Right to Fix

[dolluper]

Hi Guy's For those who are unaware of this,here's the scoop
Auto manufactures want only their dealers to repair the product they produce by making information on the repairs {engine spec's,etc} only available to their Dealers.It has been addressed in the USA for some time,Canada has objected more strongly to this happening.When you see vehicles coming out with covers that have to be removed to work on components was the first step {special fasteners}also making it harder for the average Joe or average Joe garage What do you think about this ,is it fair to let Auto Manufactures to monopolise the repair of their product???? In my opinion it's the first step other Manufactures may do the same

 

[tommays]

Re: Right to Fix

What can you do on a modern engine other than sparkplugs and fluid changes


It is risky to even fool around with the air filter houseing with that crazy EPA inside



Tommays

 

[Turin]

Re: Right to Fix

Other car brands do the same Toyota does this already for years.
You need special tools to fix certain things.
Mostly the tools are the same price as letting it be fixed in a garage.
What do you think of the stupid computers who are in cars these days need special computer to read out problems.
I once helped an old lady standing next to the road a light was flashing, It indecated that the car needed a service.
The old lady was afraid that th car would damage driving any futher.
you cant turn it of youre self eave the garage round the corner couldent turn it off.
She needed to o to a brand garage.(stupid light)

 

[dolluper]

Re: Right to Fix

Yea new hemi plug change, at the dealer 350 plus bones but it does have 16 plugs

 

[Vlad D Impeller]

Re: Right to Fix

What can you do on a modern engine other than sparkplugs and fluid changes


It is risky to even fool around with the air filter houseing with that crazy EPA inside



Tommays

Yep! Thats about right, the average joe is almost out of the loop when it comes to servicing his vehicle.

 

[RPJS]

Re: Right to Fix

There was a court case here in the UK a year or so ago, from what I remember a motoring group (the RAC I think) took the car manufacturers to court over thier rule that they would only honner the warranty if the car was serviced by main dealer garages. The courts upheld the case and you can now have anyone service your car.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Right to Fix

From what I remember the Japanese started the ball roling on this with their 2 stroke motorcycles. Then the sudden import of Datsun's to the country and it has been downhill world wide since then. We all have to question ourselves as well with the vehicles that we purchase. I have just returned from a business trip to Japan and did not see one North American built vehicle anywhere. 99.9% of vehicles that I did see where Japanese built. Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi etc. I saw one Jaguar and a few Mercedes.
In South Korea last year the same thing. 99.9% Hyundai and Kia.
The throw away units that are fitted to modern vehicles do make manufacturing them cheaper to begin with and puts more money into their pockets after the warranty is up.
Maybe the North American and European car market would be a lot better off if we ALL drove home company owned and built vehicles.
What do you all drive.
I have a Pontiac Grand Prix (05) built in Canada and a Windstar (00) built in Canada.
How about everyone else ???

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Right to Fix

Manuals are misleading too. I was ignorant on bleeding a cooling system on a 97 Intrepid. You'd think that would be in the Cooling section,,,,,,noooooo, they had it in the operations part in front of the book. If it wasn't for a member of iboats, I'd never found it. That ordeal cost me $550 because of my own ignorance for not reading the whole friggen manual.

I ended up doing a valve/head job on it. Thought it had a blown gasket. Nope, nothing wrong,,,,,,just didn't bleed the cooling system right. There was one part in the manual about needing a special lock down tool to keep the twim cams in alignment. All the experts said you had to have these things. The dealer wanted $250 for them. I took pics of the thing before taking it apart. I noticed notches and marks and made my own. Put it back together and it was fine. That was about 2 years ago. The car is still on the road and the couple hasn't had any problems with it.

I do think that anyone should be able to service a vehicle of any make with complete tech manuals and tools available at a reasonable price. Of course warranty work would still be done by the dealer.

 

[Nova II 260]

Re: Right to Fix

I was told that in the 20's and 30's Rolls Royce had locks on their hoods. Only factory trained mechanics had the keys. So, the concept is not new.

 

[rolmops]

Re: Right to Fix

Yeh ,there is that problem.But we get around it.Whenever there is a check engine light,you can just go to a car parts store and they come out with a little hand held computer and tell you what is wrong.So that eliminates the usual rip off that a garage would try to fix you up with.
I bought my wife a Kia with 100000 mile or ten years bumper to bumper guarantee,so they can worry about it.
For myself,I have what I like to think is the perfect pickup with a roof over the truck bed (A Grand Caravan).It hauls my boat and I can and do fix everything on it (all the time).

 

[snapperbait]

Re: Right to Fix

I'll drive my 89' C1500 forever..... If something happens to it, i'll get another one just like it...

Certified 88-94 Chevy/GMC parts, pack-rat....

 

[aspeck]

Re: Right to Fix

62 Cutlass F-85, 76 Pontiac Trans Am (50th Anniversary addition ), 91 Pontiac Bonneville, and 2000 Yukon Denali. The 62 and 76 are easy to work on, the 91, not too bad, the 2000, now that gets a little more complicated. Hate to think of ever having to get a newer vehicle.

 

[JB]

Re: Right to Fix

Modern cars are too sophisticated to trust anyone not specifically trained to service them.

Much of my career was spent running or doing corporate technical training and writing service literature for high tech products. Believe me, there are a lot of ways for experienced old timers to service modern vehicles wrong, including voiding warranties.

Expensive example: My son thought he would save a few bux by taking his Mercedes ML to his old buddy who had been servicing his 80s E class and claimed to be a Mercedes specialist. The guy put an aftermarket oiled air filter on it. . . .destroyed the mass air sensor ($1200). . .and poured petro oil into the crankcase. . .voided the warranty and required flush of lube system before reloading with the required synthetic (Mobil 1). Don't remember what that part cost and no troubles occurred that would have been covered by the warranty, but it was a severe lesson.

Only wrenches and techs certified to service his CL500 even get to look under the hood.

If you car moter fixer is certified by the manufacturer to service your vehicle take it to him. Otherwise see if you can buy insurance to cover wrench damage.

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: Right to Fix

Ok, I guess....

 

[bassboy1]

Re: Right to Fix

I'll drive my 89' C1500 forever..... If something happens to it, i'll get another one just like it...

Certified 88-94 Chevy/GMC parts, pack-rat....

Yeah, we got the '89 C2500. Basic no nonsense, overly abused workhorse that still makes since when fixing it. Dad bought it new in '89, and has put somewhere between 390,000 and 410,000 miles. (odometer stopped at 280 thousand, about 7 years ago)
Although, some of the japanese cars had little locks built into theirs. It is called confusing the worker to the point of towing it to the dealer. We are parting out an '85 MR2, and some of the stuff on here is just plain stupid.
I won't even get started on the new foreign cars. Dad is the manager of a foreign car repair shop, and the stuff in those is rediculous. They pay no heed to ease of repair. He used to be a mechanic when he was younger, and some of the tools he had to have for these cars are insane. 400 dollar tool that does one little thing.

 

[ZmOz]

Re: Right to Fix

I'll drive my 89' C1500 forever..... If something happens to it, i'll get another one just like it...

Certified 88-94 Chevy/GMC parts, pack-rat....

Yeah...I have five 73-79 Chevy pickups, and enough parts that I had to rent a barn to keep it all in. I can nearly disassemble the entire thing with a 9/16" wrench...and I could smuggle mexicans over the border under the hood even with a 454 installed.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Right to Fix

So thats where you keep your "stash".

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Right to Fix

Those special fasteners the auto makers use now prevent those who dont know what they are doing from messing it up further. Most can be easily defeated with a little know how... and a hammer.

The best suggestion is to surf the net before undertaking any task. So many others have similar problems, and many times will walk you through the fix.

Boats have the same thing. Ignition boxes could be designed to be rebuilt, but they would rather sell you a new "magic" box for 200 dollars. Most of the time, it isnt rocket science, just parts that add up to mabey 5 dollars.

Ken

 

[SuperNova]

Re: Right to Fix

That's WHY they don't want you in there, Ken. 'Cause then you'll see exactly how badly you're getting ripped off. Easier to sell you a $200 box then have you spend $1.50 at Radio Shack. Course being in the business and having opened some of these boxes up I can tell you these days its more Silicon Valley than Radio Shack in there. And you guys haven't even talke about some of the cars just needing a software upgrade to fix them. Did you know 60% of the driveability repairs today are no more than software version upgrades and patches? That's right I plug your car into the internet and download new software into it. That's the simplified version, but basically correct.
--
Stan