Auto Repair - iPhone Repair

[willn]

Spent 1600 on new struts, valve cover gaskets, spark plugs, and oil change for 2004 Toyota Highlander.

+2 Facepunch: I let my tight schedule to leave on a trip back me into a corner for getting the work done, getting another estimate, and really investigating the necessity. We took the car in two days before a road trip to get brakes and tires checked, oil change.  Came home with an estimate for all this work. I say the plugs were needed (quite possibly the original plugs) and the gasket was leaking (supposedly - we were down a quart). Wife felt the struts were a safety issue and I couldn't confidently refute that. 

Spent 170 on iPhone repairs

+1 Facepunch: My iPhone screen went out a couple weeks back, just as I finish my contract. Paid a guy 70 for screen repair because I'd struggled to do it a couple years back on my 3g.  Then came home and watched the repair video and realize its well within my capabilities.  Course, it turned out to not be a screen problem, but a bad motherboard, which I then paid him to fix also.

-1.5 Facepunch: picked up a side job worth 1K.  Should take 4-8 hours over two weeks.

-0.5 Facepunch:  About to find a MNVO for phone service, should save 40-50/month, now paying 80.

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1.0 Facepunches total.

[Forcus]

Spent 1600 on new struts, valve cover gaskets, spark plugs, and oil change for 2004 Toyota Highlander.

Ouch. As a rough estimate OEM parts are probably around $500 and the repair time I would guess at 2-3 hours at home.

[Matte]

Hate to say it but you got hosed on those repairs.  All but the oil change you could have waited on.  Spark plugs go over 100k miles these days and struts are more of a feel good thing.  Unless they were horribly rotted or clunky could have waited.  My last truck had 400xxx km on the factory struts, little bouncy but no biggie. Least your taking responsibility and working it off! Good may come of it.

[willn]

Hate to say it but you got hosed on those repairs.  All but the oil change you could have waited on.  Spark plugs go over 100k miles these days and struts are more of a feel good thing.  Unless they were horribly rotted or clunky could have waited.  My last truck had 400xxx km on the factory struts, little bouncy but no biggie. Least your taking responsibility and working it off! Good may come of it.

Thanks for the info, it's good to know and I figured face punch worthy.  I'm sure you're right.  I'll say I'm probably not going to do anything more than oil changes, but I am going to get multiple estimates for this stuff in the future.

[Forcus]

Hate to say it but you got hosed on those repairs.  All but the oil change you could have waited on.  Spark plugs go over 100k miles these days and struts are more of a feel good thing.  Unless they were horribly rotted or clunky could have waited.  My last truck had 400xxx km on the factory struts, little bouncy but no biggie. Least your taking responsibility and working it off! Good may come of it.

Thanks for the info, it's good to know and I figured face punch worthy.  I'm sure you're right.  I'll say I'm probably not going to do anything more than oil changes, but I am going to get multiple estimates for this stuff in the future.

No worries, most people don't know. And I can't say much, I can do nearly anything automobile related, but stunningly simple stuff for computer geeks is way beyond me. At the very least, like you said, multiple quotes, and getting an idea via online forums of the actual effort can help. Also a tip - even if you take your car to a dealer, they may be putting on parts store parts, especially if they don't have the parts in stock. You may think you are getting OEM but you aren't. Also a tip, most repair places will buy parts at a discount and have you pay full list. They not only get their shop rate but a bunch of money on the parts as well. If you can find a good dependable repair guy / shop, that will just do the install, while you procure the parts, you can save a bunch of money (but don't show up at a shop without talking to them first and try to get them to install the parts).

[willn]

Great info. Thanks!