The Whining and Bitching Thread

[Dak]

That sucks.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Yeah, turns out my serpentine belt came off, thus preventing the alternator from charging the battery. My warning sign was that the power steering stopped working earlier in the afternoon despite the steering fluid level being fine.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Oh noes, i just heard back from the shop i got towed to and they say they have to replace a belt tensioner and a water pump with a loose bearing inside that's causing it to wobble the belt. Altogether the work's gonna cost about $700

 

[The Ozzman]

a water pump does not cost 700 dollars. Get a second opinion.

I own a BMW which is one of the most expensive cars to work on and it cost me under 400 bucks for a water pump and thermostat with labor.

 

[Dak]

Serpentine belt + water pump + tensioner + 4 hours standard auto shop labor(60-90$ per hour). Sounds about right.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

It's pump + tensioner + probably the belt + replacement labor + whatever diagnostic labor went into figuring the stuff out originally. I called a friend of mine and he thinks it's probably legit since my car has a history of vibrating like fuck (i think maybe i should have had an engine mount replaced a long time ago?) and i've got about 110K miles on it which he says is within the range of a water pump's lifespan.

I should've talked it over with my friend before authorizing the work anyway, but it really doesn't sound much like a scam (unless the pump turns out to be in fact overpriced). I could also ask them to show me the old parts and demo what was wrong with them when i pick the car up tomorrow.

 

[Dak]

If your engine mounts are broken the vibration will start causing other things to fail. And if one is broken, best to have them all replaced at the same time.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Yeah i think i need to get on that

edit: just called the shop back and asked them to look at the engine mounts & give me an opinion on them in the morning

 

[King Richard]

Never buy American again. Engine mounts should not break at 116k miles.

 

[Dak]

You mean never buy American economy cars. You have to drop at least 30k to get a decent domestic car.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

In my defense, it was picked out by my stepdad in 2005 when i was a young college idiot without much of an opinion on cars. We got it for $6K with 47000 miles on it.

 

[The Ozzman]

moar liek Found On Road Dead, amirite?

 

[zabu of nΩd]

god damnit

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I guess that's sayonara to MDF for you, eh?

 

[skeptik]

Found On Road, Dead Escort?

 

[Krow]

$60 for a serpentine belt sounds weird.

I ended up buying several for my 99 grand am when my power steering pump and water pump were fucked and they cost like $20 each.

Also, going down the road and your serpentine belt breaking can be fucking scary. especially when you're going 45+, your power brakes no longer work and it starts whipping the shit out of the underside of your hood.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

Never buy American again. Engine mounts should not break at 116k miles.

My brother has a Honda Civic and he had to get them replaced at a little over 100K. From what I understand, it's not unusual for the engine mounts to need replacement around that time, though you can usually let them go for quite a while without them actually breaking. This, of course, does apply to "economy" cars, as Dak mentioned, more so than cars that are + 30K.

I have an 07 Hyundai Accent with 82,000 miles on it. The catalytic converter needs replacing by I really don't have the cash, and probably won't any time soon. My dumb ass didn't get it swapped out before the Federal "Environmental" Warranty went out on it at 80,000.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I guess that's sayonara to MDF for you, eh?

What? Hell no, i have money saved up to my eyeballs.

 

[Vimana]

My bank account is being closed because of an honest mistake. When I got my job, I didn't have a bank account, so I got paid to Money Network. I opened an account a couple weeks ago, so I changed to direct deposit. There was money I didn't get from Money Network, so I wrote a check from it that I thought was valid. I guess I mixed up the transaction number or something on the check, because a day after I deposited it, it turns out it was invalid. My account was locked due to "suspicious activity" and I found myself with a balance of -$100 today. Yesterday, I went to the bank and tried to deposit a check at the counter, but something was up with it so a teller walked outside with me to an ATM and said everything worked fine when I put the check in. I'm a total n00b at all of this, and had no idea that this check was invalid, and apparently neither did the teller. For all I knew, the check was valid and money was in my account. I called customer service and pretty much said "so, basically, I can make an honest mistake of writing down a number wrong and have my bank account closed?" and they said yes.

This pisses me off. It wasn't my fault. I told my dad who's a lawyer and he says he's going to help me with this, since the bank is preventing me from ever opening up a new account. I want to get all this shit cleared from their records and then move to another bank. I'm going to go in another day, since customer service just vaguely referenced policy instead of actually explaining the justification behind this.

Edit: I even called Money Network and got the numbers I wrote on the check. They can't email them to me (as confirmation that they gave them to me) until Monday, so I guess I can't prove to the bank that the money was actually real and I wasn't just taking advantage of the bank or something. So fucking tedious and confusing, but according to my parents, the bank is in the wrong.

 

[unknown]

wtf is Money Network? It sounds like one of those scam payday advance check cashing places