My brother's car gets around (rant)

[irelynx]

Just feeling the need to rant. And yes, I wrote a book.

Nothing to do with my car. It's all about my brother's car; '04 Grand Am (auto). Earlier in the year he asked what could be wrong with his car. If I remember right, it was making a horrible noise in Park & Neutral, but sounded normal otherwise. I could have this reversed and it was instead quiet in P/N. It was long enough ago that I can't remember exactly, but I do remember we had come to the conclusion at the time that it was quite possibly something to do with the TCC based on the symptoms. In addition to that, the one night coming home from work it stalled on him 3 times, twice while making a turn (where there are no street lights or house lights really). -_-

Along with this an SES (or whatever it's called for grand am's) light periodically came on. He took it somewhere and was told the code was something dealing with emissions or something like that, how much, and eventually he got it repaired.

Anyway, his inspection was up in August (last day of July). He was lazy, even with everyone bugging him a month prior, and waited until the day after it expired to get it inspected. They recently (August) changed the rules in NY, so now this is how it works...

-You pay for whatever part(s) it passes
-If any part fails, you have 30 days to get it to pass at the same shop
-If you go beyond 30 days, or take it to a diff shop, you pay all over again for the parts you already passed
-If it fails, the shop gives you a 10-day sticker
-If your SES light is on, it's an automatic fail

He took it to a local shop and was told it passed the standard portion, but failed emissions. He paid his $21, and was not given a 10 day sticker. Apparently the SES light had been coming back on recently (of course he never told any of us). The guy just said it failed emissions, didn't specify why. The guy also wouldn't tell them what code it was throwing. He said he didn't have a code reader. He stands there with the car on trying to figure out "where the noise is coming from" and it takes him an hour to decide that I was right (they told him I said the tranny was making the noise). The next day he takes it out for 50mi worth of driving to try and get the light to turn off. When that didn't work he calls and tells my brother/mother what he did and that he doesn't know what the problem is. "It probably needs a new transmission, but I don't know much of anything about transmissions. Take it to this guy at this shop."

At no point was he given an extension sticker. He takes it to another guy who says basically the same about not knowing what the problem is. And he's asking what the code its throwing is, which of course they don't know. So that's another dead end. They figure as long as the SES light is off when he takes it to be inspected, he should pass. They unhook the battery to try & reset the code, light stays off for long enough for him to drive it to the shop.

He goes back to the original guy for the inspection. He drives down, and the guy isn't there. He calls and gets told to come back the next day. The next day he goes down, and the guy isn't there again. He calls later on and gets told "stop in at 2pm, I'll clear up space & time for then". He goes down at 2pm and the guy is "too busy, come back tomorrow". The next day my brother calls first, and now the guy is "out of stickers, come back the end of next week."

My dad points him to a different local shop. The guy at this new shop apparently goes on a rant about how bad the other guy is (the one they originally took the car to). He says that if the guy had even hooked the car up, the system would have automatically printed out a 10-day sticker when it failed. This guy hooks it up, car fails, and he tells them what the code it's throwing is for, and gives him a 10-day sticker. Since it's a diff shop (and it had been over 30 days anyway with the first shop), he has to pay another $21 since his car passed part of the inspection. The code was supposedly the TCC (solenoid?). All the info I get is second hand from two people who really know very little about cars. This guy says to take the car to (insert transmission shop), they'll know what to do.

So a few days ago they dropped it off at the transmission "shop". Apparently when they called for an update yesterday the guy was out to lunch and had taken my brother's car for a long ride trying to figure out what the problem is. I don't know what it is about all these small local shops, but it seems like every shop takes it for a nice long ride. They called again later on and got told "Uhh... I don't know what the problem is yet". They call back today and are told that they dropped the pan and found a bunch of metal shavings on the magnet, that the transmission needs to be rebuilt, and it'll cost $1500.

So now my mom is flipping out that it's not worth it and my brother should just look into trading it in on something else. He still owes $2000 on the car (bought it for $4k or so last year), and it's a solid car in every other way. If it was me, being that he barely affords things as it is, I would fix it considering everything else is solid. He's kind of stuck with it until he has a better job. Hell, I'm stuck with my car (and gimping it along) until I have a reliable income to where I can afford to move and afford car payments (or save up for a car) on top of that. I'd kill to have a nice car like his that just needed one big fix and typical maintenance (and isn't rotting away) to keep it going for a good while longer; I'd fix it and be happy.

Between the shops they've dealt with, and their terrible relaying of info, there isn't a big enough for it. I told them way back that the noise was probably to do with the TCC, and surprise, that's what the code eventually was found to be. I also repeatedly told them to take it to AAP or AZ to have the code scanned for free, but of course no one did. I also repeatedly told them that the only place I really trust around here for repairs are the dealer, a specific muffler shop, & a specific wheel/suspension shop... all for their respective specialties. The only place around here I would trust for transmission issues would be the dealer or probably AAMCO. Every other place around here (and there are tons) are homegrown wheel & deal type places that have always proven themselves to be very poor choices. They constantly went everywhere but my suggestions, and thus paid money out left & right to "shops" who came off as being clueless. It must be like the blind leading the blind when they go to these shops. They don't relay the car's problems well enough, and the mechanics aren't much better at taking the info in and/or troubleshooting.

I have never had this kind of trouble the places I go. I tell them exactly what the problem is (or the specific symptoms and my assumption), relay any relevent info I got elsewhere, and its found within the day and fixed.

So for 3mo now my brother has been driving one of my parents cars while his car sat in the driveway or got whored around to a million shops, all with no progress being made on it. It apparently won't pass inspection until this is fixed. After being told $1500 earlier, they finally called AAMCO (who I'm pretty sure finances) to get a quote and were told that if it needs a rebuild, they charge about the same (a little less with a coupon). Typing it all out makes it seem like less of a nightmare than it was. But when you have completely car illiterate people constantly asking for input and/or relaying their frustrations, it becomes a nightmare that drives you insane, lol.

[DTMAce]

Wow.

This makes me SO glad I don't live in a state with this sort of hassle.

[diedemus]

the inspection deal wasn't the major issue

[DTMAce]

Granted. But yikes. Here the car has to fall apart in front of the cop before they might actually say anything. As long as it has 4 wheels and a seat, your good to go. LOL

As with the repair portion, yeah, something isn't adding up here. Thank god I can fix many things myself.

[3X00-Modified]

Honestly I wish there was stricter inspections in this state... The scenario you stated Ace is EXTREMELY unsafe for the driver and anyone within 200ft of the car on the road, I can only imagine the lawsuit that individual would try if he got injured in an accident, yet it would be completely his fault for driving an unsafe vehicle. We have the same deal here where they plug into a 96+ and if you have no codes and all your monitors are passed then your fine, 95 and older you get a tail pipe sniff... they don't look at anything else... I can't believe Lisa's car made it through inspection in the condition its in, you can't even lift it on the standard lift points, the floor starts to cave in, Also she just had an alignment done, I'll get tuned away if I have a slightly bad wheel bearing, I can't even imagine what her sub frame was allowing to move, and how they were able to align it or even put her new suspension on... Because that amount of rot didn't happen just this year.

The issues I see here is VERY poor repair shops not knowing their head from their asses and it's the main reason why I trust almost NON of them. There is a small group of shops that I would bring my car to if I were in a pinch, but 100% of the stuff I can do myself.

The biggest issue with this car is lack of attention and effort from the owner... Sorry but he kept procrastinating to get it to inspection and if you just clear a code by disconnecting the battery then your monitors are not "completed" and you will instantly fail, and then when the light comes back on that's the monitor test completing and failing... It's SO easy to just bring the car to advance auto and have them pull the codes so you know whats going on and then just bring it to a specialized shop for that task, stay away from small local shops unless they are family friends and you know they are competent at what they do. Any transmission making a grinding noise in p/n is toast, replace it, it's NOT the TCC solenoid that's the only issue, I'm sure that code is present from the solenoid being destroyed with metal shavings floating through the oil.

Go to a JY and get a transmission and have someone swap it out. It will be way less that $1,500. Also being an 04 it's a 4t45e, not the 4t60e or the 3t40 which was the only one to have constant TCC problems... the 4t60's and 40's/45's do NOT have the same TCC issues as the older 3 speed did.

[DTMAce]

Honestly I wish there was stricter inspections in this state... The scenario you stated Ace is EXTREMELY unsafe for the driver and anyone within 200ft of the car on the road, I can only imagine the lawsuit that individual would try if he got injured in an accident, yet it would be completely his fault for driving an unsafe vehicle.

LOL

I was joking to an extent, but yeah, there is some unsafe garbage on the roads around here...