Local Mechanic Attitude Problems

[Sturgn686]

About a week and a half ago I bought a 91' Festiva GL with 109k for my wife. Very dirty but mechanically very sound with very little minor rust. (Pictures Coming Soon) Passed inspection with no problem. I have taken the car to two seperate mechanics here in town to perform the following maintenance:

1) Oil, oil filter, oil pan gasket (leaky)
2) Transmission fluid, transmission fluid filter, transmission pan gasket
3) Timing belt, timing belt tensioner, timing belt cover seal
4) Water pump, thermostat
5) Free up/lubricate sticking parking brake cable.

Nothing overly complicated right???

I am having these done to establish a baseline for scheduling of future preventative maintenance items and to provide my wife with a vehicle that is as reliable as possible. I am more than capable of doing these myself but I have a gravel driveway and no garage and just don't feel like doing it my self.

When I took the car to the two mechanics and stated what I wanted done they each looked at me like I had just asked them to strip naked so I could rub them down from head to toe with cow manure!!!!!!!! The second one agreed to take it, grumpily I might add, but after 2 days he hadn't even looked at it yet and when I asked him about it he got angry. So, I brought it back home and will do the work myself on Saturday. (wtf!!!)When my wife had her 93 Festiva L we had the same issues with getting work done on it.

My question to all of you is, why do mechanics hate these little cars so much??? The mechanics in question were going to be paid so why would they care??? I just don't get it. :-? Any and all input is welcomed.

Rich Johnson
'Befuddled'
Wells, Maine

[nonamekid]

Alot of mechanics are old school and they hate everything that is front wheel drive. Alot of it is Ford and Chevy's fault for making everything so difficult to get too on their front wheel drive vehicles. Sometimes I think they assumed nothing would ever fail on their cars and put them together that way.

[Pu241]

My opinion only!
Because they don't know how to do half of what you want done on this car!
For example a sticking parking brake.
You may or may not know it is likely frozen or badly corroded self adjuster(s).
But would they know that this is a weak point in our cars system, they're likely to start at the other end and still not get it right!
But instead of learning how these cars are put together and potentially gain business due to their skill they just complain and do nothing.
Thus losing a potential customer.
What are the chances of you going back there for anything, even your other cars?
Do it yourself and know it was done right!
A couple of sheets of cardboard, like from a refrig or washer and dryer, and you'll have no issue with your gravel drive way!

[collegeboi]

Same problems i had with my escort. The mechanics smirk and a lil giggle.

Now with my Festiva, i cant imagine the looks ill get even to do an alignment.

I have made mistakes with my Festiva while working on it but least I get to know my car better and learn how do things myself.

[rancheeto]

alot of people just dont understand why you would put money into a festiva. there loss though. most things arent that hard to do, and they are really reliable and economical cars.

[billthekat]

as someone who has been working on cars profesionally for 5 years i can tell you that most mechanics are stupid.....i am not trying to sound mean or degrading, but it's sadly true. i dont know it all, and robably never will, as i have had to ask several questions regarding interchangeability between 1.3 and 1.6 motors..
guess where i am trying to go with this is that i have noticed that no matter what kind of car or truck it is if the person working on it dosent like it it will always be a POS in the eyes of him/her. likewise if the mechanic happens to also be into festivas and own three himself it could be the biggest turd in the parkinglot and he would still pick that to work on instead of the 2 year old chevy jerkmeoff whatchamacallit sitting next to it.....


and yes, wherever i have worked i have always done all the festys,, from oil changes to tuneups, to timing belst and gass tanks......the nice part is wen my car breaks i usually know how to fix it....heck, i can have a festy stick trans out and apart in about 2 hours...serously...


so i am sorry your experiance sucked, but if your ever broke down by me give a shout.....

also what did the mehanic in question drive? was it a chevy truck? or a camaro?
maby a mustang? or malibue? probably something that gets 1/4 the gass milage with comparable performance numbers.......he was just jelous....

[MONSOON]

Unfortunately youre going to run into those type of buttheads now and again. Why they would want to not only lose business now but any potential future business is beyond me. Because you are going to do what youre doing now and spread the word to your freinds. Thus they lose even more business.

I like the fact that you beat us to the punch about the pics BTW.

[Sturgn686]

Thanks for all the input, it's greatly appreciated. I guess I will just never understand this type of behavior as it makes no sense for a business owner to toss a potentially loyal customer out the window unless Fort Knox has shipped a pallet full of gold bars to his house. Anyway, I will be doing the work myself this weekend and have another question. I've been looking at the timing belt cover and it looks like there may be enough room to do the job without having to disassemble anything else or change the engine/transaxle position to get at it. I strongly suspect I'm wrong about this. Can anybody lay out the basic procedure for this job?

Thanks,

Rich Johnson
Wells, ME

[Icedawg]

You will probably have to undo the passenger side engine mount to lower it enough to get a good grip on the crank pulley bolt. Unless you have a really nice long thin wrench.

[Bathtub Tom]

You will probably have to undo the passenger side engine mount to lower it enough to get a good grip on the crank pulley bolt. Unless you have a really nice long thin wrench.

I had to undo everything but the exhaust to get the engine loose enough so I could push it down until I could reach the crank nut (made it 'interesting' when I spun it on the starter to loosen the damn nut).

I found the cam belt had been replaced anyway..........sigh!

[miami man]

my mechanic says bring it down because it is money for him.

[jglutz]

I don't think the Mechanic hates the fetsiva...I Think he hates being taken out of his comfort zone. You telling hime what you want done...BNot him telling you what he did.

And...for any one who thinks the mechanic is affraid of the Festiva or it's layout....the heck with them....I cann't think of any simpler car to do internal service to.

Anyone who would rather work on older technology is not a good mechanic....then or now. The combination of durability and simplicity in cars today as compared to pre-FI is a no brainer. Anyone who says they are difficult are just admitting they don't feel like learning. Good mechanics are good problem solvers and good problem solvers are good learners.

I have worked on cars from many era's. Pre FI...the GM 350CID was one one of...if not...the most popular performance engines. Any one here ever try to set the points, timming or dwell on one.......Rant off.

[miami man]

the above thread id correct about the old school thing. have you ever tried to set points or intall them on a slant 6 dodge? bad one time i droped a screw into the distributer and had to take the distributer to get it out. how about droping an object down into the carb?

[miami man]

i recently had to retrain myself on the new stuff because i was way out of date on repairing cars. like i came out ouf automotive school in 1980.

[worfdog]

those slant six chrysler points are a pain, i know what you mean.