Quick Tips To Tell If Your Technician's Honest

Good ol' Google defines trust as the 'the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.' One way to know if your technician's reliable and truthful is to follow up on the work that they did. I mean, if you want to know if he really replaced your water pump you're going to have to visually check and see if you've got a new water pump. Of course, that seems a little extreme seeing as how you'd need to take the engine apart. Stay with me here... why not follow up with them on something small? Like an oil change or tire change? I'm a firm believer that if you can trust me with small jobs, you can trust me with big repairs. If I can be faithful with an oil change, I will be faithful with an engine replacement. It's a matter of integrity.

So what small things can you follow up with after you get the car back from your tech? Here's a list... (wisdom passed on to me from another licensed technician) and make sure that you confirm your tech's checked these things. For example, not every shop verifies tire pressures with each oil change. So it's not fair to give your technician heck if your tire pressures are off when it wasn't expected that they check tire pressures to begin with.

Tire Pressure

After you've confirmed that the technician checked the tire pressures, take your tire pressure gauge and check them yourself. They should all be topped up to the correct pressure. Got clear nail polish? Put some on the tire pressure valve caps at the seal. Check after you get the car back to see if the seal has been broken. The seal has to be broken if they took the caps off to check the tire pressure.

Oil Filter

Would you believe that some shops change just the engine oil but don't replace the oil filter? That's why some not-so-reputable shops' oil changes are so cheap. If you have an oil filter that is easily visible once you lift the hood, put an X on it before you take the car in. After you get the car back, look again and make sure the oil filter has been replaced. Again, you can only give the shop heck if they billed you for an oil & filter change but didn't replace the filter at all.

Fluid Levels

If you've asked the technician to check and top-up fluid levels, check your fluid levels and make sure they're at the correct level when you get the car back.