Rant: A shop in Tacoma told me to replace a customer's entire rack and pinion for a $2000 job

Last week, a car came in with a slight power steering whine and a tiny leak at the inner tie rod boot. The shop I was at said the whole rack was shot and quoted the full replacement. I pulled it, cleaned the leak area, and found it was just a worn seal on the inner tie rod end. I fixed it with a $40 seal kit and an alignment. Now I'm torn. One side says you bill for the full rack job because that's what the book time pays for and it's more reliable. The other side says you fix what's actually broken and save the customer a ton of money. What's the right call here?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant.luna27d ago

Wouldn't you want someone to do that for your car? That honesty builds real trust.

wren_ellis1226d ago

Oh man, absolutely. I'd be so grateful. My car is basically a collection of weird noises held together by hope and duct tape, so if a mechanic was actually straight with me about it, I'd probably faint from shock. That kind of honesty is so rare now, you'd have a customer for life. Guess I should start looking for a mechanic who treats my clunker like it's a real car and not a lost cause.

jennifer3586d ago

My old Honda Civic made it to 280,000 miles on a mix of honest fixes and me ignoring the smaller sounds. Sometimes a weird noise is just a loose heat shield, not a sign your car is dying. I get what wren_ellis12 is saying about wanting honesty, but I've also had mechanics try to scare me into expensive work for a simple fix. Where do you draw the line between being straight with someone and just upselling?