Hello from Southern California

[DjSarah]

Hi, my names Sarah and I have a 2012 Dodge Journey Crew awd that I bought used back in 2014 because we needed a mom mobile to fit all the kids. I started driving for Uber and Lyft in October 2017 and I get so many compliments about how clean and comfortable it is and how smooth it rides. I really do love my car but we've really packed on the miles, and while I thought I was doing a good job keeping up with the preventative maintenance, my engine was no match for the blazing hot heat wave we had a few weeks ago. So here I am doing some research trying to find advice on what to look for when choosing a mechanic I can trust with my baby to get us up and running and get her back on the road. 

Edited August 25, 2018 by DjSarah

[2late4u]

whoever you trust....

[jkeaton]

I would ask some local people you know that use garages to perform their maintenance. That being said, you can’t go wrong using the dealer. 

[Armando G]

What happened to the engine? Are we talking a Jiffy Lube type of recommendation, or a full on machine shop to rebuild the engine? Southern CA has a ton of mechanic shops, and depending on which part of SoCal you're in, there may be different suggestions. Depending on what type of work needed, a dealership for a newer car may be the recommendation.

[DjSarah]

I did take it to the dealer. But first I called my cousins husband. Hes a diesel mechanic by day, I’d ask him to work on my car but he rarely gets any time off so all I do is ask him for his opinion instead. He brought over his little diagnostic scanner and gave me the codes the car gave him so I could have an idea of what the dealer would tell me the next day. They said they wanted to tear down the whole engine just to be able to diagnose the problem and quoted me at 2k just to do that. And once they found the problem, they’d obviously need to charge for the repairs on top of the 2k they charge just to get in there. Then they said that if it came down to it, they’d just have to replace the whole engine which would then run me just over 8k. I don’t have even close to that kind of money to fix my car. 

I dont know what what it is about people and their mechanics but they hear you have car troubles and suddenly everyone wants to send you to their guy and they insist he’s the best at what he does. “The dealer wanted to charge how much? No way, that’s too much, my guy would do it for a fraction of that, he fixes all my cars, he’s great, go here!”

So I took my uncles suggestion because (like I said) he insists he does great work and he’s reasonably priced and plus his guy is about 3 miles away from the dealership. So I get there and I tell him what the dealer said and what’s been going on with my car and he says “yeah that sounds about right. What happened is you probably cracked your engine block when you overheated, whoever you took it to just replaced the fan and didn’t fix the actual problem and it’s just gotten worse as you continued driving. I’d have to tear it down to see. It is an expensive job but the good thing is, I’m not going to charge you as much as the dealer.” 

So his quote, was $1000 to start and worst case scenario, replacing the engine at $3500. Half as much as what the dealer was saying.  So I told him I had to go home and figure out some financials and I’d get back to him. I’m terrified to drive my car at this point because omg, a cracked engine block? what does that even mean? How far would my car make it before it blew up and left me stranded helpless on the side of the road? 

So I called an Uber, got home and called my cousins husband. He tells me that what I need to do is take it to a different mechanic and tell them nothing other than “my check engine light is on” he tells me “let them tell you what they want to do to fix it.” He said my problem is that I talk too much and they figure they can just charge me for what I was assuming the issue was and then tack on the actual repairs on top of that because obviously I know zip about what’s really going on with the engine. Plus he said he feels that my uncles guy does charge my uncle for a lot of unnecessary work. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good mechanic, he’ll do a good job if you have him fix it but he does take advantage of your uncle and insists on a lot of unnecessary work to drive up the cost of repairs” 

 

Sooo anyway, my boyfriend tells me to take it to his guy. My boyfriend has already told him whats been going on and he’s telling my boyfriend that doesn’t sound right, “have her bring it in and I’ll take a look at it. It might just need a new coil or a valve or something but you shouldn’t need to tear down the whole engine” so its been at my uncles shop sitting for almost a week now. I got there and told him I didn’t have the money to fix it right now so I was just going to take it home and he says “yeah like I said, it might be that the engines cracked which isn’t likely because Dodge engines don’t crack, but you just got to get in there to make sure.” (What?!)  So I drive out of there and start the 8 mile journey to my boyfriends mechanics shop. The check engine light is no longer on, it makes it all the way there with no problems. It did a little bit of a hiccup and a rumble as we got about a mile from our destination but other than that, nothing. He tells me to give him about an hour and he’ll take a look at it. He calls me about 30 minutes later like “I don’t see what’s wrong with your car, it’s running fine right now.” So I start telling him everything that’s been going on and everything everyone’s been telling me, and what they’ve said it could be because I can’t help but spill my guts ( ^ obviously right? lol) and he says “well I just drove it around for about 5 miles and it seems to be fine right now so I can’t really begin to fix it if it’s not showing that it needs fixing. So go ahead and drive it and bring it back here as soon as it acts up again and we’ll test it right there.” He seemed really honest and his yelp reviews all say he’s really trustworthy and good at what he does. So here I am 3 days into a new job and I’ve been driving back and forth 10 miles each way with little grocery store trips and errands around town with no acting up from my engine,  so I’ve just been trying to baby it. Trying to not drive during the hottest hours of the day, parking on the street instead of pulling up or backing into my super steep driveway, not punching the gas or braking as hard as I used to. I know there’s still something wrong with it, I’m just hoping it will give me at least a little time to put something away to pay for it when it does decide to act up again. 

 

 

[jkeaton]

Cool story, but what is actually wrong with the vehicle? What codes did you get? 

[DjSarah]

P0300 generic random multiple cylinder misfire detected

 

P0132 02 sensor circuit high voltage bank 1 sensor 1

 

but since the check engine lights gone off now, the same codes not coming back up again so I dunno

 

 

Edited September 2, 2018 by DjSarah