How To Handle An Auto Repair Shop That Ripping You Off

How Automobile Mechanics Can Rip You Off, and How to Avoid Being Taken for a Ride

... and how drivers can avoid beingness taken for a ride.

— -- intro:Take y'all ever gone to an motorcar repair shop for an oil change, only to have the mechanic say your car needs a new manual? Has the "cheque engine" calorie-free come on, and suddenly the mechanic says you need expensive new engine parts?

One seasoned auto mechanic is warning consumers to be well-versed in how a car works to avoid being ripped off at the auto repair shop.

"Joe," who has been a mechanic for twoscore years, agreed to reveal the secrets of his trade to ABC News' "twenty/20" on the status that his identity would remain concealed.

He said some mechanics may try to squeeze more money out of customers by doing unnecessary repairs. What drives mechanics to crook or button unnecessary repairs, Joe said, is the tiny turn a profit margin at many repair shops. Most mechanics are honest, he said, just many are pressured past their bosses to perform unnecessary piece of work.

"The shop has to stay in business," Joe said. "At that place are pressures to do things that maybe y'all wouldn't do normally."

Joe admitted that he has used shady tactics, himself, in the past.

"I'grand ashamed a bit to admit it, but when your boss tells you ... 'Either you lot practise it here or the door's right at that place,' what are you going to practise?" he asked.

The Automotive Service Clan says the majority of the service repair manufacture is upstanding and only charges the consumer for necessary work.

"xx/20" went undercover at several motorcar repair shops in New York and New Jersey to see if mechanics would add unnecessary repairs and fees to service a "xx/20" producer's car, which had been given a make clean bill of health by 2 licensed mechanics beforehand.

One of those licensed expert mechanics was Giuseppe Mendola, owner of AutoTech Diagnostic in College Point, New York.

"If they found a problem with this car, it would probably be a problem they invented or that didn't exist at all," Mendola said.

quicklist:title: 1. Calculation on to 'Gravy Work'text:There are special names mechanics apply for questionable repair practices, Joe said, such as "gravy piece of work," which, he said, means billing the customer for more time than a repair job actually takes.

"Near shops volition charge you an hour and a half to two hours to turn the rotors and put pads on it," Joe said. "If yous're good and got skillful equipment, y'all can do it in 20 or 30 minutes. ... That'due south gravy."

quicklist:title: 2. Doing a 'Wallet Flush'text:The so-called "Wallet Flush," Joe said, is where a routine oil modify can turn into something much more than expensive.

"An $18 oil change -- well, they lose coin on that," he said. "The idea is to become yous in so they tin sell you the coolant flushes, trans flushes, power steering flushes. ... That's where the coin is."

quicklist:title: three. Billing for Work That Was Never Donetext:Joe said it'south non unusual for mechanics to beak for work they don't fifty-fifty perform, such as saying they installed a new air filter without really touching information technology.

"Some [air filters] are difficult to change, and it's real easy to charge for information technology and non put it in," he said. "And you would never know because y'all couldn't go become it."

quicklist:championship: 4. Jacking Upwardly Repairs Based off the 'Idiot Low-cal'text:One of the virtually mutual, and profitable, means to jack upward a repair pecker is exploiting fears over the "check engine" light, affectionately known past some in the trade every bit the "idiot calorie-free," Joe said.

"The check engine light volition direct you to a failure code," he said. "Guys kind of have the phrase where every code deserves a part."

"xx/xx" put the "idiot low-cal" tactic to the exam. Before heading out undercover, "20/20" had expert mechanic Audra Fordin purposefully unplug a cord to disconnect the mass airflow sensor in the engine of a "twenty/20" producer's car, something that would exist quickly detected and easy to set. Both Fordin and Mendola deemed the car perfectly fine otherwise.

1 repair shop in New Jersey fixed the string issue in 15 minutes without even charging our producer -- though ABC News' expert mechanic say it would be reasonable to accuse between $50-100 to diagnose the problem. The managing director at a different repair shop in New Jersey also just plugged the string dorsum in, but then told our producer the light was on because the mass flow sensor needed to be cleaned. He recommended a fuel system cleaning for $99.

A mechanic in New York also fixed the string problem apace but told our producer she needed to supersede the unabridged mass air flow sensor, a toll of more than $300. He then offered to have the sensor apart and ready it for $190. For that $190 fix, a "20/xx" hidden camera video showed the mechanic just sprayed and rinsed the outside of the engine.

"The light was definitely on because of the sensor," Mendola said. "And plugging it dorsum in should have the solved the problem. ... I can give you an instance. If you lot came abode and your lamp wasn't working and you realized, 'Hey, somebody unplugged information technology from the wall,' y'all wouldn't become out and buy a new lamp. Then basically, all you lot had to practice was plug it back in and you'd be fine."

quicklist:title:5. BONUS: How to Avoid Being Ripped Offtext:"If you get to a shop, and they ... spring y'all up for all this stuff, get observe another store," he said. "Ask your friends, enquire coworkers. ... Endeavor to find a reputable store that you tin can build a relationship with, and they volition take care of you, and that's cardinal."

Too, he added, only read the owner's manual.

"People don't read the owner'southward manual," he said. "They don't know how to open the hood half the time. ... I honestly don't understand what they wait out of the car if they don't know annihilation about it."

Marty Guerrero, fifty, of Los Angeles, admitted she didn't know annihilation about cars when she took her ruby-red Mustang into a mechanic when it wouldn't start. She said that was all the mechanic needed to know, to take her for a ride.

"He ended upward wanting to charge me about $ane,000 for services, and information technology turns out all my car needed was a battery," said Guerrero. "And the only reason I busted him was because my car wouldn't start two days later I picked information technology upwardly. After he supposedly fixed it, it wouldn't commencement."

What should have been an $80 bombardment replacement of a sudden became a very expensive trouble for Guerrero.

"When I think well-nigh it now I feel similar a fool," Guerrero said. "I really got taken."

Only Guerrero battled to get her money back from the mechanic and won. She even enrolled in machine repair classes and is educating others through an e-book she wrote, named, "Exposed: Car Repair's Dirty Petty Secrets to Rip You Off!"

"I ended upwards writing a book because I wanted to share all this knowledge with people," Guerrero said. "Information technology really makes me angry that these mechanics are taking reward of women. ... They primarily cheat women considering they think nosotros don't know."

Guerrero had a message for the mechanic who she said ripped her off: "I got yous," Guerrero said. "Yous idea you were slick, but I got you."