What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?

[afacc123]

During a routine oil change, I was told by my mechanic than one of my brake lights had burned out. He described it as a really tricky installation that requires having my brake light completely changed, and it would cost around $500 in parts and labor. He also recommended changing all of my cabin and engine air filters, and told me it would cost me $60 for the cabin filter and another $50 for the engine filter and another $85 in labour to do it. So it would have been another $195 for a grand total of $695 plus taxes.

(from US News)

I’m admittedly not a car person. My school never had auto shop, so I didn’t know too much about car parts. However, I did know a lot about how to change light bulbs in a Kia, having done it once before for a headlight. I guessed that it probably was just that situation and politely declined.

He then tried to scare me saying that if the police sees that, they would stop me and ticket me. He told me about how this happens all the time and that the fine was in the hundreds, so it’s better to not take the loss.

I declined again, just had the oil change made, and drove over to the closest NAPA Auto Parts. I asked for the bulb I needed. It cost me $6.36. I also picked up the engine and cabin filters as well, the best they had. Those cost me $40.

 

 

(from YouTube[1] )

After finishing it, I walked over to my car, and changed the bulb in about three minutes. It actually took me 3x longer to watch the video than to do the actual change.

So, assuming that the gas is about $3 tops, plus the cost of the lights, filters and time, the whole thing cost me a bit over $50 and 20 minutes of time (15 minutes watching two videos and five minutes doing all the replacements).

Needless to say, I haven’t been to that garage ever since.

[Manikyam]

220 for air filter