5 Secrets Your Car Mechanic Doesn’t Want You to Know
When there is a huge demand, there is also a supply. And in such a vast market of car services, no, no, and there are all kinds “scammers” and simply dishonest performers who profit from car owners. And even if you're not going to fix your own car, knowledge is power and if you know more about your car, you have less of a chance of being deceived when your car needs repairs.
So here are the 5 secrets that no mechanic wants you to know:
- Check engine light problem
- Maintenance required problem
- Additive to gasoline
- The heater doesn’t work
- Car batteries discharge
- Let’s see what we can do with these problems.
Check Engine light
So, you get warning lights on in your dash, let's say your check engine light comes on, your ABS light is on, and your track light all come on. Well, in many modern cars it has to do more with the software and the design of the car than actual problems. On many cars, if you have a problem and your check engine light comes on automatically that will turn off the ABS and traction control systems, it's a computer safety thing, so you'll have these three lights on automatically. You think, oh all these things are happening in my car!
Solution: In reality, the only real problem is the check engine light, so in that case have it scanned and see what the check engine code is and have that fixed first. Find out why the check engine light is on and fix that, that often fixes the whole thing.
Maintenance required light
Now, the next has to do with the maintenance required light. The maintenance required light that is one of the biggest scams out there, manufacturers put them in to scare people to bring the car to the dealer. Those lights on most cars will just come on at certain mileage intervals, some cars will come on every 15,000 miles.
Solution: What you want to do is of course maintain your car correctly, change the oil when you need to, etc. Learn how to turn that maintenance-required light off yourself, because often the only thing the car needs when the maintenance-required light comes on is an oil change. Do that yourself or have it done somewhere, just Google for your own car turning off maintenance required light. You'll see there are certain buttons you have to push in a certain sequence and you can turn it off yourself.
Additives to gasoline
On any normal car don't waste your money on expensive additives to stick in the engine, or the transmission, or the gas tank. Now, of course, companies make this stuff so they want to sell it to you. But in a normal functioning car that you take care of it's a waste of money.
Solution: Modern gasoline got plenty of additives itself, the stuff is going to burn perfectly fine, you don't need to put anything else in it, it works great the way it comes from the refinery. And the same thing goes for engine oil, it works really well, and it is well-designed. All the chemicals that are added to the oil to make it last longer, to make it not burn, to make it not pollute and vaporize they're in there from the factory, you don't need to add a bunch of packages yourself. You just need to change the stuff regularly, and not put additives in, just change your oil when it gets dirty.
The heater doesn’t work
If your car's heater doesn't work right, a lot of times it's because of one simple thing. If your car is low on coolant often your heater won't work right. This may sound counterintuitive but it's true, your car's heater core that the hot water goes through and then the air blows and puts hot air on you, is inside the dash. Most of the time it's usually the highest part of the cooling system and the heater core only works with hot water inside, it doesn't work with hot air. So, if your cooling system is low on coolant since the heater core is the highest part, it gets filled up with air and the liquid goes back down into the engine, and hot air won't blow into your car.
Solution: It has to be full of hot water that dissipates the heat through the fins and your fan blows the hot air in your face. So, if your heater is not working this winter, just check your coolant level, it might just be low.
Car batteries
The last mechanic secret has to do with car batteries. Believe it or not, car batteries are kind of like eggs, they really have a sell-by date. Modern batteries are filled with acid at the factory, it's just a new production thing, but once they're filled with acid, they start to deteriorate. Batteries in cars are made to start your car, discharge a little, then the alternator recharges it, then start and stop. If you fill them with acid and put them on a shelf and they sit there for months on, they start to degrade. Then they lose a lot of their lifespan.
Solution: When you're buying a battery for your car, pretend you're at the grocery store, demand to see the date of the battery, and try to get one that's less than a month old because they don't deteriorate that much in one month.
You can avoid deception by auto mechanics by contacting trusted specialists and service stations. Also, do not neglect your own rights, and if you can be present during the repair, then do not be too lazy to visit the workshop during the work of the mechanics. It is in the interests of the car owner to see and know what is being done to his car.
