2 weeks ago I took my car to a Chevy dealer for a 30k scheduled maintenance. It also needed rear shoes and a oil pressure sensor. Since that time my MPG has dropped from about 20mpg to around 12mpg. I have an appointment to drop it back off on Friday.While I dont normally do it, I was able to punch the gas and get the rear tires spinning. Now if I try, they just give me a quick chirp. My first instincts are that the rear drums are dragging. Is there anything that I should have them be looking at?

 

Not that.

Not sure about "have them look at"; don't know what that means, where an antique car is concerned. Doesn't sound likely to end well, whatever it is; same as what got you to this point in the first place.

YOU should take a look at the ignition timing and see if they "set" it for you. Most likely they disturbed the distributor while changing the OPSU. Might want to just crank the distributor body about 15 degrees counterclockwise from wherever it is now and see what happens. Most likely you'll be pleased.

 

Thanks. I will check. Nornally I would assume that the dealer would know what they are doing, but in this case, given that the car is probably older then the techs, I will follow your advise.

 

Right: the dealer is actually a store. It exists to sell new cars, not to keep old ones going. As far as they are concerned, once a car is out of warranty, they have no further interest in it. They don't keep manuals, documents, tools, etc. around for more than a few years, and any new techs aren't trained on any cars more than a few years old. While "the dealer" sounds like a great place to get your car worked on, in reality, it's one of the worst, after the warranty expires.

Simple stuff like you posted about (brakes, OPSU) on an antique car, should be taken care of by the owner. You'll spend yourself into bankruptcy paying somebody else to do that kind of thing. If you intend to participate in the antique car hobby, best to learn how to do things like that yourself, so you're not like those Vette guys whose cars are "in the shop" or "at the mechanic" etc. 200 days out of the year, and every week or 2 they're forking over another several $100 to them. Unless you're AHELLUVALOT better off than I am or most everybody else on here is, like unless you pull down a 6-figure income that the 1st digit isn't a 1, that's no way to "enjoy" this hobby.

 

You would likely be better off, both in dollars & service if you found a local service station that would work on it for you. There's a mechanic here in town that will take care of any mechanical chores I choose not to do on any of my cars - and they think it's a real treat when I bring something in for them too.

It's a nice change for them and being these cars are more mechanical than computer, they enjoy them more - lets them be mechanics rather than just parts changers.

 

I agtee. I do have a local center that works on classic cars. My mistake, taking to a dealer that I had a discount with since I just bought a new truck from them. I figured I would take it in for a scheduled maintenance and have them check my oil pressure. I changed my front brakes LY, but didnt get to the drums (my bad). Have learned my lesson, eventhough I have preached about not going to a dealer for service.

 

I do most of the maintenance myself. But as stated in post above, I figured I would use the dealer. And yes, bankruptcy is a possibility.

 

Just an update... both of the rear drums were totally not right, and they were dragging. I asked to speak with the Service Manager, and he was very honest that his crew f'd up on the brakes. I did take Sofas advise and knocked down the timing... what a difference that made. I can't blame the distributor disruption on the shop, but it seems to have fixed the issue, along with the brakes.