1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
First of all, congratulations on doing your own water pump replacement. Two hours really isn't that bad for the job, and you've got the satisfaction of knowing it was done right. Glad my experience doing it myself helped you out, too. I know it's a pain to do it, but your car appreciates your caring hands doing the surgery, I'm sure. And as you said, the next one will be a lot easier. You're a pro, now!
Typically, the pumps don't fail suddenly and catastrophically, but will leak and make noise for a long time before they die. Hopefully, your other Saab will last another month until you can spare an afternoon to replace that pump yourself, too.
I know that as a busy professional, you can more easily afford a $400 car repair bill than a few hours of your spare time, but I still think the time investment is a better idea. It's not just about the money -- it's the principle involved here. It irks me that dealerships rip people off like that! If I win the lottery tomorrow and become a multi-millionaire, I'm still going to be working on my own cars, rather than pay some greedy, grubby, sleazeball greasemonkey at a dealership to do a half-assed job on my vehicles. My safety is at stake!
I've learned this lesson over and over again -- after finding potentially serious mistakes idiotic and careless dealership mechs have made on my car. I've discovered disconnected lines, reservoir caps left off, missing fasteners, stripped parts, and other errors over the years, and I'm pretty sure I've been charged for unnecessary work on more than one occasion. I've decided that from now on, I'd rather sacrifice an entire weekend to do something the dealer could do in an hour, than allow them to touch my car. I've just been burned too many times.
Again -- it's not about the money. It's about refusing to be abused.
- = M = -
, Fri, 19 Jan 2001 18:43:47
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