rev up your engines I've been doing this for 52 years and man I have seen a lot of
scams that people have pulled sometimes they were out right fraud scams sometimes
they were just poor mechanics who didn't know what they're doing and screwed up
jobs but either way you don't want that to happen to you now the first and best
tip of system get a scan tool now the scan tools you can use on your phone
that I've shown there's standalone scan tools that cost forty dollars twenty
dollars and five thousand dollars well you don't need a $5,000 one but just get
any scan tool because if your car's not running riding your check engine light is
on that check engine light is the generic coat it means there's one of
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different coats store these machines
access those codes and they're simple to use you just plug them in you got to
make sure the right side this is a notch here and there's a notch there so it
goes in upside-down like this then it starts reading now in this case it's
scan and throw and what does it find as you can see here no cold things your
honor finding ordinary codes now if it had codes they chose the codes
it gives freeze frame data that's on there if you have an expensive scan tool
this particular ones about 200 bucks it memorizes all that stuff but say you got
a cheap twenty thirty dollar one it doesn't memorize things heck we all have
phones with cameras just go to the screen take a picture of it then you'll
have it store it on your phone done if you're not gonna fix it yourself you go
to a mechanic here's the problem with my car you know exactly you got all that
information so you're not gonna be easily scanned that way you now know
what shape the car was in let's say you get it back not running right you plug
your scanner back in it's got the same codes guy didn't fix it or even worse
and I've seen this on numerous cars that people have brought me after other
people worked on them they now have more codes different codes not only was it
not fixed right but something was done wrong while they were working on a car
does this somebody's gonna pull a scam on you watch this just unplug the MAF
sensor here right here now it's unplugged it shows that it has p0101
a mass air flow volume circuit range performance I don't think I haven't seen
this done on people's cars before other than just unplugging it which is obvious
for another mechanic they will caught a wire somewhere hidden in the back
that'll trip the code and you're not gonna find that but you're gonna know
something fishy is up if all of a sudden you get this new code right here today
work on the car that it's totally coincidental that they worked on your
car you get it back and now it's got all these problems that it
didn't have before and anybody trying to pull a scam on you if they see you
coming with a scan tool and you say well here's the code
here's the data they're gonna think twice about pulling some kind of obvious
scam on you now the next common scam has to do with mechanics with little oil
cans who are crooked I'll squirt oil around and say oh look this is leaking
something I've seen happen a lot of times I've seen people get new struts
when they didn't even need them mechanic will come in they'll squirt oil all
around the struts the strut is full of oil the seal goes bad the oil will come
out showing it's bad well they squirt all over the place it's a look-see it's
leaking it's all that's why it's a good idea to get a strong flashlight like
this baby and search all around look at your struts they should be bone-dry like
this not covering with oil but you check them first then if mysteriously some of
your struts are now coated over oil when you bring it back you know they're
trying to pull a scam on you and really if you don't want to be scammed Hey
learn to do at least two simple things yourself air filters you just clip them
pull them out put another air filter in do that yourself if your spark plugs are
like this Toyota simple learn how to replace them yourself
I have had more cars coming here they weren't running right or failed the yearly
emissions test because either the air filter was telling me clogged up or the
spark plugs why not stop you can easily do yourself then nobody's gonna scam you
and one scam that I advise you to just stay far away from is the free lifetime
oil changes that some dealers and shops will give you they just want to get you
in the shop that's the loss leader oh I'm getting a free oil change
every time you take it in for the free oil change guess what they're gonna find
something that either they'll say oh look this maintenance is due or this is
worn that is worn be very cautious about these free oil changes that you're
gonna get why not do like me change your own oil get good quality all good filter
you know when it's done right then nobody's getting in there to try to rip
you off because realize today car dealerships don't make much money
selling cars they're kind of cut to the chase the internet everybody knows what
the cost what you got to pay for them what their profit margin is they make the
majority of their profit fixing the cars that they sell not selling them and once
they get you in that door they're gonna try to sell you the kitchen sink I don't
think it's just dealers that do that there was a guy down the street here years ago he
had an inspection license for the state of Texas for doing those yearly
emissions and safety inspections now there's very little profit and actually
doing the inspection you don't make that much money this guy did it so he got
people in the shop and then man did he try to sell them stuff he'd say oh you
failed the inspection but it's gonna be about 450 bucks and I can get it done by
five o'clock today if you authorize it now and the way I find out about the guy
was one of my customers went there to get the car inspect and he got scammed
like this said the guy said oh I need to tune it up and do all this stuff well it
turned out what the guy did was this isn't a day when they actually checked
the exhaust coming out with five gas analyzers one of these sensors in the
exhaust to measure the gas coming out he would wipe that sensor with the rag that
had cleaner on it and when he stuck it in that would make all the
chemicals go sky-high it would fail the test my customers say oh my cars running
bad I just got it inspected so I looked in and a guy paid 450 bucks to have it
tuned up spark plugs all kinds of stuff I pulled off the spark plugs on his
Honda and they must have been the original once they were covered with
carbon they were all worn out and it takes over a hundred thousand miles to
where some of these that thin and his were worn that thin the guy got him in by
the scam of having an inspection license and then sold them the farm so be very
very leery if you're getting your car inspected and they're trying to saw you
a whole bunch of stuff that's the game that a lot of these guys play
and really many states like Florida they don't even have the inspection anymore
in Florida they did then people complain a lot of the elderly people get ripped
off so they said well if you're gonna make us have the state inspection the
state's gonna have to do it the state did it for one year and they lost so
much money then they said we're not even doing them anymore and sure everybody
wants to have a safe car but a lot of times the safety inspection itself it
was just a ruse that the guys are using to get business in when they didn't have
any and make a profit now when I was a young mechanic my grandfather for a
short time in my father's garage did state inspections in New York State but
he was an honest mechanic and back in those days it was only a buck and a
quarter and the law was if somebody came in and you said you were busy you had to
give them another time to come back and then they'd have to inspect it and if
you're tying up one 30-year base for a dollar and a quarter job it wasn't worth
it so they just stopped doing inspections but as I said that small
amount of money isn't why the crooked guys inspect cars they inspect it just
to get you into their garage and then the selling process begins so if you
suspect they're trying to sell you stuff you don't need just leave it's your car
you have the right for that they can't hold you hostage and the last scam to
avoid is a common one that's happening in Houston lately crooked people will
either follow you in their car and say your tires loose it's wobbly or they'll
meet you in a parking lot and they'll say hey look you got a flat tire oh yeah
that happened one of my customers with a flat tire
pretended to fix it bring it back and then I said to her did you notice anything
different driving your car before this flat occurred and she said no I drove
perfectly fine well if you get a toy they generally go flat over time gonna
start pulling to one side make squealing noises I'm assuming what happened to her
was this got a car key and he stuck it and pushed that valve take
the cap off push the Schrader valve in and then made it go flat then all he did
was take her tire off go down the street fill it over there
and then put it back on again because I looked at her tire and there were no
marks on it that showed that it has been patched didn't look like it
taking an apart hatched on the inside and put back together because everything
on it was still dirty I'm assuming all he did was let the air out
took it off pumped it up we're there somewhere else put it on and she paid
him money for that and certainly don't fall for that scheme up there following
you and they say your tires loose but we can fix it for you people have been
doing that in Houston lately and I guess some people are falling for it now it's
kind of hard to tell if that's a scammer or not when you're driving yourself
because you can't see but you got a friend in the car just say roll the
window down look at the tires if they're going straight they're not wobbling you
know it's a scam because from my experience I don't know any honest
mechanics who drive around in their cars looking at people's cars and pulling
them over and saying your wheels falling off so people do dredge the bottom of
the bucket sleaziest thing that can to make money
most mechanics have plenty of business they don't need to create business and
now you know how you can avoid some of these scams so you still have your car
running good but people don't rip you off, so if you never want to miss another
one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that Bell