I Know my Car, and I was Right!

Another followup to the last video in regards to the parking brake work I had done. Sometimes you just know your things!

[@isaac24]

That's so good. As someone who goes to an automotive school, I can tell you with 100% certainty, any time I am working on a customer's car, the FIRST thing I do is verify the customer complaint. For example, if I get a repair order that says something like, the left headlight isn't working, bulb needs to be replaced. The first thing I'm doing is checking to see indeed yes only the right one comes on. Then the next step is putting a different bulb in the left assembly, and 98%, it's back in business. Say I got the same complaint, but automatically assumed there was a major electrical issue in the switch, so I went and replaced all of the lighting wiring and assembly. It just doesn't make sense. Also, your car has pretty low mileage for how old it is! I'm impressed. My car's a year older and has 223k miles.

[@jaykay18]

Just like how SURE the guy was that the capacitor on my central A/C was the problem. The problem here is sometimes the customer really DOESN'T know, but thinks they do. Or, when I was at Tiny Middle, I'd often hear about their son/husband/uncle/cousin that KNOWS about computers and says it's this. I think that was actually true ONE time out of many. I never had a customer try and second guess me, and out of over 10,000 repairs, only had a small handful come back for a rework. In this case, yes, you know what's going on, and why it's happening. I'm sure with a shop and a lift, and some more hands-on experience, you could have changed it yourself. But proper diagnosis is KEY to solving the problem, without that, you're left going down the wrong path, and eventually will have to double back, often with time and extra money wasted. That's likely why they didn't charge for the cable.

[@Sharkie626]

Indeed, the "certainty" can definitely go both ways. For my case though this was something I was told a while back, so I did already have that, AND the calipers were replaced once before between then and before I had all this done, though admittedly I did not tell them that part. Yeah that sounds about right. When he had called me to say the cable snapped, I definitely had a "bummed" tone in my voice but I still kept it very civil and respectful. While I was rather annoyed about it, I know they didn't break the cable on purpose.

[@michaelcaron2882]

I am very happy for you that they replaced your parking brake cable.

[@niks_crazy_world]

I had a similar experience with my new car a few months back. I had just gotten my new car (a Honda CR-V of the 2016 vintage), and a few weeks into owning it, the tire pressure light came on. I stopped, checked the pressure with the little gauge I keep in the glovebox, nope, everything is at an acceptable PSI. However, the front left tire and rim are both really warm, and it smells like something’s burning. I drove it back home, and the next morning, drove it to the repair shop on Main Street. It’s a Mom & Pop place, been around as long as I’ve lived here. He takes it for the day and I walked down to work, about half an hour later he calls and says “your parking brake wasn’t disengaged all the way. I took care of that for you”, and I picked it up after work. Drove it home, nope. Still hot and burning. So the next day, I dropped it off at another repair place just outside of town. This guy had worked on my last car for years, and I knew he was a very honest and thorough mechanic. I left it there, walked into work (hooray for small towns), and he has it for most of the day. He said I had a caliper malfunctioning on the front left tire, and it was burning up as I drove. He ordered a part, I got a ride home, and drove the old car for a few days until the new one was fixed. The hot temperature and burning smell were gone. Now here’s where it gets funny. I told Mr. Mom & Pop that I suspected it was a caliper, as a similar failure occurred on the old car. He waved it off and thought it was the parking brake. While it could’ve partially been the parking brake’s fault, he still should’ve been able to see the issue with the caliper! It really goes to show that, between having the same issue on my last car, and knowing a thing or two about the new one, I managed to outsmart the mechanic, but more importantly, was able to diagnose an issue with my car **without the repair bill!**

[@Sharkie626]

Amazing how that happens isn't it? Not only that, aren't most parking brakes set to the rear brakes? So that's like not even in the same area! At least ya found a place that was nice and honest for you!

[@dynatrak]

Very good that issue is resolved!

[@Sharkie626]

Definitely! And all in all, they did the right thing.

[@dynatrak]

@@Sharkie626 That's great! How about the highway misfire issue?

[@Sharkie626]

@@dynatrak Oddly enough it seems to have gone away for now. I've done 6 highway drivings in recent weeks (covering at different places for work) and the light never came on once. Hopefully it stays off now.