Mrs. Wizard hit the nail on the head in one try. All "Specialty & Exotic" cars have certain parts that are made out of the extremely rare metal Un-Obtanium, It is mined only in the country of Fugahwei by a tribe of indigenous people who do not have access to USPS, FedEx, UPS etc. Therefor it has to be carried out by dog sled to the nearest customs house that is approximately 2000 kilometers away where it sits waiting for the paperwork to be completed for shipment to the manufacturer. It is then fabricated into the desired part. Barring coffee breaks, weekends, bad hair days or zombie attacks it is sent immediately on it's way only to arrive either damaged, non-functioning or the wrong part to begin with.
In 1974 I bought one of the first FIAT X1/9 models in California. Fun car, but several weeks after delivery I noticed the throttle cable was fraying at the carburetor. I went to the dealer to have it replaced under warranty and he pointed to five others in his shop that were waiting for the same part. FIAT had underestimated how many of these would break and had not stocked enough in the US for this new car to meet the demand of a poor routing mechanism. I did find that a VW Transporter cable would work and was the correct diameter (an unusual 0.8mm rather than the common 1.0mm) so I bought two (one as a spare if I need it) and gave one to the dealer and had him install it and tweak the cable guide mechanism to run free and stop the wear. I told him where I got the cable and the VW part number. He was so happy to know where he could get the part and get those other cars out of his shop that he gave me a free oil/filter change and tire rotation. To this day I think of some guy in the VW parts distribution ordering center scratching his head wondering why there was a sudden demand for relatively obscure Transporter throttle cables. 😂
It's the same with Tesla. They have no back up parts on hand unless it's regular maintenance. My neighbors were without their Teslas for over a month for 2 different issues.
I don't bug my mechanic. I know he wants my car out of his shop more than I do. He doesn't make money on storage. His space is limited and he always has a next customer to deal with, so he doesn't keep cars taking up space if he doesn't have to. It took me 30 years, in a city full of mechanics, to find a mechanic I never had to question (except for advice or to increase my understanding of new tech).
@@eugeneweeks3325 I know. It wouldn't have taken me 30 years to find one I could trust if they all operated like my current mechanic. That said both cars I take to him are far out of warranty. With a warranty claim you're dealing with dealerships, even if indirectly. Problem with warranty work is that nobody wants to do it because the rate the car companies pay is not the market rate so no profit for anybody involved.
I’m about 100 miles north of Miami, in an area where many people have more money than sense. I’m a couple of miles from a Maserati dealership that seems to be doing just fine.
I live in Newport Beach in So Cal. We have some of the wealthiest dealers in the country. If these people could spend more money on a car, they will. Just for status on a Sunday drive.
Greens radiators in Johannesburg will make you the same thing for less money but out of brass. So in 60 years a leak can be soldered 😀 I had a Maserati Sebring series one (they made a lot of them, 180 or so) my radiator took a week. I paid the same price as a new Mercedes OEM one.
Making radiators isn't all that hard. Back in the 70's, some radiators were kept in stock, but most were fabricated in under an hour. And no, they didn't cost a thousand bucks either.
I work at the post office fixing damaged boxes. I found a box with a dirty oil pan from eBay in the corner of the room. Apparently, no one wants to do the dirty boxes . So, I took the time to fix it so that the project could be completed whoever ordered the part.
I've had to have a transmission replaced on warranty by Toyota. They sent an engineer to the shop to help disassemble, inspect, and package the transmission to send back to the lab in Japan. Apparently mine was one of the first of a major issue they found. The dealership provided me with a free rental for the entire repair duration (1 month). I was good with it. But, these days - we have a spare car for the rare times we need to leave a car at the shop more than a few hours.
Hi the Wizards. Anthony from Apollo Car Services. London UK. I admire your bravery using Ebay. I stopped ages ago after being sent wrong /defective parts from the box or worse, when the part fails after weeks or months. Those sellers won't pay for the additional time you put to repair the same thing again. If the part is not available from my trusted shops and not repairable then I contact the dealers, if the part is discontinued at the dealership, then the search for the holly grail starts...
Wizard, you hit the nail on the head with eBay. For hard to find parts, it's hard to beat. For those used MB screens, order several, find a good one hopefully and return the rest.
The injector shipping story was brutal! How can a company do business by mail and tell a customer that? And they're still in business! Great Video Wizard today! Always love your repair nightmare stories. Had something happen to me with my wife's Mercedes on the stands with the transmission cover off. All I needed to do was refill the fluid. But NO!!! Our model had a newer pan that needed an additional plastic attachment to fill it with. Took me 3 days through Ebay. Then, took me only 20 minutes to finish. THEY DONT WANT US REPAIRING OUR OWN CARS!!!
I LOVE the Car Wizard...I'm in LA and I am certain that the Car Wizard presides over tens of thousands of Americans who love their cars and are suffering from serious Car Wizard-envy. God I wish I lived in Kansas...I would take all our cars to him. I know a lot about car mechanics, but still, as a result of watching the Wizard's videos, I have much more intelligent conversations with my local mechanics. Thank you sir for all you do!!!
That price WAS a surprise, I guessed the same amount that Mrs Wizard did! I must add that this is not really an early model. I remember the knife-edged Quattroportes that hit Marin County in the early 80s... They had styling of the LM002, the reliability of a Jaguar, and the fuel economy of a school bus.
Vipers are notorious for having hard to find parts and also insane markups, tons of their parts come from other Chrysler products but once they slap a Viper logo on it the price gets multiplied by 20.
I appreciate the deep dive on the GLA screen. eBay is usually good for stuff like this and getting a "bad" screen doesn't have anything to do with all GLA screens being junk or something. Details matter.
My Nissan Kicks went in for a small oil leak under warranty, was only supposed to be in there for a day, they ended up snapping a bolt off in the block and screwing up the threads so bad they couldn't be repaired. Warranty paid for a new engine and I was out of a vehicle for a month and a half. I get why this stuff happens now lmao.
10:08 - I totally feel you. On a totally unrelated business but we called our vendor asking why they haven't replied to our email and they literally said the same thing: oh I haven't been in the office and I will try to get to it by the end of the week. WTH?!? It will be like 5 days and I had previously sent multiple emails but finally broke down to call because I didn't even get a courtesy response from anyone. Like this is not how you guys run a business which is strange because we haven't had issues like this in the past and have been with them since 2018. Customer service: it's a lost art.
Eons ago I worked at a “foreign car dealership”. They sold some British cars and would try to service any British car, plus selling and servicing Volvos. Volvo had a great idea; every dealer would stock seldom needed replacement parts. That way parts are only a state or two away, rather than on a distant continent. The dealers were partially compensated by Volvo. It made things easier for everyone. Meanwhile, the British parts seemed to be handled by Monty Python
Volvo has an excellent parts supply chain, I used to have an S60R which is a very rare 20 year old car and I had absolutely no issues finding or shipping OEM parts. I actually went into a local dealer cause I was bored one day and wanted to replace my air filter and even the parts guy was amazed they had one in stock, it's a one of one filter it's not used in any other Volvo 🤣 🤣🤣
@@rolandthethompsongunner64 Yep and he always seems to make a big deal about the cost of repairs but I suspect that's just an act for the sake of the video. Adding a little drama to what would be another boring video.
I got my catalytic converter replaced a year ago on my 2012 Ford Expedition, then one side went bad. That was over a year ago. It’s warranty, so it won’t be out of pocket, but the waiting game has been insane. Backordered, short supply, stopped production, or workers went on strike. I finally have an appointment to fix it tomorrow. 😅
Whenever I send a vehicle in for repairs, I tell the mechanic there is no rush. I have another vehicle that I can use and I don't want to rush them on necessary repairs. Great video as always. Great to see Tyler in your video. Man, the person who owns that 66 Chevelle has been really patient on getting their car repaired. It makes so many cameos. Love those old Chevelles.
The Maserati brand is today owned by FIAT group. I'm sure in Torino Milano or Roma, you could get that thermostat at every second or third parts shop, for under 30 Euro.
One of my shops waited on a new steering wheel for a 2017 Ford F-350 for 8 months before insurance totalled the vehicle. (For reference, the steering wheel on these trucks contains the SECM, which was damaged during the collision. Used parts often come from accident vehicles, and the SECM sets an irreversible flag anytime there's airbag deployment) It's not just exotics and classics that you can't get parts for. Over the last few years, I've had current-year model cars--domestic and import alike--that I couldn't get parts for.
Nothing will make you want to close up shop more than when you wait weeks for a part, and when it finally arrives it turns out to be defective. Especially in an industry like mine where we CAN'T get OEM parts because we might "hurt ourselves" replacing a battery on a computer or phone.
Sponsorships don't pay the bills. The only thing which makes sense, once a channel gets big, it's to advertise one's own business. That's what Doug DeMuro did. He started out plugging Autotrader, but eventually quit Autotrader and started his own company *_Cars and Bids._* If it weren't for the advertising opportunity for *_Cars and Bids,_* it would be pointless for Doug to continue making videos.
@@aliendroneservices6621the fact that you accented the name the way he says it shows that it works too lol. Only difference here is Wizard has a size and time limit on how much business he can have with a physical garage with limited space.
As a newer eBay seller, I’ve had a few instances where things got damaged in shipment. Having them shipped back costs the seller a second freight charge, which doesn’t make sense knowing the item can’t be repaired.
It would be a pleasure to have my car at your shop, I understand the parts problems. My mind would be at ease because of who you are. Unfortunately I live in southern New England so that's a bummer. Keep up the fantastic work you do.
Waited 2 months for a front splitter on my corvette due to COVID. The county paid due to a pothole and wouldn’t let it go until it was completely fixed at the dealer
I waited 5 months for aftermarket turbos on my BMW. OEM were $2k each. Aftermarket $1400 for both, and can handle more pressure than originals. They run fantastic but that Covid screwed everything up really bad.
I feel like its time we kick off the, "FIRST ANNUAL INVITATIONAL OMEGA AUTO SQUARE DANCE!" Anyone else wanna get in on this? Come on! Square dancing with Mr. & Mrs. wizard? Sounds like a blast! Lets get Travis Bell to DJ!
@@TheFrenchPug square dancing is a traditional social event in the south involving simple choreographed couples dance moves that are instructed by a caller that decides which move is next. Simple fun 😊
Thanks car wizzard. The explanation is sound, however the sting still hurts as a customer who has to rent a car while their daily driver is waiting for repairs.
The thought of you square dancing around the shop is A interesting thing! Maybe you should make a music video of that exact thing.. and machine shops and ebay are making a comback lol its all full circle at this point
Thanks for the video. As someone who's used to delays in other industries (agriculture) and stuff like waiting on parts I get it, but it's nice to hear about the specifics and such within your industry.
Time and spare parts delivery are a fact of life with repairing anything these days. I repair vintage electronics and spend hours trying to find spare parts, and these days you just have to be patient and wait for them to arrive, Air Mail priority delivery is just more expensive and not that much faster! Dealing with impatient customers is an art, some just refuse to understand that it is not me causing the delay.
An excellent video. Agreed, even dealers seem to start running out of parts a few years after a model is discontinued. I have a car that was built for 9 years with few changes. The dealer network started having problems sourcing many parts 3 years after the model discontinued.
Well, as a business owner myself, I can say I’ve dealt with this a lot. Bring some in for repairs “keep in mind the vehicle is also work equipment” I understand things happen, I understand shipping delays and issues finding parts, but where I have the issue with a lot of shop owners is communication. Just informing me what’s going on with my vehicle or of any delays is a way to keep me as a customer. But keeping my truck for a week and you can’t give me any information I’ll move on
Thanks for the lecture. It’s all about communication. If everything is communicated right the customers will me more pleasant. It always goes both ways.
Reminds me of the time when working part-time for a towing company that was connected with a motor club that had three letters for a name...... we would get calls for tire changes. I get this one call to a driver in someone's driveway with a flat. No problem.... where's your spare? I asked him. ".......you don't have a tire to change out the flat?" Totally clueless about the logistics of having HIS tire sitting around waiting for HIM to get a flat. SMH
Once I bought a lower arm and could not fit although it looked the same. After comparing with oe it was slightly different, but fleabay had the part number as it fitting. To say I was pissed off is understatement. When you agree for a timing belt replaced with a mechanic and later pop into the garage the car was't even moved. I just took it away and did myself.
I was looking for a new headlight switch for my 2008 Ford Ranger. It's unavailable from Ford. The aftermarket doesn't have any. One guy on Ebay has a new old stock switch for $263.00. I haven't paid for one yet.
It’s the same thing as the power steering reservoir for the 2009-2011 Buick Lucerne with the 3.9L V6; GM discontinued it, the Aftermarket hasn’t even tried making one, and even eBay turns up nothing. Basically your only options for it is to repair your original reservoir, or try your luck at a junkyard.
My '22 Ford Bronco needed a new MIC top replaced, took 3 weeks to get everything, dealership called me, made a appointment to have it replaced, they scheduled me in 4 days. Dealership had my Bronco for 18 days, apparently there still was a missing part. At least the dealership gave me a new Lincoln with 180 miles on it while they had my vehicle.
Dealt with this myself, I have an old Mercedez that needed an ignition coil, but then when I got it, I realized that it looked the same but it was mirrored to fit the foreign ones! So then I had to go through the process and wait even longer! took about 4 weeks!
I know how you feel Car Wizard. I am in the U.K and would like to tell you about the Iconic London Black Cab " Taxi ". Since 2015 the company who now owns and makes the Taxi is owned by a Chinese company. I deal with 3 of these Taxis. Suddenly there is a lack of spare parts. One mayor example is the Clutch Kit. Apparently there was only one company in the U.K making them and they have stopped. So now if you have a Manual taxi and the clutch fails you are in cloud nine because you can not get one. The only cause of action is to get a used 2nd hand one at an exorbitant price ( 5 or 6 times the price of a new one ).I know of Taxi owners whose Taxis have been laid up for months because they can not get a Clutch Kit. The only other option is to scrap the Taxi and buy an Auto. As i say this is only one of many problems finding parts for the London Taxi. By the way Car Wizard I do not trust Ebay for the listing on this item. Just think . I pay a garage to take off my gearbox and the broken clutch only to find that the clutch I bought off Ebay is the wrong one. I've lost a lot of money because I still have to pay the garage for taking off my gear box. Hope you understand Car Wizard.
Nope, we don't do that here LOL. I hear you on that. One of the worst things about working at a dealership was waiters. You'd be hours deep into a big job and the service writer hands you a WO saying hey I have this waiter here, ughhh.
Waiting for parts and spending time chasing difficult to source parts, as a diy'er I can relate to that. If the shop takes a long time, double that for me. Then the kicker. When it finally arrives, it's either not the correct part or it doesn't fit because of being aftermarket. I fully understand!
I have no patience because time is money indeed, for everyone involved. I think I would start hating the poor car itself because of logistics scr*wing up. All hail the best sellers with parts easy to find.
Water pump failed 1 week before Christmas. Misdiagnosed by one garage. Moved the car to another garage, Christmas shutdown, part ordered in January took 3 weeks to come from Germany. No car for 6 weeks.
About E-bay, I'm rediscovering it. Recently I found the parts I needed, some genuine used one (like new) at a fraction of the price. The shipping to Canada is WAY quicker and simpler than what it used to be. Very amazed.
I've ordered parts off of eBay then next day gotten a we can't find it email. I suspect some of the sellers take pictures of a car in a yard (not their yard) and post on eBay parts they don't even own yet.
Had the exact same problem with the mercedes screen on my 2014 CLA45. Waited 6 months to get a screen though my car dealer but he couldn't get one (guessing also waiting for a used one) so eventually I got him to give me $1k back and I ordered an aftermarket screen with more functions and will install it myself. Only paid $500 for it
My record for down time with a car was six weeks with my 2012 Kia Soul when the top end failed. First week was the tear down and and summary to the warranty folks who took another week to approve the work, then two more weeks for the parts to ship from Korea THEN two weeks to replace and reinstall. Oh an yeah that was the end of that after market warranrty. I now have a car with 180,000 miles on the long block and like 40k on the top end
Customer service in this country and other places is crap as far as parts availability is concerned. Very few real craftsmen left in this day & age to custom-make things such as radiators, etc. There is also way too many "middle men" with fingers in the pie that slow down parts procurement and drive up the end user's price in the end. 35+ years in the automotive/heavy equipment repair business myself and have seen way too much of this sort of thing, especially in recent years, and the same crap being retired and trying to fix my own vehicles. Wizard, hang tough man, feel your pain in all this! Thank you for this video.
It is not only the exotics but just simple domestics also. I had an 83 chevy truck in for a new engine 6.2 diesel. Took me 5 months to get it back out. Issue was finding a 6.2 (damn near impossible) found lots of 6.5s. Ok this is turning into a conversion, same block but quite a few differences that have to be dealt with. Customers core was junk--blown piston through side of block. A lot of little things to make it right and of course everything found was on the other side of the country. Then you get the vendor sending you the wrong part even though you gave them the part number you wanted, 'cuz they thought they were being smart by sending you the part for the application. Things got severely bad during and after Covid with suppliers closing down or selling out
except for the time a dealership had my car for 2 weeks, and never found the source of the steering wheel vibration. turned out the spark plug wells were filled with oil, and they apparently never pulled more than the first boot. all 3 of the other ones were dripping oil.
My car was in in for a alignment, then the abs sensors was wrong, then steeringjoints was bad, then the brakes where bad...But the technichians took it one by one. And i love them, they where honsest! Next week I can get the state approval! (MOT) for some of You. I hope. I love honest mechanics! My wallet doesn't, but that is expected. I got a reliable car!
Can add to your story - waited nearly 3 months for a replacement wiring harness for a Jag. Said Jag had crashed because it was driven hard on a space-saver spare. The body work took about 10 days, but oh my, the electrical parts wait has the owner frothing. Zero understanding of why things don't work out like they desired, and no patience to listen to the why of it.
this might help some one, fun fact: most monochrome information lcds get dim because a backlight cap gets dry or pop, changing that capacitor (soldering required) will fix that problem, and also if the screen have some "burned areas" that is the polarized layer damaged, you can buy some polarized film and change it (you might need to clean some glue and apply new fresh glue).
I currently have a 1998 4.0 ranger with a misfire, I tried doing all the diagnostics I could do with the tools I had, aka a OBD reader and some basic hand tools but it stopped throwing codes for some reason even then the misfire was still very much there, so I decided to put it in a shop assuming they could fix it within a few days; it has been in the shop for almost 4 weeks now; in that time I could have had the tools ordered and shipped to me, and I could have probably fixed it by then, I am a competent enough to do heads if I needed to, but I thought it would be easier to take it to a shop. It took him over a week to even do a compression test, let alone even try a different part, I suggested that it might be a injector because of the way the misfire behaves, and since they couldn’t figure out what the misfire was from by that point they ordered a fuel injector to test if that was the problem. I am still waiting for them to get the part let alone test it to see if that’s the issue. I get that parts take a long time sometimes, but I too often see shops take on too much work or just don’t work on your vehicle for weeks, let alone have poor diagnostics. Edit: while technically the vehicle is drivable, the misfire is so severe that when the torque converter locks up around 45 mph it feels like it is going to shake itself to pieces. It used to throw codes, but for some reason the it just stopped, I’ve tried every throttle position and speed, but it won’t throw a code.
Apparently doesn’t always have to be exotic cars. During COVID I heard of a newer Taurus at a dealer that was down for over six months waiting for a new transmission to come in. Don’t know where the breakdown was. Just glad it wasn’t mine.
Wizard!! The mechanical side of repairs is not the only shops effected especially by foreign parts, We had our Jaguar in the body shop due to someone driving into it on the road! The cost was 15K!! Plus almost 6 weeks wait time!!
Yeah I can related to parts waiting. I needed to replace my rear calipers on my 2015 WRX as they were seized up. I needed to also replace my rotors and pads. I was able to get the rear rotors and disc brake pads from Autozone but no brake shoes or hardware. My brake shoes and hardware are a bit fatiqued but they work. Some minor noise but nothing dangerous. In any case, I found 2 new in box red painted OEM rear calipers for my car on ebay for $77 with shipping which is excellent. Came with most of the brake pad shims as well. They work great! I was looking around a lot and stumbled upon these brake calipers. I thought it may of been a scam but nope it is real after checking the seller out etc. Took little over a week for the calipers to arrive but in the end it was a successful repair. Waiting on the parts felt like forever of course. One thing also is if I do replace my rear brake parking shoes and hardware then will need to order them. Nobody actually stocks them in local auto stores. Interesting...But it is what it is. I'll live with my current parking brake shoes and hardware.
I was doing some hail claims a decade back outside of Corpus and the shop I went to the PDR guys rejected it and the shop recommended replacing the roof versus putting mud all over it. I approved it along with other hail related body repairs/pdr but the only issue was it was a new silverado and GM didn't have any roofs yet. As a matter of customer service I called the customer up and told him he should return the rental and drive his truck until the shop gets the new roof (max 30 days for the policy and he was at least a few days in already). Of course, the guy complained he didn't want to drive a vehicle full of dings and I shot back with frustration "you only have x days of rental left and I can't make you a new roof!" There was a minute of silence and he told me he would pick up his truck.
I totally agree with this! If a shop needs time, that's great. My horror story was that I had a Volvo XC60 that stayed in the exact same spot in the lot for 45 days at a local dealership. It couldn't have been diagnosed in the spot it was in, but I could drive past it and see... Still hasn't moved. IF they had called me to say, "we can't get to it yet", I would have been happy! But, every time I called or visited, they would say, Oh, it's going into the bay tomorrow. Same thing three days later, three days later, etc. It took a quarter year for me to get this car back, and... it came back with a check engine light, and a low tire, which was just one more slap to the face. It needed a new positive line from the battery to the ECU. The stuff you're talking about here isn't the same story. I'm happy to wait if you call me and talk to me about it. I'm certain that Omega is Johnny On The Spot with communication. Which is the big difference. Also, you're talking about cars that people need to wait for that HAVE been diagnosed.
if in the USA, u didn't have to tolerate that treatment. You need to step up and sound like u won't tolerate more flim flam from them, which dealerships are notorious for, esp if warrnty work of course, but even if not. And if newer/new car, u can get even more aggressive sounding and talk about the car not being of merchantable quality and that even if u can't get lemon buyback, u may take them to court. They don't want legal troubles usually, so some will snap to attention. The point is that so many of us americans in the past thirty yrs got used to be pushed around by medium size businesses like dealerships, and even some retail stores that are one-off, independant, non chains stores in my experience. Real slimey stuff has been going on for way too long. U don't have to tolerate it, at least not with passivity and docility. It's part of the same predatory bully hierarchy that is part of cultures like that of Russia, tho there it's on steroids
I do a lot of my job through eBay purchases. Get tons of tools too. After the Quartz crisis, it was pretty much over for watchmaking. Labor prices at least went up, unlike most other jobs.
The best sources of parts for my Auto-Union DKW cars are in Argentina and Brazil, where production of these cars continued long after they stopped making them in Germany. Although it usually only takes a week for them to arrive here in England, which I find impressive, it still is a week and the car is just sitting for the duration. If I forgot to order a part, or was unaware it's not included in a kit, go figure how many times Big Ben has to toll until they are here. So far, though, I'm happy with the quality of the parts supplied by South American vendors and they generally provide reasonably good service. However, having owned and still doing work on many classics, generally a substantial decline in quality of spares has been observed by me and other car guys around me over the past few years. We are now trying to get NOS parts whenever it's possible or makes sense, but of course there are limitations, for example, you don't want 50 year old NOS rubber parts or oil seals, etc. If you have the same experience in regard of the decline of component quality, it may warrant a video about that one day.
My daughter got rear ended in her brand new Chevy Trax on December 23. They are waiting on a rear quarter still, with no estimate on arrival. How can GM not be able to supply sheet metal for a vehicle in production! Because they can.
Even for official service center it's the same story. When I've dropped my vehicle to the Renault SC the boss told me that he has been waiting for a year to get a door lock for a vehicle as common as a Twingo 2
Another reason why I don't have an "exotic". But heck, a recent front brake job (with appointment) on my Honda was supposed to be in at morning and out that afternoon, but they had to keep it for *_2 nights_* because they were having trouble sourcing just a couple of parts. One part they had to have overnighted from a state away (which that charge was not passed on to me). If it wasn't for their courtesy driver and me having the option to work at home, I would have been peeved. But they kept me updated (and I prodded them they're remaining honest, and they were) and all ended up well in the end. That was the first time I had this issue with that shop.
Shipping even on the consumer side is ridiculous, I don't live on Amazon, but I order enough that the Prime membership made sense UNTIL COVID back in 2020. I use to be able to order second day stuff and actually get it in 2 days. After COVID, I'm lucky if I can get prime items in 7 days. I will admit some things have gotten a little better, some things are down to like 4 days, but still, that's prime. I have heard they will be adding a couple of buildings in my area, one of which will be less than 5 ish miles from me and another one around 50 ~ 60 miles. Hopefully that will bring the delivery speed back to what it once was, time will tell.
People in general are just impatient. "If you fail to plan, you fail to plan." That includes having a Plan B, C, D, etc. for those unforseen occurances.
I missed this vid! My car story. Power steering pup went out in 2020 on my 84k km owned since new 2009 Astra. 'Sorry bro, you cannot get that pump. Discontinued, no aftermarket or reman'
When I was younger I was very impatient...I want it now! In my mid twenty's I got a job at a very popular mom and pop gun store. That's where I learned patience. You see, firearms manufacturers, I assume it's the same with most manufacturers, set up their production line for a specific model and they turn out whatever number they determine they can sell for that year. Once the run is complete they retool for the next model in their rotation. They don't make any more of the first model until they have gone through their entire line of products they planned to make for that year. Well, if you want a model 1and they don't have any and every distributor that carries that brand also is sold out, you aren't getting that model 1 you've been drooling over until the manufacturer gets around to making more. That's assuming they haven't decided to discontinue the model 1. We all can be impatient and it makes sense when it's your only mode of transportation. Then it's not a want it's a very understandable necessity. Unfortunately that fact doesn't speed up Joe Dipstick in the shipping department of Parts Is Us located on the other side of the country. You'll get it when you get it. That being said, gun guys, in my experience, are a unique breed of impatient. Most could use a job in a popular gun store for a few months at least.
This is the same story for everyone, no matter what the car is. I work for a municipality and one of the fleet vehicles, a 2022 Ford Escape, had an issue where the heat would occasionally get stuck on the highest temperature setting. After the dealer finally saw the issue, they found the blend door would stick. 2 months later, the new part arrived to the dealer broken. That was over a month ago and the new part isn't expected to arrive for another 2 weeks. This is even a warranty repair on a like new vehicle.
Mrs. Wizard hit the nail on the head in one try. All "Specialty & Exotic" cars have certain parts that are made out of the extremely rare metal Un-Obtanium, It is mined only in the country of Fugahwei by a tribe of indigenous people who do not have access to USPS, FedEx, UPS etc. Therefor it has to be carried out by dog sled to the nearest customs house that is approximately 2000 kilometers away where it sits waiting for the paperwork to be completed for shipment to the manufacturer. It is then fabricated into the desired part. Barring coffee breaks, weekends, bad hair days or zombie attacks it is sent immediately on it's way only to arrive either damaged, non-functioning or the wrong part to begin with.
... The part is made by Fiat it does not matter what the box says
Tyler took his time getting the part for free winter storage at Wizzy's shop. Worked out well.
Therefor?
fix it again ...@@ron8935
Don't forget all shipments across the ocean are performed by a one-armed man in a canoe.
In 1974 I bought one of the first FIAT X1/9 models in California. Fun car, but several weeks after delivery I noticed the throttle cable was fraying at the carburetor. I went to the dealer to have it replaced under warranty and he pointed to five others in his shop that were waiting for the same part. FIAT had underestimated how many of these would break and had not stocked enough in the US for this new car to meet the demand of a poor routing mechanism.
I did find that a VW Transporter cable would work and was the correct diameter (an unusual 0.8mm rather than the common 1.0mm) so I bought two (one as a spare if I need it) and gave one to the dealer and had him install it and tweak the cable guide mechanism to run free and stop the wear.
I told him where I got the cable and the VW part number. He was so happy to know where he could get the part and get those other cars out of his shop that he gave me a free oil/filter change and tire rotation.
To this day I think of some guy in the VW parts distribution ordering center scratching his head wondering why there was a sudden demand for relatively obscure Transporter throttle cables. 😂
It's the same with Tesla. They have no back up parts on hand unless it's regular maintenance. My neighbors were without their Teslas for over a month for 2 different issues.
nice story!
Well and you was not able to get an universal HQ throttle cable from a Chevy speed shop replacing that crap Fiat throttle cable???
I don't bug my mechanic. I know he wants my car out of his shop more than I do. He doesn't make money on storage. His space is limited and he always has a next customer to deal with, so he doesn't keep cars taking up space if he doesn't have to. It took me 30 years, in a city full of mechanics, to find a mechanic I never had to question (except for advice or to increase my understanding of new tech).
👍
Not all mechanics operate that way. Sometimes they need to be nudged a bit to get stuff done in a timely manner. ESPECIALLY, if it’s a warranty claim.
@@eugeneweeks3325 I know. It wouldn't have taken me 30 years to find one I could trust if they all operated like my current mechanic. That said both cars I take to him are far out of warranty. With a warranty claim you're dealing with dealerships, even if indirectly. Problem with warranty work is that nobody wants to do it because the rate the car companies pay is not the market rate so no profit for anybody involved.
I fix my own cars unless a hydraulic lift is mandatory. Then, I suck it up. I've easily saved over $30k in my lifetime doing my own labor.
you would think that but my dad has had a shop take over 6 months of not touching it when all the parts are there
Grimes is a wizard in his own way. I hope he's paid well. Thanks for doing what you do and sharing with us!
I’m about 100 miles north of Miami, in an area where many people have more money than sense. I’m a couple of miles from a Maserati dealership that seems to be doing just fine.
Miami Ferrari has a checkers drive in, next door.
I live in Newport Beach in So Cal. We have some of the wealthiest dealers in the country. If these people could spend more money on a car, they will. Just for status on a Sunday drive.
That radiator for the 49 Cadillac is impressive. A one off custom job, and you found someone in this country willing to do it.
$1000 for a custom made radiator seems like a great deal. Probably discounted for marketing oppo.
Greens radiators in Johannesburg will make you the same thing for less money but out of brass. So in 60 years a leak can be soldered 😀
I had a Maserati Sebring series one (they made a lot of them, 180 or so) my radiator took a week. I paid the same price as a new Mercedes OEM one.
Making radiators isn't all that hard. Back in the 70's, some radiators were kept in stock, but most were fabricated in under an hour. And no, they didn't cost a thousand bucks either.
I remember that 500 cubic inch (8.2-liter) V-8 from the 70s. The Eldorado had it.
Since we don’t make much in America anymore, I agree, the radiator is impressive. Sad when you think about how much manufacturing we sent overseas.
Your so honest and straight forward, great to see !!
I work at the post office fixing damaged boxes. I found a box with a dirty oil pan from eBay in the corner of the room. Apparently, no one wants to do the dirty boxes . So, I took the time to fix it so that the project could be completed whoever ordered the part.
So, you fake out packages that were damaged so you can't be blamed for it?
@@TheFrenchPug 👍What a concept!
@@Michael-yi4mc I can't believe they actually have someone doing that. Lol
@@TheFrenchPug 👍Because the public doesn’t know how to wrap a box.
@@TheFrenchPugWhat
I've had to have a transmission replaced on warranty by Toyota. They sent an engineer to the shop to help disassemble, inspect, and package the transmission to send back to the lab in Japan. Apparently mine was one of the first of a major issue they found. The dealership provided me with a free rental for the entire repair duration (1 month). I was good with it. But, these days - we have a spare car for the rare times we need to leave a car at the shop more than a few hours.
Hi the Wizards. Anthony from Apollo Car Services. London UK. I admire your bravery using Ebay. I stopped ages ago after being sent wrong /defective parts from the box or worse, when the part fails after weeks or months. Those sellers won't pay for the additional time you put to repair the same thing again. If the part is not available from my trusted shops and not repairable then I contact the dealers, if the part is discontinued at the dealership, then the search for the holly grail starts...
Wizard, you hit the nail on the head with eBay. For hard to find parts, it's hard to beat.
For those used MB screens, order several, find a good one hopefully and return the rest.
The injector shipping story was brutal! How can a company do business by mail and tell a customer that? And they're still in business!
Great Video Wizard today! Always love your repair nightmare stories. Had something happen to me with my wife's Mercedes on the stands with the transmission cover off. All I needed to do was refill the fluid. But NO!!! Our model had a newer pan that needed an additional plastic attachment to fill it with. Took me 3 days through Ebay. Then, took me only 20 minutes to finish. THEY DONT WANT US REPAIRING OUR OWN CARS!!!
dont buy chinese crap
I LOVE the Car Wizard...I'm in LA and I am certain that the Car Wizard presides over tens of thousands of Americans who love their cars and are suffering from serious Car Wizard-envy. God I wish I lived in Kansas...I would take all our cars to him. I know a lot about car mechanics, but still, as a result of watching the Wizard's videos, I have much more intelligent conversations with my local mechanics. Thank you sir for all you do!!!
That price WAS a surprise, I guessed the same amount that Mrs Wizard did! I must add that this is not really an early model. I remember the knife-edged Quattroportes that hit Marin County in the early 80s... They had styling of the LM002, the reliability of a Jaguar, and the fuel economy of a school bus.
I know what you mean waiting on parts for the Viper. Mine was decommissioned for like 3 months as I found more stuff I wanted to replace!
Vipers are notorious for having hard to find parts and also insane markups, tons of their parts come from other Chrysler products but once they slap a Viper logo on it the price gets multiplied by 20.
@evelynsahoe8896 Yeah I've experienced that in my almost 2 years of ownership lol.
I appreciate the deep dive on the GLA screen. eBay is usually good for stuff like this and getting a "bad" screen doesn't have anything to do with all GLA screens being junk or something. Details matter.
My Nissan Kicks went in for a small oil leak under warranty, was only supposed to be in there for a day, they ended up snapping a bolt off in the block and screwing up the threads so bad they couldn't be repaired. Warranty paid for a new engine and I was out of a vehicle for a month and a half. I get why this stuff happens now lmao.
Nissan kicks, enough said.
that stealership should have offered you a loaner vehicle from their sales lot while you wait
@@KyleHaines-q2d Nissan = Japanese Chrysler 😯
Hey, a month and a half isn't that bad for a new engine. Congrats on that!
@@ricebike they did, I had a loaner for free the whole time.
Wizard is going to make a million pretty soon!
The only question is how it took so long. Great content here.
10:08 - I totally feel you. On a totally unrelated business but we called our vendor asking why they haven't replied to our email and they literally said the same thing: oh I haven't been in the office and I will try to get to it by the end of the week.
WTH?!? It will be like 5 days and I had previously sent multiple emails but finally broke down to call because I didn't even get a courtesy response from anyone. Like this is not how you guys run a business which is strange because we haven't had issues like this in the past and have been with them since 2018.
Customer service: it's a lost art.
Make sure you'll leave them a hellish review on google maps! One that will even make satan to crumble.
Eons ago I worked at a “foreign car dealership”. They sold some British cars and would try to service any British car, plus selling and servicing Volvos. Volvo had a great idea; every dealer would stock seldom needed replacement parts. That way parts are only a state or two away, rather than on a distant continent. The dealers were partially compensated by Volvo. It made things easier for everyone. Meanwhile, the British parts seemed to be handled by Monty Python
I live in the UK and waiting for spare parts has been the same for years, if it arrives in a couple of weeks
you have been lucky.
Maybe Marty Feldman.
Volvo has an excellent parts supply chain, I used to have an S60R which is a very rare 20 year old car and I had absolutely no issues finding or shipping OEM parts. I actually went into a local dealer cause I was bored one day and wanted to replace my air filter and even the parts guy was amazed they had one in stock, it's a one of one filter it's not used in any other Volvo 🤣 🤣🤣
That's a cool story. Volvo was always ahead of their time and made solid cars. They don't seem to have that reputation anymore.
You mean swedish
At least with Hoovie, he understands about delays. He's experienced enough to know how it works
Hovie has another car to use. Lots of them.
He owns enough cars not to care. Most of us don’t.
Mr. Wizard is getting stuck on the words actual and actually.
Plus, he has an extra car to drive :)
@@rolandthethompsongunner64 Yep and he always seems to make a big deal about the cost of repairs but I suspect that's just an act for the sake of the video. Adding a little drama to what would be another boring video.
I got my catalytic converter replaced a year ago on my 2012 Ford Expedition, then one side went bad. That was over a year ago. It’s warranty, so it won’t be out of pocket, but the waiting game has been insane. Backordered, short supply, stopped production, or workers went on strike. I finally have an appointment to fix it tomorrow. 😅
Whenever I send a vehicle in for repairs, I tell the mechanic there is no rush. I have another vehicle that I can use and I don't want to rush them on necessary repairs. Great video as always. Great to see Tyler in your video. Man, the person who owns that 66 Chevelle has been really patient on getting their car repaired. It makes so many cameos. Love those old Chevelles.
I believe that is Wizard's car. He was going to swap in a jaguar v12 if I recall correctly.
@@jeffreypgorman yes, it is gone now.
My car has been at the dealer for 3 months. Because I watch you videos I know that patience is key. And don’t mind waiting for it to be fix correctly.
I would abandon the junkbox & get another car.
The Maserati brand is today owned by FIAT group.
I'm sure in Torino Milano or Roma, you could get that thermostat at every second or third parts shop, for under 30 Euro.
Fiat is bankrupt were ar taken over and fusioned with Peugeot and Opel
One of my shops waited on a new steering wheel for a 2017 Ford F-350 for 8 months before insurance totalled the vehicle. (For reference, the steering wheel on these trucks contains the SECM, which was damaged during the collision. Used parts often come from accident vehicles, and the SECM sets an irreversible flag anytime there's airbag deployment)
It's not just exotics and classics that you can't get parts for. Over the last few years, I've had current-year model cars--domestic and import alike--that I couldn't get parts for.
Nothing will make you want to close up shop more than when you wait weeks for a part, and when it finally arrives it turns out to be defective. Especially in an industry like mine where we CAN'T get OEM parts because we might "hurt ourselves" replacing a battery on a computer or phone.
car wizard needs an ebay motors sponsorship, its be a pretty relevant one
Sponsorships don't pay the bills. The only thing which makes sense, once a channel gets big, it's to advertise one's own business. That's what Doug DeMuro did. He started out plugging Autotrader, but eventually quit Autotrader and started his own company *_Cars and Bids._* If it weren't for the advertising opportunity for *_Cars and Bids,_* it would be pointless for Doug to continue making videos.
@@aliendroneservices6621the fact that you accented the name the way he says it shows that it works too lol. Only difference here is Wizard has a size and time limit on how much business he can have with a physical garage with limited space.
As a newer eBay seller, I’ve had a few instances where things got damaged in shipment. Having them shipped back costs the seller a second freight charge, which doesn’t make sense knowing the item can’t be repaired.
Best to give your mechanic a rare, friendly query. NOT a ticked off one.
It would be a pleasure to have my car at your shop, I understand the parts problems. My mind would be at ease because of who you are. Unfortunately I live in southern New England so that's a bummer. Keep up the fantastic work you do.
Waited 3 months for Toyota struts for my 2017 Highlander during COVID.
Waited 2 months for a front splitter on my corvette due to COVID. The county paid due to a pothole and wouldn’t let it go until it was completely fixed at the dealer
I waited 5 months for aftermarket turbos on my BMW. OEM were $2k each. Aftermarket $1400 for both, and can handle more pressure than originals. They run fantastic but that Covid screwed everything up really bad.
@@Rob_S_Z06Wow. That's cool that they took care of you though. They would just tell us to go pound sand in California.
Let's do it guys and gals! LESS THAN 7,000 more to go!
3/5/2024
Wow!!! 1 million on a car you tube channel? Very, very good Wizard and Wife and crew!!!
That radiator is beautiful. Nice work.
I feel like its time we kick off the, "FIRST ANNUAL INVITATIONAL OMEGA AUTO SQUARE DANCE!"
Anyone else wanna get in on this? Come on! Square dancing with Mr. & Mrs. wizard? Sounds like a blast! Lets get Travis Bell to DJ!
What is square dancing?
@@TheFrenchPug square dancing is a traditional social event in the south involving simple choreographed couples dance moves that are instructed by a caller that decides which move is next. Simple fun 😊
@@JamnesBrimage Oh crap. Then I know I couldn't do it :) lol
@@TheFrenchPugYou also need a little bit of incest, moonshine, and pointy hats to have real square dancing 😂
its taking Autozone 2 days to normally get next day delivery. People at warehouse are scanning the part but Not placing part on delivery truck.
Rockauto has a lot of parts that can be hard to find. That water pump for the GT500, they have a MOTORCRAFT one on there for around $300
Thanks car wizzard. The explanation is sound, however the sting still hurts as a customer who has to rent a car while their daily driver is waiting for repairs.
That's the killer.
The thought of you square dancing around the shop is A interesting thing! Maybe you should make a music video of that exact thing.. and machine shops and ebay are making a comback lol its all full circle at this point
Thanks for the video. As someone who's used to delays in other industries (agriculture) and stuff like waiting on parts I get it, but it's nice to hear about the specifics and such within your industry.
For Ford hard to find parts call Green Sales in Cincinnati Oh. They buy all discontinued Ford parts.
This video is a real game changer for the automotive world..................😝😝😝
Time and spare parts delivery are a fact of life with repairing anything these days.
I repair vintage electronics and spend hours trying to find spare parts, and these days
you just have to be patient and wait for them to arrive, Air Mail priority delivery is just
more expensive and not that much faster!
Dealing with impatient customers is an art, some just refuse to understand that it is not
me causing the delay.
I'm a former Marine & knew this phrase instantly! Hurry up & wait should have been our motto,not first to fight..
An excellent video. Agreed, even dealers seem to start running out of parts a few years after a model is discontinued. I have a car that was built for 9 years with few changes. The dealer network started having problems sourcing many parts 3 years after the model discontinued.
@carwizard you are exactly right with this video. For the GT500, Rockauto has both parts you needed, OE Motorcraft available.
Really do like that Quatreoporte in that color. Beautiful piece of automotive art.
Well, as a business owner myself, I can say I’ve dealt with this a lot. Bring some in for repairs “keep in mind the vehicle is also work equipment” I understand things happen, I understand shipping delays and issues finding parts, but where I have the issue with a lot of shop owners is communication. Just informing me what’s going on with my vehicle or of any delays is a way to keep me as a customer. But keeping my truck for a week and you can’t give me any information I’ll move on
Thanks for the lecture. It’s all about communication. If everything is communicated right the customers will me more pleasant. It always goes both ways.
It's like as soon as a car is discontinued, the manufacturer is not obligated to make parts after that. Even aftermarket parts are sketchy
Aren't they usually suppose to do so for about 10 years?
@@bakgammonThere's no such law in the US that requires to do so
@@kclefthanded427 Ahh good to know. Thanks.
I think at least for emissions parts surely@@kclefthanded427
So well explained, Wizard.
If you keep the customer informed. They know what happening.
I wish the wizards shop was closer to me. A honest mechanic is hard to find.
He does great work but probably charges BANK!!!
Reminds me of the time when working part-time for a towing company that was connected with a motor club that had three letters for a name...... we would get calls for tire changes. I get this one call to a driver in someone's driveway with a flat. No problem.... where's your spare? I asked him. ".......you don't have a tire to change out the flat?" Totally clueless about the logistics of having HIS tire sitting around waiting for HIM to get a flat. SMH
Once I bought a lower arm and could not fit although it looked the same. After comparing with oe it was slightly different, but fleabay had the part number as it fitting. To say I was pissed off is understatement.
When you agree for a timing belt replaced with a mechanic and later pop into the garage the car was't even moved. I just took it away and did myself.
I was looking for a new headlight switch for my 2008 Ford Ranger. It's unavailable from Ford. The aftermarket doesn't have any. One guy on Ebay has a new old stock switch for $263.00. I haven't paid for one yet.
Looks like a trip to the boneyard bro
It’s the same thing as the power steering reservoir for the 2009-2011 Buick Lucerne with the 3.9L V6; GM discontinued it, the Aftermarket hasn’t even tried making one, and even eBay turns up nothing. Basically your only options for it is to repair your original reservoir, or try your luck at a junkyard.
My '22 Ford Bronco needed a new MIC top replaced, took 3 weeks to get everything, dealership called me, made a appointment to have it replaced, they scheduled me in 4 days. Dealership had my Bronco for 18 days, apparently there still was a missing part. At least the dealership gave me a new Lincoln with 180 miles on it while they had my vehicle.
Snow is melting... Weather is getting better, It's almost Viper time.
Awesome and outstanding as always.Thanks for sharing and taking us along
Dealt with this myself, I have an old Mercedez that needed an ignition coil, but then when I got it, I realized that it looked the same but it was mirrored to fit the foreign ones! So then I had to go through the process and wait even longer! took about 4 weeks!
I know how you feel Car Wizard. I am in the U.K and would like to tell you about the Iconic London Black Cab " Taxi ". Since 2015 the company who now owns and makes the Taxi is owned by a Chinese company. I deal with 3 of these Taxis. Suddenly there is a lack of spare parts. One mayor example is the Clutch Kit. Apparently there was only one company in the U.K making them and they have stopped. So now if you have a Manual taxi and the clutch fails you are in cloud nine because you can not get one. The only cause of action is to get a used 2nd hand one at an exorbitant price ( 5 or 6 times the price of a new one ).I know of Taxi owners whose Taxis have been laid up for months because they can not get a Clutch Kit. The only other option is to scrap the Taxi and buy an Auto. As i say this is only one of many problems finding parts for the London Taxi. By the way Car Wizard I do not trust Ebay for the listing on this item. Just think . I pay a garage to take off my gearbox and the broken clutch only to find that the clutch I bought off Ebay is the wrong one. I've lost a lot of money because I still have to pay the garage for taking off my gear box. Hope you understand Car Wizard.
Work at a Toyota dealer, and we've had an aygo sitting for half a year + waiting for parts that never arrives...
That's Hoovie's 1940's Chrysler in the background😂🤣
Nope, we don't do that here LOL. I hear you on that. One of the worst things about working at a dealership was waiters. You'd be hours deep into a big job and the service writer hands you a WO saying hey I have this waiter here, ughhh.
Waiting for parts and spending time chasing difficult to source parts, as a diy'er I can relate to that. If the shop takes a long time, double that for me. Then the kicker. When it finally arrives, it's either not the correct part or it doesn't fit because of being aftermarket. I fully understand!
I have no patience because time is money indeed, for everyone involved. I think I would start hating the poor car itself because of logistics scr*wing up. All hail the best sellers with parts easy to find.
Don’t buy obscure cars unless you service them yourself
get a Tesla
Water pump failed 1 week before Christmas. Misdiagnosed by one garage. Moved the car to another garage, Christmas shutdown, part ordered in January took 3 weeks to come from Germany. No car for 6 weeks.
About E-bay, I'm rediscovering it. Recently I found the parts I needed, some genuine used one (like new) at a fraction of the price. The shipping to Canada is WAY quicker and simpler than what it used to be. Very amazed.
Which is why in my shop I keep my customers updated on there car even if it’s not the news they want to hear . Communication with customers is key
We do a similar swap on the 300ZX. Late model injectors work so much better than earlier ones. Just require a pretty cheap adapter.
Rock Auto appears to have that pulley also $117.89 FoMoCo #7R3Z8678B Fits GT500 according to Ford also have a Dayco $107
I've ordered parts off of eBay then next day gotten a we can't find it email. I suspect some of the sellers take pictures of a car in a yard (not their yard) and post on eBay parts they don't even own yet.
Had the exact same problem with the mercedes screen on my 2014 CLA45. Waited 6 months to get a screen though my car dealer but he couldn't get one (guessing also waiting for a used one) so eventually I got him to give me $1k back and I ordered an aftermarket screen with more functions and will install it myself. Only paid $500 for it
My record for down time with a car was six weeks with my 2012 Kia Soul when the top end failed. First week was the tear down and and summary to the warranty folks who took another week to approve the work, then two more weeks for the parts to ship from Korea THEN two weeks to replace and reinstall. Oh an yeah that was the end of that after market warranrty. I now have a car with 180,000 miles on the long block and like 40k on the top end
Customer service in this country and other places is crap as far as parts availability is concerned. Very few real craftsmen left in this day & age to custom-make things such as radiators, etc. There is also way too many "middle men" with fingers in the pie that slow down parts procurement and drive up the end user's price in the end.
35+ years in the automotive/heavy equipment repair business myself and have seen way too much of this sort of thing, especially in recent years, and the same crap being retired and trying to fix my own vehicles. Wizard, hang tough man, feel your pain in all this! Thank you for this video.
It is not only the exotics but just simple domestics also. I had an 83 chevy truck in for a new engine 6.2 diesel. Took me 5 months to get it back out. Issue was finding a 6.2 (damn near impossible) found lots of 6.5s. Ok this is turning into a conversion, same block but quite a few differences that have to be dealt with. Customers core was junk--blown piston through side of block. A lot of little things to make it right and of course everything found was on the other side of the country. Then you get the vendor sending you the wrong part even though you gave them the part number you wanted, 'cuz they thought they were being smart by sending you the part for the application. Things got severely bad during and after Covid with suppliers closing down or selling out
except for the time a dealership had my car for 2 weeks, and never found the source of the steering wheel vibration. turned out the spark plug wells were filled with oil, and they apparently never pulled more than the first boot. all 3 of the other ones were dripping oil.
My car was in in for a alignment, then the abs sensors was wrong, then steeringjoints was bad, then the brakes where bad...But the technichians took it one by one. And i love them, they where honsest! Next week I can get the state approval! (MOT) for some of You. I hope. I love honest mechanics! My wallet doesn't, but that is expected. I got a reliable car!
Can add to your story - waited nearly 3 months for a replacement wiring harness for a Jag. Said Jag had crashed because it was driven hard on a space-saver spare. The body work took about 10 days, but oh my, the electrical parts wait has the owner frothing. Zero understanding of why things don't work out like they desired, and no patience to listen to the why of it.
I had a fuel pump fail on a two year old Mercury Sable. It took the dealership six weeks to get a replacement.
It's because wizard is always making videos instead of working on the cars, lol!
that is very mean! but very funny
Fr 😂
Because Hoovie bumps them, if he needs work done.
Some truth in that 😂
😂😂😂😂😅
this might help some one, fun fact: most monochrome information lcds get dim because a backlight cap gets dry or pop, changing that capacitor (soldering required) will fix that problem, and also if the screen have some "burned areas" that is the polarized layer damaged, you can buy some polarized film and change it (you might need to clean some glue and apply new fresh glue).
I currently have a 1998 4.0 ranger with a misfire, I tried doing all the diagnostics I could do with the tools I had, aka a OBD reader and some basic hand tools but it stopped throwing codes for some reason even then the misfire was still very much there, so I decided to put it in a shop assuming they could fix it within a few days; it has been in the shop for almost 4 weeks now; in that time I could have had the tools ordered and shipped to me, and I could have probably fixed it by then, I am a competent enough to do heads if I needed to, but I thought it would be easier to take it to a shop. It took him over a week to even do a compression test, let alone even try a different part, I suggested that it might be a injector because of the way the misfire behaves, and since they couldn’t figure out what the misfire was from by that point they ordered a fuel injector to test if that was the problem. I am still waiting for them to get the part let alone test it to see if that’s the issue.
I get that parts take a long time sometimes, but I too often see shops take on too much work or just don’t work on your vehicle for weeks, let alone have poor diagnostics.
Edit: while technically the vehicle is drivable, the misfire is so severe that when the torque converter locks up around 45 mph it feels like it is going to shake itself to pieces. It used to throw codes, but for some reason the it just stopped, I’ve tried every throttle position and speed, but it won’t throw a code.
Apparently doesn’t always have to be exotic cars. During COVID I heard of a newer Taurus at a dealer that was down for over six months waiting for a new transmission to come in. Don’t know where the breakdown was. Just glad it wasn’t mine.
ln my case as well ordering the right part is a nightmare most of the time.....Thanks Wizard and Grimes...
Shoe🇺🇸
Wizard!! The mechanical side of repairs is not the only shops effected especially by foreign parts, We had our Jaguar in the body shop due to someone driving into it on the road! The cost was 15K!! Plus almost 6 weeks wait time!!
Yeah I can related to parts waiting. I needed to replace my rear calipers on my 2015 WRX as they were seized up. I needed to also replace my rotors and pads. I was able to get the rear rotors and disc brake pads from Autozone but no brake shoes or hardware. My brake shoes and hardware are a bit fatiqued but they work. Some minor noise but nothing dangerous.
In any case, I found 2 new in box red painted OEM rear calipers for my car on ebay for $77 with shipping which is excellent. Came with most of the brake pad shims as well. They work great! I was looking around a lot and stumbled upon these brake calipers. I thought it may of been a scam but nope it is real after checking the seller out etc. Took little over a week for the calipers to arrive but in the end it was a successful repair. Waiting on the parts felt like forever of course.
One thing also is if I do replace my rear brake parking shoes and hardware then will need to order them. Nobody actually stocks them in local auto stores. Interesting...But it is what it is. I'll live with my current parking brake shoes and hardware.
I was doing some hail claims a decade back outside of Corpus and the shop I went to the PDR guys rejected it and the shop recommended replacing the roof versus putting mud all over it. I approved it along with other hail related body repairs/pdr but the only issue was it was a new silverado and GM didn't have any roofs yet. As a matter of customer service I called the customer up and told him he should return the rental and drive his truck until the shop gets the new roof (max 30 days for the policy and he was at least a few days in already). Of course, the guy complained he didn't want to drive a vehicle full of dings and I shot back with frustration "you only have x days of rental left and I can't make you a new roof!" There was a minute of silence and he told me he would pick up his truck.
I totally agree with this! If a shop needs time, that's great. My horror story was that I had a Volvo XC60 that stayed in the exact same spot in the lot for 45 days at a local dealership. It couldn't have been diagnosed in the spot it was in, but I could drive past it and see... Still hasn't moved. IF they had called me to say, "we can't get to it yet", I would have been happy! But, every time I called or visited, they would say, Oh, it's going into the bay tomorrow. Same thing three days later, three days later, etc. It took a quarter year for me to get this car back, and... it came back with a check engine light, and a low tire, which was just one more slap to the face. It needed a new positive line from the battery to the ECU.
The stuff you're talking about here isn't the same story. I'm happy to wait if you call me and talk to me about it. I'm certain that Omega is Johnny On The Spot with communication. Which is the big difference. Also, you're talking about cars that people need to wait for that HAVE been diagnosed.
if in the USA, u didn't have to tolerate that treatment. You need to step up and sound like u won't tolerate more flim flam from them, which dealerships are notorious for, esp if warrnty work of course, but even if not. And if newer/new car, u can get even more aggressive sounding and talk about the car not being of merchantable quality and that even if u can't get lemon buyback, u may take them to court. They don't want legal troubles usually, so some will snap to attention. The point is that so many of us americans in the past thirty yrs got used to be pushed around by medium size businesses like dealerships, and even some retail stores that are one-off, independant, non chains stores in my experience. Real slimey stuff has been going on for way too long. U don't have to tolerate it, at least not with passivity and docility. It's part of the same predatory bully hierarchy that is part of cultures like that of Russia, tho there it's on steroids
THANKS!
I'm pretty much done with E-Bay amd Facebook Marketplace parts. Getting bad stuff, wrong stuff, and having a hassle returning stuff.
I do a lot of my job through eBay purchases. Get tons of tools too. After the Quartz crisis, it was pretty much over for watchmaking. Labor prices at least went up, unlike most other jobs.
The best sources of parts for my Auto-Union DKW cars are in Argentina and Brazil, where production of these cars continued long after they stopped making them in Germany.
Although it usually only takes a week for them to arrive here in England, which I find impressive, it still is a week and the car is just sitting for the duration. If I forgot to order a part, or was unaware it's not included in a kit, go figure how many times Big Ben has to toll until they are here.
So far, though, I'm happy with the quality of the parts supplied by South American vendors and they generally provide reasonably good service.
However, having owned and still doing work on many classics, generally a substantial decline in quality of spares has been observed by me and other car guys around me over the past few years. We are now trying to get NOS parts whenever it's possible or makes sense, but of course there are limitations, for example, you don't want 50 year old NOS rubber parts or oil seals, etc.
If you have the same experience in regard of the decline of component quality, it may warrant a video about that one day.
My daughter got rear ended in her brand new Chevy Trax on December 23. They are waiting on a rear quarter still, with no estimate on arrival. How can GM not be able to supply sheet metal for a vehicle in production! Because they can.
Even for official service center it's the same story.
When I've dropped my vehicle to the Renault SC the boss told me that he has been waiting for a year to get a door lock for a vehicle as common as a Twingo 2
Another reason why I don't have an "exotic".
But heck, a recent front brake job (with appointment) on my Honda was supposed to be in at morning and out that afternoon, but they had to keep it for *_2 nights_* because they were having trouble sourcing just a couple of parts. One part they had to have overnighted from a state away (which that charge was not passed on to me).
If it wasn't for their courtesy driver and me having the option to work at home, I would have been peeved. But they kept me updated (and I prodded them they're remaining honest, and they were) and all ended up well in the end. That was the first time I had this issue with that shop.
Shipping even on the consumer side is ridiculous, I don't live on Amazon, but I order enough that the Prime membership made sense UNTIL COVID back in 2020. I use to be able to order second day stuff and actually get it in 2 days. After COVID, I'm lucky if I can get prime items in 7 days. I will admit some things have gotten a little better, some things are down to like 4 days, but still, that's prime.
I have heard they will be adding a couple of buildings in my area, one of which will be less than 5 ish miles from me and another one around 50 ~ 60 miles. Hopefully that will bring the delivery speed back to what it once was, time will tell.
People in general are just impatient.
"If you fail to plan, you fail to plan."
That includes having a Plan B, C, D, etc. for those unforseen occurances.
LOL......"plan to fail".
I thought it was "if you fail to plan, you have effectively planned to fail."
@@heavenhelpus479 Typo on my part. You're right 🙂
@@RD-km4yi You're right; I just typed it wrong 🤦🏿♂️
I missed this vid! My car story. Power steering pup went out in 2020 on my 84k km owned since new 2009 Astra.
'Sorry bro, you cannot get that pump. Discontinued, no aftermarket or reman'
When I was younger I was very impatient...I want it now! In my mid twenty's I got a job at a very popular mom and pop gun store. That's where I learned patience. You see, firearms manufacturers, I assume it's the same with most manufacturers, set up their production line for a specific model and they turn out whatever number they determine they can sell for that year. Once the run is complete they retool for the next model in their rotation. They don't make any more of the first model until they have gone through their entire line of products they planned to make for that year.
Well, if you want a model 1and they don't have any and every distributor that carries that brand also is sold out, you aren't getting that model 1 you've been drooling over until the manufacturer gets around to making more. That's assuming they haven't decided to discontinue the model 1.
We all can be impatient and it makes sense when it's your only mode of transportation. Then it's not a want it's a very understandable necessity. Unfortunately that fact doesn't speed up Joe Dipstick in the shipping department of Parts Is Us located on the other side of the country. You'll get it when you get it.
That being said, gun guys, in my experience, are a unique breed of impatient. Most could use a job in a popular gun store for a few months at least.
This is the same story for everyone, no matter what the car is. I work for a municipality and one of the fleet vehicles, a 2022 Ford Escape, had an issue where the heat would occasionally get stuck on the highest temperature setting. After the dealer finally saw the issue, they found the blend door would stick. 2 months later, the new part arrived to the dealer broken. That was over a month ago and the new part isn't expected to arrive for another 2 weeks. This is even a warranty repair on a like new vehicle.