. Hope it gets taken care of.

[MomtoCandJ]

Update? As you can tell I'm used to dealing with mechanics and such, usually dh is at work when my car has issues so I just learn to deal with them myself. I'm going to hate getting a new car because I will have to get used to all the little quirks of that car, I've had my current car for 8 years and plan to drive it until the engine or transmission goes (no signs of that happening soon, knock on wood, fingers crossed, many prayers to the patron saint of cars (if there is one, if not there should be)

[Ravin]

I want to vote for blow up the car, but that's because of the grief and money and runaround we've gotten. The latest was, when our car wouldn't start, we took it to the closest convenient shop (one we've used before), and they said the flywheel was stripped and it would cost $1300 to fix. So we had it towed to the transmission shop who fixed our transmission last month. They took a look.

 

There was 1 loose bolt and 1 missing bolt resulting in the starter being loose. They only charged us for the tow.

 

Time to find a new general mechanic. Not sure I even want to go back to the "convenient" place for an oil change.

[unfrumpable.]

Is there any way you can take it to a different mechanic for a second opinion on what is wrong? I just did that recently with my car and it was a huge piece of mind knowing that what my regular mechanic was telling me was wrong was really wrong and the estimates I received from both shops were about the same.

 

Do you know anyone who is a mechanic who can take a look? What does the shop you're using say about the shaking?

 

My dad was a mechanic and I worked for a few years alongside a shop and one thing I noticed is that when you put new parts on an older car is that often more stuff will stop working as the older parts try to keep up with the newer parts. We always drove older cars because my dad could keep up with that fairly inexpensively and it was much less expensive than a car payment, but I felt for those I saw driving older cars that came into the shop and had those issues. :(