r/AskMechanics

Need an idea of much this is going to cost to fix. Thank you for the help. The paint doesn’t look like it’s anything beyond a light scuff. I don’t know anything beyond the make.

Found this under where I park my car on the side of the road. Unsure if it was thrown from a passing car or if its mine. I have a 2022 kia sorento.

What is this and is it from my car ?

2019 Toyota RAV4. 120k miles. Automatic.

Each time I drive there is a leak on the passenger side. It’s hot out. Maybe related to air conditioning? Should I be concerned?

This shop is around the corner from my house and the offer just seems too good to be true. If I go to a chain place like Valvoline it's around $100 for full synthetic. I'd love to take them up on the offer but I don't wanna go in there and end up getting roped into something in order to get the advertised price or something.

Once water recedes

Update:

Water did not go higher and vehicle was not on or running in water. Once water receded checked vehicle and it started up- seems ok to drive- pumped breaks etc-

However the back seat carpets are wet****

Do I contact insurance?

Hello, looking for some guidance here.

I have a 2017 BMW SUV X5 (automatic) and took it in for an oil change for an oil change. It’s always been previously service at a BMW dealership for oil changes (50,XXX) miles.

The dealership that previously serviced the oil change is the same dealership. They sent me a video of recommended repairs saying the oil pan plug is stripped and I’d need to pay for a new one. I called them and said how did it get stripped? I didn’t do that. They were the last ones to touch it and I shouldn’t pay. I provided them my vehicle with all standard OEM parts, and I’d like my car returned in the condition is provided for service.

They said they’d look into for me that same morning and didn’t reach out until noon. They then said they’d make the hole bigger and fix it with a new drain plug. I informed them I’m not comfortable with that and want a new oil pan as I dont want to have to explain places i go (if i go, doesn’t matter really) why the oil pan plug is not standard oem of that year and model.

The service supervisor seems to be dodging me and I’m debating contacting BMW corporate regarding this situation. They said making a bigger hole was standard procedure but I’m not buying that, and when asked if I could see the guidance on that they would not provide it.

My concern is the metal shavings in the oil pan from making the hole bigger getting into the engine and causing more issues. Obviously I don’t want. It seems like a backyard quick fix I’ll end up paying for down the line.

(Photo is of oil pan plug that was made bigger after I asked them not to do that until we fully corrected the situation and talked about it).

If someone could please guide me in the right direction I’d appreciate it.

Hey yall, could anyone give any advise as to whats going on with my differential from this video? Thx for any advise!

1995 GMC Sierra 5.7 C2500 150k miles

So my truck has been getting pretty poor fuel economy and smelling like gasoline fumes.

Turns out this little metal crimp is leaking fuel!

What’s the best short term cheap fix for this before I get the line repaired when funding allows?

My 2004 Jeep Wrangler TJ has been having issues with the oil pressure gauge where it fluctuates from low to regular and/or just drops to low and stays there. Once I get at or above 2000 RPM, it goes back to normal. Checked the oil level physically and the levels are fine. Could it be electric? Thanks in advance

*2016 Mazda3 automatic 117,561* Trying to get the horizontal bolt out from my lower control arm and it breaks off inside the frame. Tried heat, pounding it out, vice grips and I can’t get a bolt extractor on it because of the location of where it is at. Any suggestions or help would be stellar! I don’t have access to a weld or even know a welder but I fear that I’m going to have to weld or some how get another bolt head on to the exposing side since I can’t get to the back of the bolt.

2014 dodge challenger
Put on new control arms, just to find out they may have been installed wrong, took a wheel off then put a jack under ball joint while replacing them. ( google says car has to be lifted?)So new control arms are on their, now I just need an alignment, but was wondering if it’s too late,(I’ve jus drove to the store, nothing like super long rides) or if I can ask to fix torque specifications when I get my alignment this weekend, and if they’ll add that on alignment price, if so what’s the ballpark you’d say?

2011 Lexus ES350, automatic around 177k miles

I put the car in the shop on 7/3 to replace my front pads, rotors, tie rod ends, sway bar & links, alignment and a routine oil change. It was a pretty penny, but I explicitly said on the phone that I was happy to schedule these repairs because of how good the engine and transmission is on the car.

I live about 5 minutes from the shop and didnt notice anything when I drove the car home. Didnt drive the car 7/4. Today, 7/5 I went out to breakfast with my family and on the way home I noticed a few things:

1. The AC was not very cold, would go through periods of hot air then cold air
2. As I pulled into my neighborhood I saw some fluid squirt out of the front of the car and onto the hood
3. As soon as I parked home, the car seized and the check engine, oil and battery lights all turned on. I made 1 attempt to turn the car on but the engine was dead.

I check the dipstick and it comes out dry. I cleaned it, put it back in and out again and nothing. There is no oil in this car. I've looked under the car and have confirmed no visible or obvious oil leaks. The oil filter under the car is clean, no oil around it. I did see some coolant leaking though because the cap had blown off. That's the fluid I saw squirt out onto the hood earlier. I assume the lack of oil caused the engine to overheat and the coolant rapidly boiled and blew the cap off. Im assuming, but Im not that good with cars so please tell me if this is plausible. Ive taken photos of the dry disptick, warning lights and fluid on the hood and do have my invoice receipts from work done. I've arranged a tow with my roadside assitance to bring the car back to my mechanic shop tomorrow morning and have left a voicemail to my shop advising them of what I've observed, what I think the issue is and that I'll be bringing the car back in for a full engine inspection for damage. I expect them to remove the valve cover, check cylinder compression, assess the bearings etc. etc. all of it and repair or replace the engine.

My concern here is I cannot afford any more repairs at this time. My anxiety is through the roof right now. I'm married with a 6 month old, we're moving to a new home literally in 2 weeks and this is our only vehicle. We cannot afford to miss work because the car is in the shop and I dont know what else to do but hope that my mechanic makes good and repairs or replaces my engine.

What are my options here? Is it right to give my mechanic the opportunity to make this right or should I take it elsewhere for a damage inspection and take it up insurance? Who's insurance, mine or my mechanics? Is there a specific type of liability insurance shops have that covers technician errors like this? Does damage like this typically warrant an engine replacement? How strong is my case if they refuse to cooperate and I need to escalate this legally? If I have to rent a car or pay for an inspection or otherwise have to foot any amount of money out of pocket is the shop responsible to cover these costs? I have never dealt with something like this and I just want my car to be a fully operating vehicle again, like it was before the shop, for my family. I have taken such good care of the car, the car is clean registered with current tags, insured everything.

Thank you for reading, please help me understand how to handle this situation. Thank you again.

EDIT: I figured out how to post a video on Imgur so y'all can see me confirm no oil on dipstick. Thank you.
https://imgur.com/a/7OaTHLe

UPDATE: First of all, I want to thank everyone for their advice regardless of what the situation actually ended up being. I'm no mechanic, so a lot of what's commmon sense to y'all was a learning curve for me. As many of you pointed out, there was definitely some, but still low, oil in the engine. I recorded them draining the oil and it came out about a quart short but that wasn't the issue.

As it turned out, my radiator cracked and it caused the engine to overheat and shut down. This is shocking to me because I had them perform a bumper to bumper inspection on it on 7/3 and they claim they didn't see anything wrong at the time. It's a 15 yr old radiator and likely cracked due to general wear and tear. It's gonna cost me around $850 to replace the radiator. I dont really have much of a choice. They've ordered a replacement and it'll arrive tomorrow. Before they commit to charging me for the new radiator, they're going to perform a compression test and a leak down test to determine if the head gasket blew or if any cylinders are warped. If the engine has zero compression, then putting in a new radiator would be a waste of money. https://imgur.com/a/fAMwYGD

As far as I understand, and again Im not a mechanic, a bad head gasket would result in plumes of white smoke coming out of the tailpipe and I would hear a loud clunk and the engine would fail to start. Please advise. The good news, as I'm assuming it, is that this morning I was able to succesfully turn the car on (which I probably shouldnt have done but I wanted to see if it would even turn) and the car started just fine. No noise, no smoke, no rough idle, the car didnt immediately overheat and no indicator lights at all not even the check engine. I'm hoping this is good news and that I'm extremely lucky it isn't any worse. Is there anything I could be missing here? Anything else I should have them check on, any concerns this immediately brings y'all, anything that would be easy to overlook? My mechanic is very sympathetic to my concerns and are offering to help me out with the costs since I literally just dropped a grand on repairs the other day. This is far from over, and I'm waiting to hear back from them tomorrow to determine any issues with the engine and I'll go from there. Thank you again for everyone's help. I'll post another update tomorrow.

Video clips were taken less than an hour apart.

‘94 Pontiac Sunbird LE, 6 cyl automatic. I got this car about 8 months ago. It always had an issue with the battery draining while driving. Sometimes it would be fine for weeks at a time, other times the indicator would dip every time I press the gas, and other times it would fail to start altogether until I pump the gas. It dips the most after braking, after turning on, and during signal/light/power window usage.
I have had 2 alternators swapped, countless batteries swapped, and most recently a brand new wiring harness. After 2 drives around the neighborhood, my battery level is around 10V.
The car has 70k miles on it, is super clean and I don’t want to give up on it. But not a single mechanic can figure this thing out. Every time something is replaced, it seems to be holding a charge, but then gradually diminishes over the course of a few drives. Help please ❤️❤️