Okay...I know that not ALL mechanics are incompetant, or even most....but this guy just really pissed me off today.
I took my rear wheel hubs up to this Goodyear service station to have them press out the rear toe steering system to put in some toe eliminators and it was just a nightmare. After visiting two other places who's hydraulic press was broken I took them to the goodyear place and they told me they had a press and could do it. So I gave them the hubs and tried to tell the guy how the new toe eliminators go in, and he just started giving me attitude. "Umm...I'm pretty sure we're all certified mechanics here and know how to put these in". Whatever....so I gave him the instructions that came w/ them that have a dummyproof picture of how to properly install the new pieces, just incase they had any doubt. Well, they pressed them in, I paid them $40, went home only to find they put them in F#cking backwards!!! On top of that, they had filed down the edges to get them in and they didn't even use their hydraulic press! I was sooo pissed, and by the time I get back there, they were closed. I'm in Houston right now and have to leave tomarrow to go back to Austin for school (UT), so now I don't have a car.

I normally never let anybody else touch my car as far as working on it goes, but I figured I would only damage the pieces hammering them out, so I should let a shop that has the right tool do it. Wrong idea. Now I remember why I do all my own work. Some people (but not all) are simply worthless. Now I'm going to have to order another set of toe eliminators from Racing Beat because I don't like putting damaged goods on my car.

 

I agree that most mechanics aren't competent enough for my confidence, ESPECIALLY when an RX-7 is involved. Since I was sixteen (8 years ago) I have taught myself how to work on my cars and have been pretty successful. Having that experience and seeing normal chain store mechanics makes me nervous about taking my car to be worked on by anyone else.

I bet you won't be letting anyone touch your car again and that is the way it should be!

 

there is only one place I will take my car. there is a mechanic by my school who has a foreign and sports car shop, and I know that he owns more than one RX-7 so i let him work on my car. Other than that, most mechanics are used to working on American pieces of ****, and do get an attitude when you try to instruct them. The other day I broughy my car to some service center, just cause I wanted the tranny and diff. fluid changed and I don't have a lift. Easy enough job, any mechanic can do it right? Wrong. I brought Redline fluid for them to put in, and I even labeled each bottle. Well, I sat there and watched the guy work on it, and he gave me a shitty look when he noticed the bottles were labeled, like "**** you im not an idiot". So I watch him, and notice that he starts to put the MT-90 in the differential, when I even wrote "TRANSMISSION" on the ******* bottle in big black marker. So I said something to him, and he kind of realized what he was doing, and then wouldn't give me any sort of look the rest of the time.


Other than that, most of them will not listen to instructions whatsoever. I've told guys not to start the car, and shut it right off cause it could flood. well of course they can't listen to those instructions. Two separate times I've had to unflood my car in the middle of someone's shop, because they couldnt ******* listen to me.

So now I just stick to this one guy, if its something that I can't take care of myself. I like doing my own work, I just don't have a lift, and my driveway is gravel, and I just dont like doing big jobs underneat my car. I've heard way too many stories about cars falling on people. So unless I get a lift of some sort, its the shop for me.

 

yea...it really sucks when people don't do quality work. Anything that you do, you should do your best, because your work and your actions represent who you are as a person. When I have guys giving me attitude because they think they're the master mechanic, and then they still do the job wrong; it just shows their ignorance. I take pride in doing all the work on my car and the fact that everything on my car works. I guess the old saying really does hold "If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself". I think my school (University of Texas Austin) has a machine shop I can use once I'm machine shop certified.

 

2ndGen.Rocket said it, right there -

If you take your 7 to some shop that you wouldn't normally go to, WATCH THEM DO THE WORK.

If you can't stay to watch them, don't take the car there.

 

take it to a rotary mechanic who knows these cars. Someone in the regional forum on the website and/or your local rx7 chapter can tell you who will do a good job.

 

That really sucks. If anything u can take your reciept with u and tell the manger in austin what happen. Get your money back. Get the money back for the elimantor and make them do it over or take it some where else.

 

i only take my car to a rotary mechanic.

 

that sucks man...I'd think you could somehow get your money back..good luck!

 

This does not help you now, but you may have been able to rent a large vise and press them out that way. I ordered the racing beat toe eliminator bushings and I press them out with old piping and exhaudt tubing. Once the olds were out use the same piping to press (vise) the new ones in. Mine went in without a problem. That was once I got the hub off the axle. That was the tuff part. Mine was stuck, I had to pull the shaft from the LSD. Al well it worked.

 

If you put the new bushings in the freezer overnight they will be a little easier to pound in. Mine went in with just a rubber mallet. The old ones come out easy with a normal shop vise. I haven't run into a bushing I couldn't get out on my own yet! Although some of them I wished I had taken to a shop after finishing it.

 

Well, I went to Pep Boys in this weekend for some coolant. I picked up the normal 1 gallon bottle of Prestone. I also was going to pick up a 1 gallon bottle of distilled water (meant for mixing w/ coolant). I couldn't find it. So I went to the cashier and asked where it was.

The cashier told me that the coolant bottle I had in my hand didn't need to be "mixed" and it was ready out of the bottle. EVEN THOUGH, clear as day, the instructions on the back say to mix a maximum of 70% coolant.

I just bought my coolant and left.

 

they do sell coolant now that is premixed. Why anyone would buy it other than an emergency is beyond me. It is the same price as pure coolant but it only has half the amount.

 

I know that. But I bought pure coolant. And they told me that it was ready despite what the label said.