See, I've done my own research online -- yeah, yeah, so take this all with a mound of salt -- and I am seeing so much information that points me away from thinking that the reason my check engine light is on is because the timing chain and its attendant parts are wearing down. Even more worrying (at least to me): What I have looked at, combined with what the mechanic keeps saying, has made me begin to doubt he knows what is going on with my vehicle.
Two things in particular are questions in my mind. First, the mechanic is not only going to rip apart my engine to replace the timing chain (or have his employees do so), he told me he was going to give the car yet another oil change, one month after changing it when the indicator lights tripped on the first time. He noted that the oil was black when he thinks it shouldn't be that soon after an oil change. But I have read online a few people and sites who say that the oil is supposed to turn black that soon after an oil change because it is synthetic (and when he changed the oil around the holiday he said he put in synthetic oil) and the blackness comes from the oil sopping up all the impurities that are in the engine. In other words, the oil turning black is a good thing, and an indicator that it is working. And he wants to change it, an presumably charge me for another oil change.
The second source of doubt is simpler but more, well, shocking: He says he will replace the timing chain, but not the water pump. I'm no mechanic, but I remember having timing belts changed on my old car twice -- with the amount of money I had to spend, I couldn't forget if I tried -- and I got pissed that they changed the water pumps too. I now understand why they do that as a matter of routine: As long as the engine is undergoing such major repair, and as long as the mechanics are working in that area, you might as well change the water pump. But he says he won't do it unless the water pump is leaking. He says what the chain does and what the pump does are two separate issues. Bullshit. I keep researching and no one fucking says that. They're totally dependent on each other. That's an intrinsic relationship all combustion engines have. Besides, switching it out now saves me money because mechanics -- either this one or some other one -- don't have to expend the labor of taking out my engine twice. And at over 100,000 miles the water pump is going to leak. I am scared as hell to see a red overheating light on my dashboard, and that is what this mechanic chooses to make me risk by not doing the conventional thing and just fucking replacing the pump.
I really don't like this. I hate shelling out two grand already, and now this maverick mechanic wants to buck conventional wisdom and not repair things properly. And, again, I'm not totally sure he knows what's wrong with my car. But he has my car in his garage, and thus my balls in a sling. All I've got is my wrath if he and his boys fuck this up, either by misdiagnosing the problem or screwing up the fix.
This shit is making me want to find a full-time job working from home.
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