r/autorepair

I’ve been driving my 2014 Ford Focus since 2016. It has almost 200K miles. I encountered transmission issues that were diagnosed as necessitating the replacement of: Servo A, Servo B, clutch kit, clutch forks(?), differential bearings. I’m being quoted $6922

My thinking, before receiving this number, was this: I think I can get 3 more years out of this car. If I drop $12k into this car over the next 3 years then it’s like paying $333 per month. This is about what I could expect in car payments if I buy a new car. So this is my break even point.

I figured if I spend up to $2k per year in repairs AFTER this transmission repair (this seems like a worst case scenario) then I could spend $6k on transmission repair.

The quote is $1K over my limit, but I did VERY back-of-the-envelope math. Can anyone tell me if they think I’m thinking about this wrong? Anything I’m missing? Feels like a coin flip to me

Additional info: I’m in the northeast and the bottom of my car has become very rusty, which will start to complicate all future repairs.

2 year old Die Hard 12 V won’t hold a charge. I jump it, drive it get 12V on it but it dies after 2 or 3 days parked. Will charging it with a charger help this?

Took it into Honda dealer and they are claiming the issue is the VSA module which would be a $2000 repair bill. Car only has 40,000 miles and drives completely normal otherwise.

Anyone have some troubleshooting advice for me please? If it’s somehow a cheaper issue I’d love to save the money. I’ve never had a VSA or ABS alert on my dash and the only thing on there is my red BRAKE light so it’s weird, just randomly showed up while driving.

It has made my electric parking brake non functional. It will let me engage it with the “P” switch but not release it with the switch. I have to put the car in drive and hit the gas to release it. If I engage the parking light the Red Brake light on dash will start flashing

I tried replacing the switch but it made no difference and the wiring at least with eyes, appears to be fine. Brake fluid is also good. Only thing I can think is I had a dying battery at the time this showed up, I just replaced with a new battery but the alert is still there. Thank you very much for any helpand I get alert “electric parking brake not available”.

Hey all,

I live in Stevenage, UK. Scraped my car on a white wall and got some scratches on the left rear door. It’s a 2015 Seat Leon in metallic grey. The white marks come off, but there are deeper scratches underneath and I can feel them with my fingernail.

Can I fix this myself with spray paint or a touch-up kit, or is that a bad idea? Any better DIY options?

Also, if I take it to a body shop in the UK, what kind of price (not accurate just wonder the level of the price) am I looking at for one door?

Appreciate any advice.

https://preview.redd.it/dvwfk20vortg1.jpg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9ff1307731138d3e4e710f1c4bb8f1900553e7a

https://preview.redd.it/2vdhz10vortg1.jpg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f3b09adf81658b7943ac0e96120c3b863ebf8fd

I needed a new flex pipe on my exhaust system. Owner got me in right-away. The work was done professionally and at a decent price. The 2 mechanics that were there at the time were Fast and Friendly. Best of all they were proud Veterans. I have used Muffler Man in the past and I was just as happy with them then as I was today.

any recommendations on how to stop this rust from spreading? I will eventually get the roof painted because there's some chips etc, but I'd like to stop this from getting worse.

They’re new and was wondering

I've got some pretty bad rust on my undercarriage (13' Tacoma, 6cyl) from years on the east coast. From what I understand, I should scour and grind away as much rust as possible, do the POR-15 clean/degrease, then P15 metal prep. It's here I'm confused, I see a lot of back and forth on whether to use the POR-15 preventative coating next, or skip that and just hose the whole thing down with Woolwax? I called Woolwax and they said don't do the POR-15 preventative coating under it, but found a lot of internet sources saying to do both. Anybody here have a more definitive answer on my best approach? Thank you in advance!

I clipped a downed tree while reversing on a narrow mountain road (it was in my blind spot. I technically saw it, but didn’t realize it was high enough to hit the car and thought I had clearance, and I honestly had no other space to maneuver anyway.

I took it to a collision center and asked if they could just pop the bumper back into place with some new rivets.. They were able to snap it back on for free, which was awesome. The only issue is one small plastic piece on the underside that wouldn’t reattach (and I do still have the tow hook cover to pop on myself).

My question: is there anything I can use to better secure that front side section so it doesn’t come loose? If it does, I’m looking at a $1500+ bumper replacement, which I’d love to avoid. They are pretty sure it will hold fine, but obviously now there is more movement in that side part that is not flush, and I'm just a nervous nellie.

Also open to funny bumper sticker ideas for the spot 😅, I think "treehugger" will be funny, but I have a terrible sense of humor.

BEFORE

https://preview.redd.it/etlprv2xkltg1.jpg?width=2588&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c923b1efbdab06300eeed6eb3c35c202ea476cb

https://preview.redd.it/g7p00eg0mltg1.png?width=2160&format=png&auto=webp&s=b8938d542ad1d83bdddfda8fa1c544da32ed11d3

AFTER

https://preview.redd.it/rm61m5k0lltg1.jpg?width=4536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=73054f95d95415e5dcf57533f8b1bcfdf5400ef0

https://preview.redd.it/6vrqg7p2lltg1.jpg?width=8064&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c4a5e31332dd8e802653fa000470087595e8abe