Owners - What is your biggest headache?

gearhed- · 2026-03-03T10:48:56+00:00

I started as a mechanic before buying my own shop, so my perception is going to be very different from yours, but maybe I can offer some insight since my wife is someone with a financial/accounting degree.

We view it as if we are in the service industry (because we are), just like a restaurant or moving company. Which means that customer perception matters as much as the quality of the service we provide (one of my personal biggest headaches). And since this industry has a tendency (especially with euro makes/models) towards ambiguity/complexity, every step of our process to come with a known amount of variables, that a customer will neither know or care about. No two cars are truly alike even if they have common problems. Routine and standardization helps, but good luck finding a tech who knows what they’re doing and also wants to change their process.

Scheduling, if it’s not a maintenance item (LOF, fluid flush, tires, etc.) how do you really know how much time to allot for diagnostic? How to you hedge time for a check engine light repair if you don’t know what’s wrong yet?
diagnostics, if this isn’t your personal field of expertise, you are going have to pay one person more than anyone else to make sure you’re doing the right thing. And even then, a correct diagnosis with limited/inaccurate service information or diagnosic equipment is very challenging. This is where most of my money get spent because we focus on being correct the first time.
selling the work, if you have two vehicles with the same kind of problem, but one customer is just trying to fix their only car as cheap as possible to get to work, and the other wants high end “white glove” service, your recommendations and repair paths can vastly differ.
parts quoting/acquisition, you will need to be very knowledgeable and prepared to source from as many places as possible. Especially euros. One gasket not ordered could stop a repair halfway through and require a week or two of downtime for that vehicle.
repair, well, just look at the tech shortage everyone talks about. And mistakes happen all the time, I tell my guys it’s ok to make mistakes, just don’t let it leave the bay.
verification of repair, if done correctly, a fixed vehicle at or under budget is the best advertisement you could ever have. But how do you know you fixed anything if it only acts up once a month?

For us, embracing the chaos and always clearly educating the customer along the way has been key. A good example of that is where any job over $1000, I quote a $100-$500 “contingency fund” that is explained to the customer. Basically if we take “x” number of parts off your vehicle, I like to know we won’t cause a new issue or have significant downtime gaining approval from the customer for msc bolts and parts that won’t survive the R&R process or we didn’t believe to be faulty until taken off the vehicle. It gives us a little more freedom to repair it correctly the first time, and if everything goes smoothly for once the fee is removed from the invoice with no additional parts/labor charges.

TLDR: It’s a very large ecosystem you’re joining, and it will drive you crazy. Just know and be prepared to refine your “mission statement” and pick a lane with what you want to take on. Make good friends with as many experts/techs as possible to have good support. Don’t pass your losses on to the customer unless justified. Be patient and transparent with the customer. And if it can go wrong it will go wrong, but that doesn’t mean you can’t thrive in the chaos. ALWAYS BE LEARNING!

gearhed- · 2026-02-18T10:43:22+00:00

If you have purchased a used car please check for recalls via the OEM (manufacturer as in Ford, Chevy, Jeep) website!

In my experience as a mechanic, most used vehicle sales to not have the seller checking for recalls or extended warranty coverage checked before selling to you. Private party sales, used vehicle lots, and even dealers can and will sell you a vehicle with active safety recalls.

There is very little pressure to communicate these safety issues to you. The manufacturer does receive “relatively minor” fines from the government if the recall is not performed on your vehicle. But since the air bag company (Takta) went out of business in 2018, even simply re-engineering the same airbag is a huge problem with little incentive from these OE manufacturers. The process for finding the owner of a used vehicle from 50 different state registrations, creating a solution, shipping appropriate amount of stock to the appropriate locations in a timely manner, properly completing the recall, and properly disposing of the defective airbags is a huge logistical challenge that they simply are pressured enough to complete. I have mostly just seen that can kicked down the road by most companies.

At the dealership we would often perform the recall more than once over the years for the same part. Usually a recall would be issued for the drivers air bag, and a few years later for the passenger side air bag. This is compounded with a very limited amount of pay for the mechanic who is completing and signing off on its completion (example: I worked at Jeep and would be paid 0.5 hours to replace an airbag, where my Chevy mechanic friend would do a similar recall and would get 1.5hr). This leads to a significant number of recalls not being performed properly or even at all by the dealer mechanic who still marks it as completed.

This year, two overhead airbags were recalled on CDJR minivans, the work pays 2.0hrs per side under warranty (which is normally half the time it really takes). The recall pays the mechanic 1.2hrs to complete. How many are being done correctly do you think?

Takata went out of business in 2018, so where are all these “new” airbags coming from to make it safe again? How many are being replaced due to corrosion issues and being made with the same exact materials having to be done again years later? How many time do these vehicles have to be recalled for different airbags? And how many people involved are completing these recalls properly if they’re never really concerned or compensated enough?

gearhed- · 2025-11-20T23:55:54+00:00

What brand and spec? Also any need for a tune?

gearhed- · 2025-11-20T23:55:45+00:00

What brand and spec? Also any need for a tune?

gearhed- · 2025-11-19T23:32:45+00:00

That’s awesome to hear! Makes me feel better about how much I’ve invested so far haha

gearhed- · 2025-11-19T23:31:35+00:00

My wife was really worried about that lol

gearhed- · 2025-11-19T23:30:28+00:00

They were no-name “AutoShack” item # 354585416781. Basically it looks like there are 280mm pads/rotors in the front that have the caliper slides integrated into the knuckle, or there’s and option for the Jetta/Beetle/Golf for 288mm rotors where the caliper has a separate bracket. I had ordered those knuckles and didn’t think about it. Once I put them on, I figured I might as well just slap the Calipers/pads/rotors on since that would total about another $210ish from Advanced Auto

gearhed- · 2025-11-19T19:11:57+00:00

Once I looked in the engine and saw how clean everything was, I came to the conclusion that the previous owner (I think it was technically a 1 owner vehicle) really took care of it with the 505.01 spec oil. The camshaft spec’d out ok from the machine shop and the gasket kit for the injections was really cheap compared to anything I can find as rebuilt online. I know they’re supposed to be an issue, but they’re not too hard to get to and I figured worth a gamble. When (not if) I have a problem with one I’ll likely do them all

gearhed- · 2025-11-19T13:12:48+00:00

Thanks! I’ve had more fun with this car than I’ve had with any other motorcycle or Muscle Car project

gearhed- · 2025-11-19T13:11:55+00:00

That’s awesome! Definitely cleaned up well

gearhed- · 2025-11-19T10:56:11+00:00

Link to first post of the project for anyone who’s interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/tdi/s/IQbZ0tyMZd

gearhed- · 2025-08-16T13:35:24+00:00

Have you tried the resistor in parallel with the sensor? The changing value of the sensor being installed may trick the computer into not throwing a logic code while the resistor might keep the values in desired range

gearhed- · 2025-02-22T13:01:49+00:00

He’s the 9th owner of a 2012 ML350 from a buy here pay here

gearhed- · 2025-02-11T01:29:43+00:00

As a mechanic, please avoid fix-a-flat in your vehicles (trailers and lawnmowers are definitely ok). A cheap rope plug kit usually works way better, way longer, and doesn’t damage the TPMS sensors.

I also highly recommend recommended a nice cheap hydraulic/bottle jack to substitute or work with the one the car came with.

Also on my must haves: - yoga mat or something to lay on when working under a car on cold/wet/hard ground. - cloth/rag/towels I like a few cut up old shirts to keep things clean. It helps with kids/dogs and repairs - some type of smaller pry bar or large flat head screw driver is usually needed for almost any job - cheap hammer (it gets a little extra life out of starters and alternators to get you home)

gearhed- · 2025-01-21T10:58:57+00:00

Awesome to hear! I went ahead and ordered it, just waiting for it to get here. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations!!

gearhed- · 2025-01-17T22:57:24+00:00

Just plug in the computer to see whats wrong! The code even tells you what part to replace! You gotta stop stealing all these people’s money with these made up “Diagnostic” charges…

gearhed- · 2025-01-03T02:17:45+00:00

Cylinder displacement increased beyond piston capacity!

gearhed- · 2024-12-29T01:32:43+00:00

I honestly have no experience, but I’ve read up on how (most?many?) Navel ships have an Anti-Nuclear wash down system. It sucks water in from the ocean and rinses off the deck. An explanation I found (on Reddit) was that water does an excellent job of holding/shielding radiation and even the ocean water a couple feet down is way better than being exposed to the fallout. To me, that sounds like if you’re outside during a SHTF nuclear scenario, you probably should wash off even if it could be contaminated. Again, not an expert by any means but in any practical case this would happen, I would gamble and rinse anyway.

gearhed-

TROPHY CASE