A few things have come together, causing a perfect storm leading me to do something I've never done before. Tomorrow, for the first time in my 13+ years of driving and owning vehicles, I will be taking my car to the dealer for service.
Anyone care to place a bet on if the car, with a 12/92 manufacture date will be older than the tech working on it?
I really think the car will be older, but I'm curious about everyone elses thoughts.
That means it's a 24 year old car. I'm gonna say the tech will be older.
But not by much.
Depends on the dealer--both brand and dealership itself. Mercedes? Older. Mitsubishi? Younger. Honda? Tossup, depending on the dealer group.
In reply to mtn:
Autogroup is kinda basic. At this location, it's Ford Lincoln Mercury? Mazda. Used to know a lot of the guys, but they've moved on to other dealerships.
What on earth does a 1992 car that isn't a supercar or top shelf eurotrash need to go to a dealer for?
HappyAndy wrote: What on earth does a 1992 car that isn't a supercar or top shelf eurotrash need to go to a dealer for?
Same things you'd take it to any shop for. A few around here are cheaper than the independents.
HappyAndy wrote: What on earth does a 1992 car that isn't a supercar or top shelf eurotrash need to go to a dealer for?
A combination of laziness, no trustworthy local independants, and parts not responding properly.
Yes, yes, laugh, it's the alternator belt. I can't get it's tensioner tight enough, but I also can't get the power steering belt to loosen at all, it's like the tensioner isn't even attached to anything, and that needs to come off to change the alt belt. So laziness mostly. Being right at the end of the street doesn't hurt either.
Guess I should just clarify, I finally changed the dead alternator, and have a new alt belt to put on, but can't get the power steering belt that's in the way off, and don't really want to cut it and buy another one. The current alt belt is squealing like a banshee because it's old and not tensioned entirely right. Not the most difficult thing in the world by a long shot, which seems like a good opportunity to see how the dealership is in service these days.
Gonna have a beer and go mess with it some more I guess, but I'm just tired of tearing everything apart. It's been a long 3 months to get it painted, and I need a break.
If this is the Miata (nice job on painting your avatar, by the way, it was in primer this morning!), then you need to loosen the pivot bolts for the PS and alternator.
13 years of driving, makes you 29... Your barely older than the car yourself, lol
V belt? Pop it off with screw driver while bumping starter (disconnect ign so no start!) Then do same to reinstall. Easy peasy.
Or do it the right way and don't lose any fingers...
Im not much older then that car but if you get lucky they may have atleast one guy left who knows how a v-belt works!
Beer solved the problem, go figure. My buddy who helped with the AC rip out, and apparently put on the new PS belt stopped by to drop off a 6 pack of homebrew, so I conned him into taking a look. We got it figured out, and now it's quiet as hell with the new belt. Thinking I might go in with my original belt squeal complaint just to mess with them, but they're good to me with parts so I don't want to screw that up.
Thanks Keith, got it done yesterday. It will look much better with a wet sand and polish, but I've got 2 months before I'm supposed to do that. Big pics in the build thread, but size doesn't help the look haha.
That's the other reason I picked the dealership though, I figure a dealer detail shop should be pretty good, and want to check it out and see their thoughts on the whole thing. I'm basically interviewing shops right now, have a bunch of body shops to call to find out who they use/recommend. Either someone is going to do what I want, or sell me on a better process, there just isn't much info to be found on the local shops online.
The alternator pivot bolt was the hardest part of my timing belt change. There must be an easier way to get it than I used.
My Mazda dealer has a service writer who is the scca roll cage inspector and actually builds race cars on the side. Maybe you will get lucky also?
I took my '90 Acura to the dealer for an oil change because it was cheaper than I could do myself. They had to search to find a tech to drive it in to the shop because apparently none of the oil change techs knew how to operate a clutch pedal.
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