Ok so I take my 91 Camaro into a inspection station. He calls me five hours later telling me the following things are wrong with the car:

-Window Motor Bad
-Steer Collumn bad
-Bubble in the tires
-Trans-Brake
-Rear End needs rebuilt (Ill admit to this one making some weird *** noises)
-Broken Engine Mount
-Bad steering links (cant think of the right name im still in shock)
-Control Arms bad
-Alignment
-Windshield Wipers
-Brake Rotors

Some other various small things as well. Now when I bought the car about a month ago. I drove it..had a mechanic look at it. No problems generaly. It steered to the right a little bit. The paint is perfect. Interior is spotless....engine is also spotless. Brand new exaust, altanator, tires, etc. Nothing I thought to be wrong with the car. So I ended up paying about 4000$ with taxes, tags, and title. (80,000 miles by the way).

So I have two questions:
1. Did I get ripped when I bought the car?
2. Am I getting ripped by the mechanic?

If you have more questionso n the condition of the car feel free to ask. Thanks for any help. I just need to settle this in my head before I shell out some major money. I have attached a picture of what the cars condition looks like.

 

looks like a nice car as far as the repairs needed you could probabbly do most of them yourself with a manual. since you mention the steering coulum I am betting you mean its loose, and while I wouldn't fix it myself (because I don't feel that competent yet) all it should be is some loose bolts (a dealer quoted my 2hrs labor to fix it). now for my opionion (sp?) if you need a new rear end (I assume you are reffering to the diff) it seems to me that is a great excuse to put some different gears in. I'm not sure what a bubble in a tire is but there again is a reason to get some new rubber. anyways happy wrenching

 

Hi,
Get a steering column from a pull-your parts place for ~ $20-$30. you can look at the classifieds here but prices will vary. I got one from here for $25 WITH THE KEY ! What is exactly wrong with the steering column anyways? The steering box can be adjusted- see about the manual below.

Learn how to work on your car somewhat that way you can verify if a repair shop is shaking you down. If you are on the ball they won't take you fr a sucker- if that's the case. I never get work done by anyone that would do this even if everything is "bad".

I've had a lot of bad experiences with mechanics "fixing " things that were never broken. I work on my own car for most everything now.

I agree get a repair manual. Spend the money for a GM manual from Helms (helmsinc.com I believe) there is nothing like it. They were on sale for ~$30 but some are ~$140 check for your year.

Steering linkages are a saftey issue bring the car in to some place else for a second opinion. i would spend the extra for Moog parts if I were spending the $300- $400 for all new stuff.

Do the safety stuff first and try the others yourself. Check out the pull-r-parts place, it's kind of fun and you can learn how to take your car apart there.

 

ok, i'll bite. you got a tbi 305 with a trans brake and a bad rearend and a broken motor mount. my guess is that the previous owner was not babying that car. might be a little pricey getting that rearend fixed but it looks great and it sounds like you have a good motor. if you can't afford to dump a couple grand into it you'd better start fixing it yourself and go easy on that rearend until you do.

 

Go to a differant mechanic.

 

Try a more modern shop.

 

Price also includes the inspection and parts thats not just labor. Yes its the 305 TBI.

 

Also want to say this is how this all came about is a inspection.

For the steering collumn. The highbeams do not work and you have to push the steering wheel down to get them to click on. So its basicaly loose.

Thing is around here is there the nicest and cheapest around I have seen so far. He has a high respect for Camaros and owns two himself so I know he will take a little more care of it then some random mechanic. I will post the full list of the repairs once I get his price quote.

He also rebuilt the engine of a 89 Mercury Tracer for me for just 300$. This is all the gaskets and included a motor pull.

So does anyone think I just got ripped for the car and thats the problem?

 

dont forgett that the column has the air bags in it so dont forget to disconnect the battery if your going to be fixing it yourself

 

-Steer Collumn bad
------likely king pins.

Quote:

Thing is around here is there the nicest and cheapest around I have seen so far. He has a high respect for Camaros and owns two himself so I know he will take a little more care of it then some random mechanic. I will post the full list of the repairs once I get his price quote.

---not as bad as I first thought. Maybe he is one of the best you can find.

Quote:

He also rebuilt the engine of a 89 Mercury Tracer for me for just 300$. This is all the gaskets and included a motor pull.

So does anyone think I just got ripped for the car and thats the problem?

Hard to tell over the web. How much did you pay for the car?

 

BTW i would have to agree with chesterfield abouit the previous owner not babying the car. too much off but a nice looking ride.

 

Well hell I don't baby it either so that doesnt help lol.

 

What's a window motor? The hatch motor? Thats definitely not required for safety.

No real way around the rear end rebuild.

Engine mount can be welded if I understand what you mean. Thats a quick job.

Alignment and tires together are usually a discount, check for local coupons and such.

Wipers are $5.

Its always nice to have fresh rotors, but of course you can go to a junkyard and find a set of aluminum ones for $30ish.

Sucks to hear about the car but atleast it looks good! Get a Chilton Repair manual right now. You can fix half of these things without any skill and a $20 toolkit.

 

what the heck are you talking about? the window motor is the motor that makes the POWER windows go down. it's probably just slow. there are tech article after tech article on this site about how to fix that. if i remember correctly, it's pretty cheap too.

engine mount, he's talking about the rubber inserts, not the clam shell. the clam shell shouldn't ever break with a 305tbi monster pushing it around

where did you get $5 wipers? i have never spent less than $15!

ALUMINUM ROTORS? are you smoking CRACK ROCK? they don't exist for our cars. now, aluminum drums, yes, i have some on my car. if the rotors are bad, get some new ones from the parts store. 45min job to do both brakes.

i do agree to get a Chilton's AND a Hayne's manual. you can pick those up at your local parts store. DO NOT attempt to work on your car without these books. they will aid in putting that thing back together. then when you come on the boards asking questions, your somewhat educated on the subject.

 

With this being a inspection requirement I kinda got stuck with not being able to do it myself. I am not mechnicaly declined, I am a ballistic engineer for gods sake. But I have no time to fix all this and with vacation around the corner I need her done and done right. Really I just want to ease my mind. I am going to paint the car this summer I actualy had another post on that. Going yellow. Yea I know you either hate the idea or you love it. Just one of those things. So really I just want to know was the car still worth the 4000$ I paid for it? Do the parts, inspection fees, labor, etc. comming to 2000$ make sense?

 

Just a heads up, being a firefighter trained in auto-extrication, some airbags can hold a charge for several hours after disconnecting the battery.

We blow these things up on our training courses, the new Dodge Ram units fly almost 30 feet in the air. (Don't try at home)

Safety First. Always try to work on the column from underneath, if possible.

 

A big chunk of the price one pays for a car is usually based on the appearance alone. You said the car's interior and exterior are perfect, and that in itself makes the car pretty valuable (well, at least compared to other third gens). The other problems (except for maybe the rear end) just happen with old age, and can be easily remedied... and, to me at least, shouldn't devalue the car to the point where you were ripped off. Just fix it and be happy.

I'd also recommend getting a second opinion, as well as doing some of the work yourself. You'd be surprised how simple some of this stuff really is.

P.S. - You said "control arms" were bad. Did your mechanic mean the a-arms or the LCAs? I know some books (Haynes manuals) and people use the term control arms as a replacement for a-arms.

 

"Control Arms" come from my retarded mind not the mechanics lol.

 

So.... is it the A-arms or the lower control arms (LCAs)?

 

A-Arms sound right.