service enging soon light on. Dealer states that..

[blktoptrvl]

I know this is not what you want to hear... But I would take a man who knows something about cars with you the next time you go to the dealer. It is not that you are not capable and "need a man"; but it is a fact that mechanics will take advantage of a woman every chance they get.

As an example:

I have a friend who took her car to a shop where they told her some garbage and convinced her to have the valve cover replaced. For the next week she was constantly putting new oil into he car to replace the oil escaping from the badly installed valve cover gasket.

When she complained to them that this was a problem that they caused, and that they need to fix it at their cost, they kept coming up with excuses and reasons that she needed to pay more to fix "new problems."

She asked me about it and I told her I would go back to the shop with her.

When we arrived, she parked and I said a few words to her in the lot. As I walked toward the door of the shop, the mechanic came out to meet me and without me saying anything he said; "Sir, we know there is a problem and I think your wife misunderstood us. We are going to take care of the problem now, and it should only take a few minutes."

Many mechanics are misogynistic theives and think they can say and do anything to women.

[carlgo]

Originally Posted by blktoptrvl

I know this is not what you want to hear... But I would take a man who knows something about cars with you the next time you go to the dealer. It is not that you are not capable and "need a man"; but it is a fact that mechanics will take advantage of a woman every chance they get.

As an example:

I have a friend who took her car to a shop where they told her some garbage and convinced her to have the valve cover replaced. For the next week she was constantly putting new oil into he car to replace the oil escaping from the badly installed valve cover gasket.

When she complained to them that this was a problem that they caused, and that they need to fix it at their cost, they kept coming up with excuses and reasons that she needed to pay more to fix "new problems."

She asked me about it and I told her I would go back to the shop with her.

When we arrived, she parked and I said a few words to her in the lot. As I walked toward the door of the shop, the mechanic came out to meet me and without me saying anything he said; "Sir, we know there is a problem and I think your wife misunderstood us. We are going to take care of the problem now, and it should only take a few minutes."

Many mechanics are misogynistic theives and think they can say and do anything to women.

As one who spent years on the other side of the desk, I can tell you most men know nothing about cars! I actually think it would be easier to steal from men. Who buys all those bogus performance and mileage devices, magic additives, bee fart exhausts, etc. Not women.

I was continually turning down stupid repair requests by men who had no clue. Some of them got pretty mad.

The most difficult customers were women who assumed we were ripping them off. They would make the most wild accusations and it was really hard to turn it around. Much of the time it was because guys that wanted to impress them, and more, were giving them terrible advice.

Thieves are equal opportunity. If they only stole from women, their illicit incomes would be cut in half.

[sarnomel99]

Thank you so much. You have been very helpful and I will do that and post what I find out. Have a great weekend.

[lo_jack]

If you can get the car diagnostic port (trapezoid thing under the steering wheel) scanned by someone with an OBDII scanner (just ask for that, you don't need to know what it is) you can figure out what the car is telling you without getting held hostage at the dealer. I bought one off ebay for $300 and it has saved me untold fortunes. My car never goes to a dealer. Even if you have to have someone else do the work, you can at least know what you are taking it to them to have done.

Even if you get rid of that car, a new OBDII scanner should work with every car built after about 1996, since it is mandated by law that every car sold in the US have an OBDII port for emissions testing, so you can use that same scanner on nearly any concievable car you could buy in the near future to diagnose problems.

If the car is running but the check engine light is on, that is what I would do. The way people get tricked out of money is by not knowing what is wrong in the first place, it seems to me.

Good luck.