Automotive - Helplessly
| With the resources of a normal workshop, this fault could have been diagnosed in 10 minutes . . .
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Yes, you could say that: some drivers often feel helpless and at the mercy of a repair shop. And unfortunately, we cannot exclude independent repair shops here. And to ensure that this doesn't become a theoretical
event, let's dive right into the practical side of things.
Let's assume that your car is getting on in years, but has by no means reached the average age limit in Germany of 12 years. The 100,000 km mark has long been exceeded, and now the engine is suddenly
malfunctioning.
The workshop takes it for a test drive and confirms the fault. If you are fortunate, no extensive work has been carried out without your approval. But what good is that to you? After all, you don't want to take the car home with
the fault still present.
You will notice time and again that the entire process has something compulsive about it that you cannot escape. We don't need to describe 'bucking' in detail either. This could be higher
oil consumption, poor performance, or a problem with the exhaust. Often it is just a warning light that refuses to go out.
It happens as it should, the workshop gets to work. We will now assume the damage shown above and see how the repair shop deals with it. Your car has probably been driven too much on short trips in winter, and
gasoline has gotten into the oil. Oil changes should have been carried out more frequently; the lubrication has partially failed.
However, the workshop does not know this at this point in time. She starts dismantling for an hourly wage of between €100 and €200. At some point, one has the engine block with crankshaft in hands. Why one did not
leave the engine in the vehicle for inspection is unknown.
There is hardly any work more enjoyable for a mechanic than disassembly. You take your time looking at all the different parts and assess their condition. If you don't have much expertise, you tend to be very critical and
reject a lot of parts. If you have more expertise, you can be a little more lenient.
You are not obligated to do anything. Here, mistakes are not punished, as they are, for example, during assembly. You just have to make sure that you assign the parts correctly. Sometimes, even here, unforgivable
mistakes are made. What is important for the customer: At some point, considerable costs have already been incurred.
If you're out of luck, the repair shop might even send parts to special reconditioners, meaning it doesn't remove the crankshaft itself because the cylinders need to be reworked anyway since they have grooves according to
our specifications. The cylinder head reconditioner then also detects small hairline cracks between spark plug holes and inlet/outlet channels.
There are experts who say that such things have probably existed for a long time and can remain that way. However, when the recycler and the repair shop assess the situation together, neither of them wants to take
responsibility. Laser welding is also not considered in this case. Result: A new cylinder head and now two new camshafts as well.
You can see that this thing is becoming a sure-fire success. And there's no escape. If there are grooves in the cylinder and the bushings cannot be replaced, it is essential to consult a reconditioner. No ordinary workshop
can do that itself. If you were to accuse the workshop of cost escalation at this point, they would look at you in astonishment.
This is a notorious mistake in the trade. Nowadays, there is too little focus on saving customers money, which used to lead to lifelong loyalty in the past. Apparently, there are enough customers these days, or their
problems are too diverse. Who knows if we'll ever see each other again.
If we consider what has been said so far from the perspective of the customer(s), the situation is rather devastating. There are already considerable costs involved, but the car is in an even more desolate state than before.
Hopefully, none of the reprocessors have started their work yet.
The workshop responds to costs with even higher costs. They suggest a replacement engine, regardless of whether it's even worth it for such an old second car. It's almost
inevitable, because without dismantling it, they might have been able to sell the car with a defective engine.
But now there would even be costs involved in disposing of all the parts, including the rest of the car. When the repair shop presents you with such a decision, there is hardly any choice. Nevertheless, if it were called to
account, it would be unaware of any other way.
Fortunately, this is a mass manufacturer, so replacement engines are available and cost 'only' around €7,000. Lucky, right? A good thing for the workshop. It's a great job to fit a new engine with parts from the old one and
also replace one or two parts, all for an hourly wage, of course.
But was the car still worth the money invested? As a rule, no, and if the owner is unlucky, something else will break afterwards. But could the whole mess have been avoided? Yes, you would have, if you had considered the
whole problem from the customer's point of view.
In this case: Remove four glow plugs and look into the cylinders with a camera, and most of the damage would have become apparent. In this case, a truly free decision without cost pressure would have been possible.
There are also sufficient testing options for other types of damage, which may also be significant.
In the past, expertise in the automotive sector consisted precisely of being able to deduce internal damage from external signs with a high degree of probability and thus save customers unnecessary costs.
Unfortunately, these have fallen by the wayside in our time, giving way to screwdriver culture. The automotive trade has largely lost its innocence.
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