Ways in Which Your Car Mechanic May Be Cheating You

Getting a car serviced and repaired with a mechanic is a must for cars. Just like humans have doctors to take care of their bodies, cars have mechanics. Car servicing is a way of ensuring that the wear and tear as well as the flaws are taken care of before the problems escalate and that is why there are mechanics. But then, there is deceit everywhere around the world. So, it would be foolish to trust anyone completely. That includes the mechanics as well. I do not men that every mechanic cuts corners. But, it would be no harm to anyone to be extra cautious. So, here is a list of ways the car servicing personnel may be cheating you:

Mechanic

• Extra labour charges: Mechanics perform car services that includes inspection of several small parts. Sometimes, the mechanics, would skip on several of these inspections to save time. In case when the customer has not raised any complaint about any dysfunction of a part, the mechanic would merely ignore the inspection of that part assuming that it is functional. For instance, car owners who get regular car service would be aware of the brake service labour service charge they are charged. This charge is absolutely valid if the brake pads are actually opened, inspected, cleaned and re-installed. But the mechanic may skip this and simply charge the customer, taking the advantage of the customer not being around to double-check.
• Charged for a part but not actually replaced: This is the most common way of fooling customers during car repairs. You need to be wary of it while car servicing as well. The mechanics may ask you to get a part replaced telling you that it is out of order, bill you for a new part and yet not replace it. For instance, a mechanic may bill you for a new AC filter but in reality, he only refit the old filter after cleaning it thoroughly. This is a great source of the grey market for genuine parts. The mechanic gets double profit in turn through this tactic by selling the part in the grey market. So, to cross check that the part you have been billed for has actually been replaced in your car and make sure you collect the old parts while you take your car back.
• Dry cleaning of the car interiors: The car’s interiors always get dirty with a passage time. So, there is no debating to the fact that they need a dry cleaning service at regular intervals. But, there are some mechanics who will try to get the customers to opt for these services even when it is not needed, just to make more money. Dry cleaning is a service that is needed only by cars which are not well-maintained and vacuumed regularly or are used by several users. So, when it is not needed the mechanics would just use foam and blow dry the car and call it the dry-cleaning service, charging you for it.
• Cutting corners in engine cleansing: For cleaning an engine the process of engine decarbonizing is conducted. A complete process of decarbonizing involves opening the engine cylinder head and manually cleaning each of the valves and ports. Now, after the onset of the modern car engine design and a higher quality of fuel, engine decarbonising is an unnecessary service until a car travels a minimum distance of 50,000km. Many car mechanics run a chemical solvent mixed with fuel through the engine for about 15 minutes in order to remove carbon build up and ensure that you never need the service of engine decarbonising. But the some cocky mechanics convince you into believing that this service is required after every 15,000km and then merely rip you off for services that are barely needed. Even after charging you for the services, they just perform the decarbonising by the injector cleaning method that any mechanic would have done for free along with your regular service, instead of a thorough manual cleaning.

Taking into consideration these points, it is obvious that you need to be on the lookout while car servicing. The best way to avoid being fooled by car service advisors is to actually be present during the car servicing.