today my 89 gta tpi350 died and would not start. for a while it has been running poorly i took it to autozone and they told me it was the mass air flow sensor. finally when it died i bought a new maf and the prob was the same. i checked every sensor oon that car. after a while i noticed a piece of rubber missing off the rubber boot from the throttle body which made a hole i fixed the hole with an innertube and now my car runs bad a s s . i believed the stupid "technicians" at autozone and spent $160.00 dollars for nothing. i will never go to autozone again.

 

Not to ruffle anyones feathers, but if you don't do your own diagnostic work, you are going to find *most* technicians troubleshoot by throwing parts at problems (as do a lot of shadetree mechanics) and as you have learned, it gets expensive.

And just because you are paying someone MORE per hour, does not mean they are any better.

Again, this is *all* my opinion, but its based on my years being around and working on cars, and of course, my time spent on various mailing lists and Bulletin Boards. That $160 would have bought you an Auto X-Ray or whatever you might prefer.

 

Ditto.
Shops of any sort are on the absolute BOTTOM of my list for where to get answers. You can ask them what they think but test what they say before replacing it.

I'm still walking funny from the last time I visited a shop