My latest adventure, or my $3000 hamburger run, or new ways your engine can fail you.

[FloridaMan]

I own a car repair shop, have for over 31 years. My policy is: I charge for the correct repair at the price is would have been if I was perfect. The other day a customer brought in his daughters new to her 185000 mile Xterra. The lifters were very noisy. Customer ask for and got the lifters replaced. Noise was still there. With the rocker assembly off prior to reassembly I had my mechanic crank over the engine so I could see oil come out of the passagway on both heads. Second time apart no oil to where I saw it before. Pulled the heads and found the oil port to the left head plugged with carbon. (CHANGE YOUR OIL) I used a small dril in my fingers to open up the hole then flushed back and forth between both banks before reassembling the vehicle. Lifters paid 5 hours head gaskets paid 12 hours plus some time to clean out ports. Customer paid 13 hours, the lifter labor was fogiven. To charge for "learning" is THEFT dont pay it, that only encourages stupidity.

My story I always tell is about when I got stuck in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee at 0A3 with a bad magneto on a Saturday. The local A&P who came to the rescue, a gentleman by the name of Burton Mason took excellent care of the airplane and the repair. I know he spent more time on it than he billed me for as he started with the plugs, checked the gap, tested the magneto coil as good, but was still suspicious. He also verified the wiring of the Slickstart system. When it was all said and done, if I remember correctly, he only billed me for fewer than six hours of labor, at a *very* reasonable rate -- cheaper than most auto shops. Considering what he did for diagnosis, starting and the plugs and working his way back, verifying the wiring of the Slickstart system, which included a few phone calls, and repairing the magneto there is no way he only spent that much time on the repair.

[DaV8or]

Has the originator of this post (DaV8or() every thought about writing as a career?

Maybe if I could type faster than 10 words a minute! My wife will get a kick out of your suggestion. Thanks for the compliment!

[Lionudakis]

That ridiculous they charged you that much, and the amount of time it took to find it. Great write up though !

[N601RX]

Most people would be surprised at the small stuff they would find in the bottom of their fuel tanks. I know I was. As for as the fuel flow transducer, Jim was correct. Its a tapered pipe thread and JPI very specifically says use a steel fitting with no sealant. An aluminum fitting will gall before it gets tight.

[DaV8or]

That ridiculous they charged you that much, and the amount of time it took to find it. Great write up though !

I haven't seen much in GA that isn't ridiculous! In all fairness to the shop, it's easy to come to a quick diagnosis when you already know the answer. You see, they did try to do that. Mechanics of all kinds, including amateurs like myself, work from experience. Go with what you know and have seen before first.

In probably 80% of cases (uh oh. watch out, an internet generated statistic!) with symptoms like mine, the problem is going to be ignition. That's what they've seen before and so that's where they went. Next, they've seen clogged injectors before, so they checked that next. After that, they had also seen sticky valves, it's not uncommon on our engines.

What they had never seen before, was a partially clogged flow divider that was only clogged on one cylinder. It would have been nice to have done the baby bottle thing earlier, but like I said, they had never seen this before, or so I was told. After that, I totally agreed with them on the decision to remove the flow divider, the injectors and the fuel servo for servicing. Unfortunately, the fuel servo is a bitch to get out and put back because it means (once again ) removing the lower cowl.

I also agree with the replacement of the hose after it was found that the fuel servo was clean. So, all in all, I was expecting a bill approaching this level, but I too thought perhaps 30 hours was a bit much, but wadda ya gunna doo? If I wanted to fly my plane home that day, you pay the man. Because I was picking up my plane on Sunday, the only day my wife would drive me up there, they were officially closed and the guy I was dealing with was not the man who makes the decisions, or the invoices.

I wasn't going to argue with a lackey. Besides, what's there to argue about? It's a classic he said, she said scenario. I say 30 hours is too much and they say oh, well, we actually spent more than that, blah, blah, blah. Had the owner been there in person, I might have been able to get a little discount, but he wasn't and I wanted my plane.

Moral of the story is, don't break down anywhere but your preferred mechanic's field.