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What is her obsession with paying top dollar to maintain a 24-year-old car?!
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The Honda dealerships have high reviews, but Big Two is rated 3.9 stars.
In February she messaged me “Cobra Tires in Gilbert said the rear main seal is 8 hours, so around $1,100.”
She hadn’t talked to them lately. I asked her to call again, they quoted $1,400, and she said “Hold my sign.”
She also wrote dealerships “usually have specials to bring their prices down to about what Cobra or Goodyear charge, but then you have Honda techs working on the car.”
Ideally you would want specialists working on your car, but both dealerships that have looked at the 24-year-old car have tried to rob us.
Unfortunately, so did Cobra Tire, which is why I always try to do my own repairs.
I couldn’t find a repair estimator that did rear main seals, but MyCarSpecs said that YourMechanic and Napa gave estimates between $700 and $1,600.
As far as I know, I looked at the coupon page for every dealership in the state. Some had coupons for one or maybe two things on her list and Bell and Superstition have 15% off coupons, but I feel like you need to get a quote, verify they honor their own coupon, and then get a quote in writing with the coupon so they don’t raise the price 20%.
She didn’t mention any specials recently, so that was just an excuse to pay extra?!
Have I mentioned that a friend noticed my brother didn't wash his hands after going to the bathroom 4 years ago? Even when we make him go wash his hands and give step-by-step instructions as necessary with a special timer for kids he does a terrible job, so I have been getting up and supervising him personally.
Well, he got up at 0330 and asked to go to the bathroom. I hadn't been able to sleep yet, so I was making my brother wash his hands in the middle of the night, and then I slept in.
When I woke up I had a text from my sister saying "Cobra Tire cleaned up the oil/dye. Added more oil/dye, drove it, rechecked and there was dye `everywhere.' They recommend an `entire motor reseal.' They are working up the estimate now."
Every time she talks to a mechanic I have more questions about this car which isn't supposed to be my problem anymore, and half the time she is as useless as my employer's office, just saying "They didn't say."
I can understand a bad employee not caring how much money the company makes, but my sister wants to sell her 2019 Odyssey to pay bills and drive this car, so I don't see how she can afford to waste hundreds or thousands of dollars.
I tried to do some research, talked to two mechanics on JustAnswer, and tried to research what they told me.
I wrote out a full message, but figured that I would regret it. She would have too many questions and still not understand, so I just wrote:
"Please only authorize the rear main and to say the other seals and gaskets are under warranty."
"Where were they replaced?"
"Mom's driveway in July."
"Oh."
"If I need to replace them again I will, but if the rear main seal is leaking you wouldn't be able to tell if the oil pan gasket is leaking because oil from the rear main seal would get all over the oil pan."
"He said the oil pan was leaking too."
"I talked to two mechanics who said that a full reseal would be the valve cover gasket, the oil pan gasket, the rear main seal, and one said the VTEC gasket. I will replace any and all gaskets and seals once the rear main is fixed."
She sent an emojo.
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"They weren't like that before you worked on my vehicle! Fix it!
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I don't have any idea what I wanted to write about that, just that we continue to have negative experiences with dealerships [and mechanics in general].