Repair: $500, Parts Replaced: None

"Ram_Riot_6" (tony-ram-riot) 08/01/2015 at 22:52 • Filed to: None

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Ok, so there is a little more to it than that. The fuse box was loose. How does that even happen?

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

So after having my car towed to my mechanics shop Wednesday night, waiting for the tow is a whole other story on its own, I call him before close Thursday as I had not heard from them. They discovered the fuel pump to be in working order, which was was the their first thought of what the problem was. They searched for hours to find what could be causing my car to start and discovered the fuse box was lose. How they discovered that, I am still not sure. After jostling the box, the car started right up. They also let me know that the battery is not dead, but weak and should be replaced, so I run them a new battery as it is cheaper than buying one through them. I like a mechanic that tries to make the overall cost less for me.

Now I go to pick it up this morning and it is up and running with a new battery and all the pins reinserted into the base of the fuse box and the box is tightened down as well. I pay my $500 in labor fees and start the car to head out on my way. I hear a ding and low and behold the check engine light is on. I run back in and let them know and they come out to read the code. Turns out to be the starter fuses have excess resistance. They pull it back in and replace those fuses and I am good to go. Get back to my car turn on the radio and the front speakers have no sound. Pull it back into the bay and we diagnose the issue as a lose connection on both speakers. This was my partly my bad as I had to rewired them a while back and know that they occasionally cut out due to a loose connection. Third time was the charm to make it out of the parking lot and head home. I look down after I exit the parking lot and guess what, the check engine light is back on. I had to run by Advanced to return the old battery, and had them read/clear the codes. It was the same code as before. I gave the shop the benefit of the doubt and will wait to see if it comes back on before I head back.

I am glad to have my car fixed and that the repair was not part related, but $500 is a good chunk of change to spend on a car repair and not have anything other than two fuses replaced and a couple bolts tightened.

tl;dr Got my car fixed for $500 with no new parts installed because the fuse box was loose.

JGrabowMSt > Ram_Riot_6 08/01/2015 at 23:27

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There just so happens to be a first time for everything, right? I’ve never heard of a fuse box being loose myself, so I’ll certainly give you that one. I suppose that if the wiring harness beneath the box were to manage to come loose, then absolutely it can cause all sorts of problems, but with this, I’d be curious about how it managed to come loose. All major connectors on a car are supposed to have a two part clip so you don’t have something shaking itself loose, but this is a wonderful world we live in where anything really is possible.

That said, good on the shop for 1) actually finding that problem and 2) standing behind their work and sticking the car back into the bay to look at again. I’d certainly keep them in mind for the future, because that kind of service is difficult to find these days.

Ram_Riot_6 > JGrabowMSt 08/01/2015 at 23:43

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Yeah, it was a shock to me as I have never heard of that happening before. No one has ever touched anything since I’ve had the car, so it must have been loose, or have been loosening, from the time I got it, over 6 years ago. I like doing my own work on my cars, but I would have never figured this one out on my own.