I've been reading a few articles, along the lines of "things your mechanic, or mobile mechanic won't tell you, and I wanted to comment / verify some things.


Also, very good article to read here;

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/373593_fall-of-the-shop-mechanic


Turning Rotors during a brake job;

The whole point of this is to even and smooth out a brake rotor by machining, in turn saving some money not
having to buy  new.-- Ok, "IF" they need to be turned. Not all of them do. I'm sure  some people would argue
with me on that, but I think it's once again one  of those common sense things. If they haven't gone metal
to metal, are  not  grooved, warped, etc, then just scuffing them up (if that) is fine. Most shops have brake lathes that are expensive, (and usually really really old) and most shops wont maintenance them very  often or at all, causing huge problems machining them straight. what  happens the mech will cut it again and again, and a good percentage of the time cut them past minimum specs. Then you are buying new rotors  anyway. Many shops charge about 20 each rotor to cut them, in fact, many  new rotors cost around 30 dollars brand new out of the box. I also  believe mechs recommend this religiously as well, because that's how  they were thought, so it's more a learned behavior, many get downright sanctimonious about it.
 
 Transmission/radiator/brake/injector flushes

Usually the tech will just drain whatever and top it off. If they do have a machine they normally don't work very well. When they do use it, they'll hook it to the vehicle and walk off for a while, and let the machine do the work. They normally are recommended to add easy money for the tech.

4 wheel alignments

If you do not have any adjustments in the rear of the car, just go with a 2 wheel. Doing a 4 wheel can be a little bit better but isn't worth the extra money.

ASE Certifications:

Take these with grain of salt. ASE is a private business. It is not regulated by the government in any way shape or form. Interesting enough, anytime there is any referral (even by the government or court system) ASE certifications holds some official-ness, mostly by ignorance, and the fact, there is nobody else that does this. I guess this makes them by default experts. So here is the dope; you pay 40$ for a multiple choice test, in 1 of 8 categories. If you are somewhat knowledgeable, or know how to take a test you can pass these pretty easily. Many people also claim to have these that do not, as 99% of the time no one ever asks for the credentials, but in addition they can be easily forged with a copy machine and some white out. I myself had my "A4" cert that was good for a number of years, now expired. It did absolutely nothing for me, except get the companies I was working for out of liability. In addition, I've meet some people that had all 8 tests, making them a "master tech", that couldn't find there ass with both hands, proving further what a farce ASE actually is.  The biggest problem is that ASE has no way of testing someone's mechanical aptitude or common sense!























 
 
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