I know a sinking feeling that’s almost as bad as breaking up with a girlfriend or screwing up big time. It’s getting saddled with a car repair bill that’s far more expensive than you expected. This feeling is even worse when you crack open your wallet and realize you don’t have enough funds to cover it. Tell us about the repairs that were way more expensive than you expected.
I’m lucky to have a fleet of cars that, for the most part, work well enough for me. Sure, they might have some rust, a loose door handle, or a check engine light, but they all run and drive to my satisfaction. Over the years, I’ve been finding out that my standards for a car running “fine” are quite low. I’ve always felt that air-conditioners were sacrificial until I met my wife.
Every once in a while I run into an issue that both debilitates the vehicle and is far too expensive to fix. Oh, where do I begin? Is it the Volkswagen Passat TDI wagon with a bad transmission that wasn’t worth replacing? Or was it the other Volkswagen Passat TDI wagon that made exactly no oil pressure and needed a new engine? Those cars were worthless and replacing a transmission or an engine would have netted me with terrible cars that worked only slightly better.
The worst example of repairs getting out of hand was my old Volkswagen Phaeton.
Not the one I just bought, but the one before that. It was a rescue purchased by its previous owner with a bad electronic locking system, a broken sunroof, a bad ABS module, and more. The previous owner replaced all of those parts and brought the car back to life, but wasn’’t able to finish the job due to being in the military. I took the car for a brief test drive and then handed the money to the seller’s parents.
I wish I had driven it a little longer because it was all of 30 minutes before the car started overheating. A three-hour drive suddenly turned into an all-day ordeal and I wish overheating was its only issue. In my brief ownership, I discovered a huge air suspension leak, a bad transmission valve body, a jammed sunroof, jammed HVAC blend doors, jammed HVAC vent covers, a bad trunk lid motor, a bad driver window regulator, a snapped hood release cable, and parts that loved to fall off of the car. Then, as if to insult me, even the dome light fell from the ceiling and hit me in the face.
I learned quickly that just fixing the overheating was going to cost a fortune. My mechanic believed the water pump and thermostat were both shot (they were). Ah, but you can’t just replace the thermostat and water pump and go on with your day. My mechanic found valves in the cooling system to be stuck, so those had to go, too. Oh, and because of the design of the VAG 4.2-liter V8, replacing the thermostat also called for a timing belt job.
A thermostat could have been gotten for under $50 and I remember seeing water pumps for under $250. Yet, I was quoted at least $1,500 for this job just because of all of the labor. And that didn’t include literally everything else the car needed, such as two front air shocks. Once my mechanic started tallying everything up, I would have spent close to $10,000 on my $2,500 Phaeton. I later learned that my Phaeton was literally three dead Phaetons and a dead Porsche Cayenne cobbled together as one single vehicle.
I sold it to him for the price I paid. Last I heard, he put in around $4,000 in repairs and the car still wasn’t working right. Remember, that’s $4,000 in parts alone since he gets free labor.
Lately, the big bill is rust repair on my wife’s BMW E39 wagon. This was a car I recently featured as a big regret in the article about all of the BMWs in the Autopian fleet. I have good news! Some further diagnoses suggested that the engine’s insane oil burn was fouling the plugs. So, I replaced the plugs. I also found that my wife replaced old-ish Bosch coil packs with some super duper cheap packs from China. One of them seems to be intermittent. So, I’m returning the car back to what it was like when we bought it from the Bishop. I’ve gotten the car to stop misfiring, but the oil burn is still really bad. I’ve found that as long as the car is driven hard, the plugs don’t get fouled. So, for now, I’m telling Sheryl to drive it like it’s a BMW.
But I still can’t fix that rust. We started off expecting to pay $1,500 for the job as that’s about what the shop we had chosen charged for new rockers. Unfortunately, we then learned that shop got out of the rust repair business and the quote has since ballooned to $4,000, $4,500, $5,000, and most recently, $8,000.
Thankfully, I have resolved the car’s misfiring problems, but I do not trust myself to resolve major rust issues. For now, my wife will just send it as it is.
So, how about you? What car repairs have been putting you in the poor house?
AU$1600 BMW rear vision mirror. Still the single most expensive required fix on the car.
What the hell? Was it electronic? Couldn’t be replaced with a regular mirror?
One of those auto dipping ones, and the original was leaking. They also have some of the alarm stuff in them from memory. But yeah, pretty mental.
> replacing the thermostat also called for a timing belt job.
I have questions
Water pump is driven by the timing belt on a lot of cars. At least the 4 cylinder Japanese cars I’ve owned with timing belts. I assume this is the same.
My daughter opened up my powered passenger door inadvertently into a tree that had overgrown the curb after I had parallel parked my Odyssey minivan. I wasn’t paying attention but she tried the door a few times before she understood what was going on. Well, it broke the pulley mechanism. This left the door with a blaring alarm that insisted it was open despite my having manually closed it because the sensor is, yep, part of the pulley. I tried pulling fuses to get it to stop but never found it. Had to spend hours returning from a road trip with that alarm. Fun.
The repair? $1600. During the pandemic–took 6 weeks to get the parts in. At least the tech found the right fuse so we got that sorted.
Yes, I looked into doing it myself but youtube videos showed it was about a 30 step process. That’s more than I can do. The pulley, btw, a less than 2mm cable. I suppose that’s ok for normal use but again, I don’t know exactly what opening the door into a tree a few times would do to shear the cable, but it sheared the cable. I think 3mm would’ve been better. It took my daughter all of about 20 seconds to do this to the door. She felt pretty bad about it. I felt bad for her–a thoughtless mistake turning into a pretty expensive repair. But I felt really bad for myself because this landed at the same time as the timing belt replacement, so it was all in all an expensive month for us.
None really. That’s why I buy mainstream Japanese.
Zing!
(Though I’m with you there as I’ve only owned Japanese cars except for a couple of Kias that held up well.)
Had a ’98 CR-V back when we had kids that needed high school transportation, about ten to fifteen years ago. It started randomly cutting out while driving. Took it to a shop for an estimate. They quoted more than $1,500 to fix it, and between the mileage, rust and door dings from the school parking lot, that was almost as much as it was worth. The junk yard said they’d give me $125 for it. I’d pretty much decided to junk it when I’m telling a coworker all about the symptoms, repair estimate and the offer from the junk yard when my boss interjects “I’ll buy it for $125!”
This made me very suspicious, and he was really evasive when I asked why he was at all interested in it given its condition. Vague comments about a relative that did small engine repair, needing another car for his kids, etc. But something didn’t smell right.
We didn’t exactly have a good relationship, and he was more than a little pissed I refused to sell it to him right then and there. But it did prompt me to do a little of my own diagnosis before junking it.
One $42 distributor cap later, and I got another three years out of it before the brake lines rusted out.
And yes, the car lasted longer than the job did. I believe his too, for that matter. (I think he knew exactly what was wrong with it and was trying to con me out of/basically steal the car from me. He was just that kind of a guy.)
And no, I never went back to that repair shop either.
I wish I read this comment years ago, I had an 01 CRV that was acting up and was quoted thousands to fix so I sold it to one of the guys at the shop. Guy probably fixed it for a few bucks and sold it for a few thousand. Damn
Yeah, I’ve become a bit paranoid about trusting repair shops. Years ago I lived out on the east coast and always took my car to the same oil change place. Pretty sure they took my money but never actually changed the oil, as when I moved back to the Midwest the next mechanic commented I hadn’t been changing the oil anywhere near often enough. And it started burning oil – so much so it’s a good thing I’d moved as it probably wouldn’t have passed the annual inspection.
Now I do my own oil changes and as many repairs as I can. In fact when the repairs get to the point where they’re beyond me, it’s pretty much time for a new car.
Turn signal on our ’56 Nomad wasn’t working, so I took apart part of the steering column. Before I knew it half of the interior was laying on the floor in the garage. It was just too much fun so I kept going. Bagged up all the small parts with careful labels. Couple of days later our puppy golden retriever took most of the ziplock bags, one at a time, to the back yard grass and shredded them. Now I had a big box of parts I knew not from whence they came. Figured might as well do a full resto-mod. That was in 2008. After 2 years in paint and body, 1 more starting the restoration, several years of debilitating indecision, finally sent the rest to a small dad and son shop. After 4 years and 8 months at their shop, it finally came back a few weeks ago. A turn signal fix turned into a 16-year odyssey that ran about $80,000 total.
You win!
So she’d been using the turn signals up until then?
Yeah, it’s an old and hackneyed joke at this point, but it was just sitting there waiting to be made.
Took my K2500 in for what I thought was a cracked flywheel. Rattled under acceleration. Turns out it was a loose torque converter bolt, a much less serious thing, in theory. If the inspection cover was accessible, that would have been like a 3 hour job. Buuuuuut, because of how rusty the truck was and the location of the crossover pipe on GMT400s, the shop managed to destroy the crossover pipe, both exhaust manifolds, and had to re-tap heads for broken manifold bolts. I was not a happy camper, both for the 3 weeks it took and the $3500 repair bill.
Oh, and they removed the distributor for some reason and didn’t bother to reset the timing so it ran like garbage when I picked it up. They tried to convince me “that’s how it was when it came in”, and I was like, “yeah, it didn’t have any CELs and ran on all 8 when it came in.”
Won’t be going back there.
How about a hose reel? I have a favorite garden hose reel that rolls on wheels and takes up all the massive hoses I need to keep the cars and the homestead watered and clean. The leader hose sprung a leak. I couldn’t get the swivel joint apart to remove the buried end of the leader hose, I had to purchase a larger snap-ring pliers, because the snap ring was too big for my regular snap-ring pliers. The nut for the swivel was inch and a half and I didn’t have a pliers or adjustable wrench big or strong enough to fit it and remove it. So I had to purchase a large impact socket set. The replacement leader hose itself was made up at a custom hose place since I use 3/4″ hose and didn’t want the leader hose to be a restriction in the system. Nobody sells 3/4 inch leader hoses that I’ve found. So I’m now $90 into tools and parts to repair a $160 hose reel. The model is NLA so I couldn’t just buy a new one, and I haven’t found one that is as good.
Sorta like my car collection
I do most of my own wrenching, but recently I rebuilt the whole front suspension on my 2004 Toyota Sequoia including replacing wheel bearings and upper ball joints, both of which are pressed into the steering knuckle. I don’t have a press or other tools to press them out (although I admittedly could have rented the tools) and I was short on time, so I decided to remove the knuckles myself and take them to a local shop that does work on our company vehicles so they could handle the press work.
They said sure, no problem, it’ll be about 2.5 hours of labor (without specifying actual cost), so I dropped off the knuckles. My brain must be stuck in 2010 when independent shop rates were like $100/hr, because I was expecting to pay like $250 and got sticker shock when they told me the total in the end was $425. And that was after my industry discount! It certainly illustrates why I do most of my own work. All of the other work I did (replacing all control arms, bushings, CV axles, steering rack, etc.) would have cost me well over $1K if I paid someone.
Wow, this is rediculous. I would have expected way LESS than $250, myself.
2013 Taurus SHO. Stupid ass design has the water pump run off the timing chain. Timing chain stretches, wipes out the pump and the engine is gone. When the rattle occurs on start-up and you get the p0016 code on your CEL you are looking at about $3500 for a shop to fix it. Just a stupid, stupid design. Or you can wait until it grenades the engine and spend $8k.
That’s certainly an interesting design.
Ran over half an 18 wheeler tire on the freeway… in a 2012 Miata NC.
I limped it home but ultimately it needed: New bumper cover, grill and trim, new radiator/shroud/supports, air deflector, AC condenser coil, fog lamp assembly, new heat shield between the transmission and floor pan, repainted wheel, and various small parts (and labor) for $3550.
Had the same thing happen on a just under 1 year old RX8. Took out the radiator, 1 oil cooler, ac condensor, oil level sensor, tire (cut but holding air), main wiring harness, crank position sensor, front bumper, and damaged the rear bumper in a way you’d never notice unless you’re looking at tthe car from underneath and dented the muffler. This was 7 hours before a flight the next morning so I had to leave it on the side of the interstate and deal with insurance and towing remotely on 2 hours of sleep. Fortunately I had only a $500 deductible and I had the dealership do the work as it was all bolt in replacements and skipped doing the muffler and rear bumper. They also didn’t mind installing an upgraded mishimoto radiator in place of the stock one and credited the full retail price of the OEM one. Also got a set of much nicer tires and a custom alignment to specs I gave them. I Even got two “Factory Authorized Modification” stickers added to the car. All in it was about $4500, but after insurance and the upgrades I had the dealer do I think it cost me about $50 out of pocket as the OEM tires and radiator are Expensive, and my insurance barely went up, maybe $25 / 6 mo.
Suddenly I am much more interested in getting a skid plate for my Prius v.
2017 WRX. Oil change, I forgot to tighten up the cap. Oil everywhere in the engine bay, including the hot turbo and catalytic converter. Paid about 350 to have it towed back home as i was afraid to run it. No matter how much i pressure washed the engine bay some of the sound deadening material still stinks like royal purple oil, and it was about a year ago
My oil filter housing sprung a slow leak. It’s located in front of the turbo in a hot vee engine. The oil collects in the vee then drips down drain channels, onto the underbody which is a felt like material. It was cheap and easy to fix but cleaning up that oil took days. So much iso alcohol, simple green, and steaming. A stiff brush and a steam cleaner from Amazon really saved me there. I’d still be cleaning if it wasn’t for that steamer.
Steam cleaners are awesome. I finally got one and it’s so useful. Maybe I should use it on the car at some point.
2013 Grand Cherokee. Sharing parts with Mercedes is wallet hitting. The one that blew me away was went the steering pump needed to be replaced. I was thinking 500 ish. Nope specialized part from Mercedes at 2300 for the part alone.
Traded that sucker ASAP on my Crosstrek.
I consistently feel bad for all Jeep owners
2001 Audi A4. Rack blew a seal and needed to be replaced. 2600$ and engine cradle needed to be lowered to replace it. Same time, it needed an intermediate exhaust pipe., That was 750$. I decided to send it to the juckyard instead.
A penguin noticed an unfamiliar noise in his car, so he took it to a mechanic. The mechanic said it would be a couple of hours, so the penguin went across the street to a diner to grab some lunch. He had some extra time after the meal, so he treated his self to dessert and then went back to the mechanic.
Mechanic: Well, it looks like you blew a seal.
Penguin: OH NO! It’s just ice cream!
Thank you, thank you! I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitstaff and thanks for coming out to comedy nite at the Starlight Lounge!
Last year a truck in front of me on the interstate lost a bolt and I caught it with my windshield. The crater it dug out was too deep to repair so I had to replace it. Dealership quoted me $1000 O.O!!!
So, it turns out the dealership doesn’t actually replace the windshield themselves, they contract out to a local glass shop to do it. I contacted that local glass shop to have them do the work directly, $229+tax.
I worked in the auto glass industry and that isn’t too uncommon vastly different prices for dealers insurance companies walk ins and body shops I remember a few from around 1500 to under 200 insurance companies got charged the most
I was rear ended once and I took it to a shop for a quote since the person at fault was considering paying out of pocket. I was quoted two prices with a much lower price if the person was paying out of pocket.
They don’t call them stealerships for nothing.
“So, it turns out the dealership doesn’t actually replace the windshield themselves, they contract out to a local glass shop to do it”
That’s the case for a lot of stuff dealers do… farm stuff out and just act as an unnecessary middleman slapping on their own markup.
Only go to the dealer for warranty work. If you’re out of warranty or it’s not covered by the warranty, just go to a specialist.
My ex-MIL had a 2007 Mini Cooper. She got in a fairly minor fender-bender around the front bumper/headlight/hood area. It also wouldn’t start for some reason. So I had it towed to my favorite BMW mechanic. They said the ECU went bad, and a new one coded from BMW was like $2000. I said okay, I’ll let you know. I called Geico, and they said “Nah, that’s not right. We can get an ECU from a junkyard and have the bodyshop install it. We will tow it to the body shop and take care of it.” I trusted my mechanic, but fine. Whatever.
So they make the repairs to the body and it looks PERFECT. But then they try to install their junkyard ECU, and it doesn’t work. Shockingly, they did their research, and you have to get a coded one from BMW and it’ll be $2000. Imagine.
That was a bridge too far for Geico, and they totalled the car.
“Shockingly, they did their research, and you have to get a coded one from BMW and it’ll be $2000.”
That in itself is designed-in BMW bullshit that makes me stay away from them. A mechanic with the BMW diagnostics should be able to reprogram a used ECU.
Lowest quote to recover 2 BMW sport seats from an early 633 was $3500. And I’m suppling the fabric, padding and seat straps. Painting 1 side cover for my 2004 K bike- $1200. I’m starting to understand the trend in restoring old go karts and mini bikes.
I had a Mini back in 85 and there was a spring pin that snapped on the shifter and I had it repaired for $25 or so, a few months later the same thing so no worries- nope this time it was one of the pins that held a shift fork so they had to pull the engine open up the gearbox and replace the pin, and do a clutch at the same time- it was just under $1000 which at $5 per hour took a while to pay off
No idea. I have, for decades, avoided keeping track of repair expenses. I assume it’s better not to know.
Never tell me the odds.
I did this when I crossed the $10,000 mark on my $2,000 project car. Haven’t touched the excel sheet since then, and can sleep better now. Best decision ever.
Weird. I slept better at night knowing exactly how much I was being screwed over.
Depends on your mindset I guess. You can baby it by spending on it and feel better, or you can spend on it as if it was your daily. Whether the car actually improves each time, well, is another thing
Having to completely replace the intake manifold on my ’02 Mustang’s 4.6 b/c a tiny plastic bit broke off.
Never could find out the technical term, but there’s a plastic nipple (?) at the back for a hose connection to deliver coolant to the heater core. Said nipple has a lip that allows a spring clamp to keep that hose in place when the system is pressurized.
Yep, over the years, that lip apparently started to crack off. When it first popped off (with a resulting cloud of what I thought was scary smoke), I thought, oh just an old hose, I’m sure I can clamp it back on until I can replace it. I didn’t even notice there was a lip. It was only once it happened again in a few miles that I figured out what was going on.
Other engines that have this nipple have it as a separate, cheap, bolt in part that can be replaced. Not Ford’s 4.6 modular…it’s molded into the manifold itself.
That bill was a shock. But I’m at least pleased that on the new one, the nipple is now cast aluminum.
I generally don’t remember the maintenance bills for the Mercedes that are higher than expected. Perhaps I’ve just grown accustomed to it. I typically remember the annual maintenance & repair bills that are *lower* than expected.
But the one that pissed me off royally was the replacement differential due to worn bearings. Because MB never calls out for changing differential fluid in mainline cars – just the AMG models. So following the service maintenance schedule like clockwork at the dealer just isn’t good enough – the dealer service department never even mentioned it was making a growling noise when I took it in for service with them.
Rear sway bar bushings on my RAV4 cost way more than expected. I stripped the stud, which has almost zero access by the way. So $100 later on a tap and die set with the size I needed and those bushings got replaced. The turbo on my Cruze ballooned from $600 in parts (OEM turbo made in jolly old England rather than $250 China bomb) to close to $1000 once I got in there and started finding all sorts of bum parts. Well, that’s lumping in the water pump replacement and later oil cooler re-sealing. The car runs fine now!
I daily drove a $3,000 2001 BMW e46 beater. I guess the a/c had a leak over the winter, because the next spring the a/c didn’t blow cold. I took it to a local mechanic to have them take a took. They said it had a leak and quoted me $2500 to fix. Almost as much as the car! The audacity!
But they filled it up with R134 to do a leak test. They told me it would leak out over the next few days. It ended up lasting almost a year. I bought one of those a/c refill kits from Autozone and topped it off every few months.
I remember getting the LCD screen rebuilt on a 1996 Cadillac was way more expensive than originally thought, also, the window regulators on that loved to shit the bed, and you had to replace the entire assembly