south jersey mechanics
 

How come every mechanic I go to down here comes up with excuses not to fix my car? I've had a non functional starter for a year now because they will only replace a solenoid, I get $400-$500 dollar window motor repair estimates, and my valves have needed an adjustment that no mechanic wants to get involved with. Its really frustrating, I didn't know LT-1's were this much of a pain?

get a carb car with manual windows

Brilliant. What does a carb have to do with anything here?

what all is wrong with the car man? I could lend a hand if needed.

The whole starter should cost 150 bucks. Window motor isn't much of a hassle, theres a whole tutorial on how to replace it. Valves need adjusted?? whats done to the motor?

Valve adjustment? Like as in rocker lash? And the starter is two friggen bolts, how hard is that?

well, sometimes the little wires on the selenoid get rusty and makes it a pain to take out.

Starter shoudlnt be to bad as long as you can get a lift or the car jacked. Window motors are a pain but i doubt that any shops would turn down either of them. Why do you need valve adjustment thats the only thing im confused about.

Lots of lots a miles on it?

its got 123,000 miles but the engine makes a racket. My mechanic told me it needed an adjustment but as far as I know it's stock. When idle it taps away you can hear it coming from the passenger side valve/rocker whatever area. (As you can see I'm not exactly a mechanic.)

Evey thing stock?

I figured the starter and window shouldn't be difficult. I just have to find the time to do it myself. For now, I gotta rock my car in first gear before it starts up.

Its got a pro 5.0 shifter, cai, and catback exhaust. Motor is stock.

Well you prob have a loose rocker. With a stock motor that will take a while, but its not that t hard to do. Especially if your sure your balancer has never been messed with.
http://shbox.com/page/windowmotor.html
http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#adjust_valves

Is it more of a tap or a tick and does the noise increase as you accelerate? I hope you checked your oil.

Hmmm LT1 rebuild time.... Heads/cam 383!

Haha I dont think it's rebuild bad. It still hauls and runs about 14 at the strip. The noise virtually goes away once you hit the gas. It's a tap at idle.

And the oil is good. clean no water. Just your typical back of the manifold leak.

thats easily fixed. Whats your oil pressure reading at idle?

Starters are very very easy to replace yourself, it is honestly a ratchet set and a jack away from being done. Window motors are a bit tougher, but there is a very good online tutorial someplace(Little G used it to replace his).

The best mechanic you can have is yourself. If you know enough to know people are jacking up prices when they see you coming, you are smart enough to handle the issues you mentioned yourself.

-Tim

its on shoebox's website.

Or since hes next town over I can give a a hand also like I mentioned before.

And the link directly to the article on shoebox's website was already posted in this thread :)

http://www.schoodoodle.com/blog/uplo...rge-787593.gif

- Justin

sh!tty mechanics seem to bitch about working on LT1's because theres no room to move...atleast thats my experience.

To answer the OP question…

I’ve never heard of a mechanic preferring to do a solenoid instead of a whole starter (ignoring remote solenoids like Fords). Ever.

As a guy that used to run a busy repair shop, the idea of opening up the valve covers on an old (14 years) high mileage car that is a PITA car to work on and is probably driven harder than the average car is fairly distasteful and the outcome is more often than not going to be negative. Once he opens that old engine he basically owns it. Let’s look. Note I’m using the term ‘you’ for illustrative purposes, and not specifically you as in the OP.

Hyd valvetrains don’t often need to be adjusted – so there is probably wear or other issues. But let’s say despite his warnings you still decide to move ahead with the adjustment, which should include new VC gaskets. I’d be curious of book labor to adjust valves in that car. I’ll guess 3+ hours labor, so let’s assume $350-$450 for the job (labor, parts, shop costs, all of it). And unless he is very used to this job on this kind of car it will take him at least full book time – time he could be spending on the 2 brake jobs sitting in the drawer.

Scenario 1: The tech gets in there and finds on the 2nd head that there is a stud pulling he calls you and tells you it needs to come apart and the heads redone. You say no. Too bad you are still out at least $250 (here I am assuming the shop reduces some costs given the issue) because the VC gasket job is still performed – it has to be. But you get upset – most people get upset at paying troubleshooting time or understanding that the $$ they spent cannot fix their problem. Nuts.

Scenario 2: The job is done, but the true cause cannot be detected (say a stud just starting to pull or a lobe or lifter on the way out). It comes back 2 weeks later. Great, take it apart again to see (while more work sits in the drawer), but for free because the customer is complaining they just spent $$$, or refund it and say good luck. Either way the shop & tech are out hours and $$ and the customer is unhappy. Nobody wins. Now imagine worse case is something lets loose and wipes out the motor. Uh-oh. I know who is getting blamed.

Are you a kid (say under 25)? That makes it even worse because it is perceived that you probably beat on it and have no funds to ‘do it right’, and kids seem to yell and scream a lot, generally unwilling to hear anything but what they want to hear. Hell, we’ve seen that behavior on this site. All kids? No. You? Not that I know of and I am not insinuating that. But that is the general method of operation so that is the way a shop may treat all ‘kids’.

So, a busy shop won’t want to do a job like that as it gets in the way and has little upside potential, and a slow shop may do it, but maybe there is a reason they are slow. The only way I’d touch it is if it were slow and you were fully aware that this may end of being a total loss – you’d sign a warranty waiver. But even that can be meaningless, and the credit card company denies payment or you end up in small claims court and to boot you hear from the better business bureau. All for a job you didn’t really want in the 1st place. Thus it is still a crap shoot for the shop.

So there is your answer from the shop perspective.

Tim’s right, if you want to own old, out of the norm cars you got to learn to do it yourself or at least have a trusted mechanic or friend. Going into a shop blind with and old car is a fail.

Well said Scott! For the OP, if you're not totally comfortable doing it yourself, take Tim up on the offer of having him help you out. He's a good guy and knows his way around a car. Watching and learning, or having someone that knows how to do it point you in the right direction and you doing the job is a great experience. You won't learn how to rebuild an engine and trans overnight, but there's nothing wrong with getting your feet wet by changing a starter and a window motor. After that, you can learn how to do brakes, oil changes, and move up the difficulty scale as you get confident and build up a tool collection.

I'll also throw this out there. If your motor makes a tapping noise at idle, and goes away once you're under the throttle, it might also be the injectors. 13-year old high-mileage injectors ~can~ make a racket, and tick just like a loose rocker arm. That's just something else to check out.

Aren't you selling the car anyway?

take it to josh at JS! he won't turn you away!