A sad Lexus

Preface:

It all started with a quote over the phone, about a year and a half ago. Another shop had looked at the vehicle and made some repair suggestions. 

For some reason, the owner did not feel comfortable to have the work done there and instead brought to us. Once the car got here, we inspected the vehicle prior to the work and corroborated the items suggested by the other shop.

In addition, we found a large number of other things needed that had been missed. We proceeded to let the client know about our additional findings.

The vehicle had some issues with the front suspension, the tires were wearing out rapidly. We replaced the control arms, the sway bar links, the front and rear struts, the rack and pinion and the power steering high pressure hose. We did a front brake job as well as they were worn down to the last 1 mm. 

Despite all the work done, there was a long list of suggestions that went unheeded. This is not uncommon as a portion of all clients, feel the suggestions made to them by their repair shop may be without merit.

Now, this were not necessarily a steady and faithful client.

They decided not to do any of our additional suggestions. They were going to only do what they brought the car for and would “think about the other stuff for later”

One of the suggested items on the repair order “recommendations” were all the cooling system hoses, upper and lower radiator, the water pump and the intake hoses, along with heater hoses. They appeared original and in poor condition. This vehicle was 16 years old and pushing over two hundred thousand miles.  

Epilog:

We got a call today from our infrequent client. They wanted to know how much it would be to replace the engine on their Lexus. It turns out one of the heater hoses blew out and caused the engine to overheat and seize. They were now requesting the price to install a used engine as they had an emotional attachment with the vehicle.

What could have been $350.00 a year and a half ago, became a quote for $6500.00 for a used engine today.

Oil and coolant leaks

An interesting pattern we noticed of late. We’ve been having an unusual number of vehicles come back for oil leaks we had previously repaired.

As we began to put the data together, we could see the cars were not coming back for the work we had done, they were coming back for other oil leaks we may have missed. Oil pan and valve cover gaskets were the familiar culprits, an occasional timing belt cover or the rear main seal, transmission front pump and tail shaft seal, even an occasional differential pinion seal. We asked ourselves what we could as a business do to prevent the client from having one oil leak fixed, yet still having to come back for other oil leaks.

We went back to basics and started at the beginning. How we intake the vehicle and what questions we ask. From an office perspective, all seemed okay, the right questions went on the repair order and the tech got to work.

And that’s when we noticed the weak link in the process. You see, advice is only worth as much as you pay for it. And we were not asking anything for the oil leak advice.  We expected our mechanics to spend a great deal of their time trying to find the oil leaks when in fact, they would stop at the very first sign of oil and blame the apparent source.

We expected them to spend their valuable work time without the possibility of reward. The message we sent was that their time was not valuable.

We decided to try a pilot program. To charge a fee to the client for the advice on oil and coolant leaks, and to reward the mechanic with a half hours’ worth of time paid. We did have the expectation the mechanic would spend the half hour checking the vehicle for oil leaks, and not to stop at the first sign of oil.

Once we did that, the mechanics started to remove panels, covers, shields, air cleaners, snorkels and all other necessary items to come up with the correct answer. Why? You ask, because now, they are being paid for their time. That’s why!

A lot of unnecessary work is being done on cars simply because mechanics did not take the necessary time to check and inspect things properly. And why would a mechanic not take the time to do the inspection correctly you say? Because the client wasn’t paying for it,

Porsche 911 Carrera 4S type

Lexus F 350 Sport problems

How much does it cost to re-flash my computer?

May I ask why do you think you need to have the computer on your vehicle re-flashed?

I have a 2002 Lexus and have already replaced (elsewhere) both catalytic converters, the oxygen sensor, the mass air flow sensor and the throttle position sensor. I had them put new spark plugs and did a fuel injection service. After all these parts replaced, my vehicle continues to fail the smog test. They tell me the monitors are not resetting and all I can think of is the computer needs to be re-flashed.

I’ll be glad to give you a quote to reflash the computer but, how about changing strategies and doing the right and logical thing instead.

What do you mean?

It seems to me that somewhere along the repair road, you took a wrong turn and just kept going (Yes, I love the line from a Bruce Springsteen song (Hungry Hearts)). He sure wasn’t happy when I told him “the most expensive repair, is the one you didn’t need”.

So! How about if we first diagnose why this Lexus is unable to reset the monitors and then we can offer you a quote to properly repair it.

Well! I’ve already spent over two thousand dollars to fix it and still have nothing to show for it. You must take care of me! I don’t have any more money to pay for on this vehicle.

I really wanted to tell him that I had nothing to do with the largely misguided expense on his vehicle. He had ill-spent the money elsewhere but, considering the nature of the complaint, I had to begin the quote between two to three hours to find the answer.

Oh no! You can’t charge me that much! I’ve already spent over $2,000.00 and I don’t want to spend any more on this,,,,, car!

The client left without any further ado as he felt we had the moral obligation to help him get his car to pass smog. He somehow couldn’t understand the immense effort required to train a technician to reach the level of professionalism required to diagnose complicated problems correctly and consistently. And he couldn’t understand that for us to be here to repair our client’s vehicles, we have to charge for our time, equipment use and knowledge.  

Working on a 2010 Audi Q5