I’m glad you’re like me, an honest mechanic. I know that I am fixing to leave this world because of pancreatic cancer. But I know that I can leave it with the knowledge that I did not ever screw a customer over for something little.
I wish I could have met you in real life and I wish I could have worked for you. I’m damn good at what I do but life decided that I wasn’t damn good at that. Both of you take care and enjoy what you’re doing and everybody else will continue to enjoy it as well.
Car Wizard It’s OK. That’s the incredible thing about a terminal illness. Once you come to the realization that your time has ended it’s kind of like “going over” during World War I. You climb over the edge of the trench KNOWING you’re going to be shot and killed. But the peace that comes with the terror is the realization that it is the way that it is. Acceptance is a hard thing. But once you accept your fate.... All the pain goes away and all the fear and you just do what is left to do. At that point you are prepared to meet your maker and you walk in with gusto and pride for the life you have lived. At that point you gain the only strength that you can have. The strength to go with honor and grace.
Karl - An honest mechanic (or an honest anyone) is such a rare find these days. Thank you for your integrity. It really matters. People like you and the Wizard set a great example for others.
@@KarlandKristy I'm pretty sure everyone is going to remember your honesty and courage Mr. Sachsenheimer. I hope people will remember me in a good way when my time comes. Godspeed sir.✌
@@MrTwisted1977 Wholesome: opposite of the guy who charged me $20 for a bolt from his miscellaneous pile 30 years ago. It promoted me to attend school to learn about auto repair and never visit a repair shop again. Except for tires. This was a horrible business practice. Since I lived less than 1 mile from it. No wonder the shop folded some years back.
@@MrTwisted1977 he comes across as very genuine and honest. He breaks the mechanic stereotype. I do believe there are a few things that that spoil the bunch.
I was on a road trip and out in the middle of no place and my girlfriends car just up and died. Crank, crank, nothing. We called a mechanic. After 5 minutes he replaced the low voltage coil wire that had vibrated off. It started right up. He could have asked us for whatever he wanted. $20. That's it. There are honest good people like you out here in the world. Glad you are too.
Mech. wise I am still looking for THAT kind of person. BUT in this 'current world', I just needed 2 pairs of rubber gloves to go to work for the week. Went to a hardware store, only had 50 pairs per box.$45! A total stranger came up to me minutes later and handed me 10 pairs for free! Only asked me to.... 'Please just pay it forward'. First time in 55yrs of life, anyone GAVE me something, just to be nice.
I brought a Lincoln Town Car to a transmission shop for a second opinion of a place that said it needed a full transmission rebuild because they thought the reverse gear was screwed. What was really happening was a brake caliper was missing a bolt and was locking up anytime the car moved backwards. They scrounged up a bolt and fixed it for $20, real great guys
It's funny. I knew about the condensation for a long time. I had developed a coolant leak in roughly the same spot at some point and thought nothing of it. Well, a few days later, goodbye radiator.
Yeah it also happened to me and my parents when they finally bought a "new" car with AC. They told me to check out some leak. Since I have never seen AC on a car at that point I couldn't figure out what that mess of cooling lines was for, spent like 15 minutes just looking at it with bewilderment.
I used to work at a medical building and one of the doctors was really frustrated because when he would turn on his lights all the gauges in his Lexus wouldn’t light up. He told me that he asked four other people but saw me doing an oil change in the garage (back when I lived in apartment and building manager would charge for spilled oil) and asked me to look at it. This was a brand new Lexus and the dealer told him it was $600 to replace a module. Anyways, looked at the dimmer switch and it was off, showed him how to turn it on. He gave me a $200 gift card for Christmas.
"You mean I just paid $100 to have the car towed?" Yes, and you also paid for five gallons of hand-delivered gasoline plus the mechanics diagnosis fee. Next time don't be an idiot
All the cars I've possessed from this millennium have an audible warning when fuel gets low. And on startup when fuels low. So are they ignoring that as well?
@@benholroyd5221 Not all cars have this feature. Especially cheap and old cars don't have this feature...My wife owns a five year old opel that doesn't Someone could have disabled it, too. I've bought a 02 peugeot 206CC that has a horrible alarm when you come down to the last 100km that you can drive with your fuel, however I've also tested the same model from another dealer that seemed quite fishy. There was almost no fuel in the tank, the light for it was on, but the alarm didn't go off. However some people just ignore it, I guess.
@@Toni7926 well if you're disabling it, that's kind of your own fault? I've got a 2004 Panda, which I guess would count as cheap and old and that has a warning. The last car I had that didn't was a Ford Escort.
Reminds me of when people turn the key with a crazy amount of force because they don't realize they should be wiggling the steering wheel a little while doing so.
When I moved from a small town to "the city" it opened my eyes a little. Went from being charged $10 (hell sometimes it was free) to mount/balance a tire...In the city, they want $60 and shit, that's with a coupon!
Connor you have to think when your in a “city” opposed to small town/country side more people are living in apartments less home garages and a lot more people who don’t work on their own vehicles. Auto shops in cities can charge that because people will pay it cause they need their vehicles repaired.
@@ttsupra95 no, I think what they're getting at is that a garage in the city is willing to capitalize on the fact that there's less people who have the ability or the space to work on their cars. When you're in a rural area there's also more mom-and-pop shops who generally are cheaper.
@@scott8919 This does have truth to it. I was up at my summer place in NH and I bought a tail light for one of our older vehicles we had, I went into a NAPA store, got the bulb, went home to install it and found out it was not the right bulb. .(I should have checked before leaving the store)....instead of driving 15 minutes back to the store, I drove 5 minutes to the mom and pop gas station and one of the guys there just simply traded me the bulb for the correct one. The one dude knew my face fairly well since we always bought gas at their shop...and this is in a small town in NH, but it's also a big summer place. It does show that they cared.
There's also the cost of living in the city, the shop in the country might be worth $35 sq/ft while downtown a large city it can exceed $3,000 sq/ft. This also means rent is higher and the shop has to pay his staff more money for the same service.
Lmao for a couple of years, my sister's rear driver's side door wouldn't open from the inside and we just thought the internal handle might have been broken.....turns out the door had those little manual child lock tab set to lock😑😑
Yeah had that happen to me on a Chevy cargo van at work. Could not figure out why the cargo door on the pass side wouldn't open from the inside, but opened from the outside just fine. Stupid thing has child locks on that door, in a cargo van with two bucket seats up front.
I caught that button on my hip pocket, (work van) and because I was on a slope the door slammed shut. The side door was disabled so I had to take the lock apart to get out because nobody could hear me yell for help and there were no windows. I ended up snipping the switch off after the second time this happened. (Okay, third time it happened.)
The fact that the Wizard made a video like this proves that he really is a really honest and great down to earth guy! BTW Wizard, how about naming your new Beetle "Herbie!" :-)
I was a Service advisor for almost 39 years and saw several of these false alarms , but the one that stood out the most was some people would replace their own batteries and still wont start. Had the vehicle towed in and we found when they installed the battery they left the protective plastic caps on the posts. We did not charge them .
Best thing out of all of this is the Wizard is honest enough to tell a customer small everyday issues can be sorted for free or low cost. Rather than taking the opportunity to rip off some poor person that doesn't know any better. I've had our local mechanic do this for my Mrs since I was away at work or something to sort it out. That's why I'll always go back to that mechanic before all others.
A company I used to work for had a someone call us out for a flat battery, checked the car for current draw but it was all OK, we tested and charged the battery, gave it back and said all OK. Then we got a call out again for a flat battery, this time the first thing I checked before getting in was the light switch and saw that they had left the headlights on (yes it was an older car, maybe late 90s, it had a chime for it but that was the only reminder). We put in a new battery at the customers request, checked for current draw and it was all OK., I made a comment to be sure they're not leaving anything on, from power socket devices (there weren't any in the car, but just incase) and specifically said headlights etc. We got another call and she was irrate that we hadn't fixed it, I went out again and saw the headlight switch was on again, we jumped it and they headlights came on, I left the switch on just to prove to the customer that it was them leaving it on (I didn't out right rub thier face in it but made mention, oh the headlights are on?), but they refused to admit it. We said that we can put a switch so that they turn off with the ignition, but they refused. About a week later it happened again, and their partner agreed for us to put the headlights on a relay to shut them off with the car. They stopped having the problem. Sometimes it's just people that are the problem.
I used to work repairing computers, you would be surprised how many come in for repair that have nothing wrong.. a friend of mine used to repair washing machines and he told me 30% of call outs were just not plugged in or not switched on. He would ask the customer to check that it was plugged in and switched on before he came out..but they still got mad when he had to write a bill.
@@volundrfrey896 I think there's a argument to be made for some minimum level of mechanical competence. Not perhaps these non issues, but if your engine explodes in the middle of the road, that's putting others at risk. It's perhaps reasonable to expect any driver to realise that steam coming from the bonnet = bad. And pull over before the explosion. Damnpunk also raises a good point. If you have a puncture in the outback, that's a potential life and death situation. And a situation where you're requiring the emergency services to come out, all because you can't change a tyre.
@@volundrfrey896 because it's really called an "operators licence". If you dont know the basics of operation, are you really licenced? Why do you think part of the practical exam is showing you know how to operate signals, lights, and wipers?
in times of comunism here you had to know your car as the pilots their planes...but the cars were so that a 2 metre wire, plzier and a couple of wrenches was what was needed to do a general overhaul....nowdays they only ask where and how to check oil or tire pressure.
@Joe Home well I know for a fact that she was pushing the clutch in because on VWs and Audis if you don't push the clutch in to start the car it doesn't even crank at all, and the dash will tell you to depress the clutch to start the car. Been there done that before many times on those cars.
So true. This goes not just for cars, a friend of mine bought a washing machine a while a go, installed it and ran it. It shredded all his clothes. He called me a couple of days later on another matter, and told me about it. "Well, did you remove the transportation safety plugs?" I asked him. "What's that?" he replied. Well, it's clearly stated in the manual, had you taken the five minutes to read it before installing the machine your clothes would've been fine. And clean. He was trying to get money out of the insurance, but of course he didn't. RTFM for f***'s sake, how hard can it be?
markiangooley Oh how right you are! I run a parts store where I live and I can say from experience that saying "Look in your owner's manual for that information" can solict looks of bewilderment, resentment, and utter disdain. I've learned to follow that line with "if you don't have a manual, the vast majority are available on the automaker's owner support website for free," but even then there are still those that consider themselves to be above such things. Fuse box diagrams come to mind. I actually had a customer a while back decide to use a random Google search result fuse diagram rather than follow my recommendation to download the owner's manual from Ford's website. The genius put a high amperage fuse in a low amperage position and smoked something in his dash. Sigh. You can lead a horse to water... right?
New subscriber! Thank you and Mrs. Car Wizard so much. Just had oil changed by my mechanic's garage on my 2006 Highlander 4 cylinder bought used last April with 119,000 miles. I've learned a lot from Car Care Nut about the 2AZ-fe, avoiding overheating with recent coolant flush. No head gasket leak and no oil drop so far with light driving to 120,500 miles. Am changing every 6 months if not up to 5000 miles driven. Not sure if my mechanic reset the maintainable light, but will look it up and clear it. Want this to last, as I'm retired, now. Your wife, btw, is a great role player! Will really benefit from your list! God bless you and yours.
A new one...TPMS Failure warning. Unplug all your items hooked up to the power point/lighter and drive another 20 miles. If it goes out, one of your accessories or the plug itself is putting our enough RF interference the system cannot communicate
This channel is so awesome. I love how Mrs. Wizard is actively in your videos and your business! You make such a great team. well wishes to your health!
Wow, number #2. That carries over into computer repair. I used to work the repair counter at an office store and no telling how many times people would come in, complain about trackpads not working, having no WiFi or no sound, and a single button press fixed it. Many laptops have trackpad and WiFi lockout buttons and people have no idea they even exist. Also, some people were dense enough, that when there was no sound, they didn't even try just turning the volume up. They hit the mute button at some point, then get embarrassed as I press one button and now there's sound.
Something else with window switches. If you disconnected your battery or it went dead recently, you might need to hold it up/down for 15 seconds or so for it to 're-calibrate' the switch and auto up/down features.
It’s nice to see a technician who will put out a video like this to educate the masses and keep them from costing themselves money and tying up shop time.
Another excellent video which could potentially help a lot of folks who aren't very mechanically minded... and I especially enjoyed Mrs. Wizard in her starring role as "Helpless Customer"!
As a old retired mechanic out of the business watching this video I learned a few things to. One thing about AC systems in the old days just about every US car manufacture had a sight gauge window on the high pressure side and if it was clear and the system was blowing cold air your AC system was full of Freon. But as the system was operating and you see bubbles then you where low and you added Freon until the bubbles disappeared, a no brainer. Then the car companies eliminated the sight glass all together and now comes the 5, 000.00 AC machine what a rip-off. He’s also correct on being low just a few ounces in car or home AC. My home AC is about 3.5 ton unit and it’s total capacity is 149 ounces of Freon, but the system is made up of pre-charged lines so all you do is connect the components and you are ready to go, but these connections leak a tiny bit over time and if the temperature output goes up , it’s time to add some Freon and it’s not much generally about 4 ounces on a 149 ounce system. My big grip here is there’s no sight glass either. The thing is sight glass assemblies are available to be installed on car and home AC systems but a qualified technician has to do the procedure, it’s not hard at all and these sight glass assemblies are available through HAVC parts suppliers for about 20.00 dollars.
Thanks for the infotainment during the quarantine. '96 Audi A6, check engine light comes on. Advised its an O2 sensor. The light stayed on another 250k miles with no hiccups. Tires/wheels, out of balance vs out of alignment. In Minnesota, we get a buildup of icy/snow in wheel wells we call it fenderberg. Batteries, that's why I like gauges instead of warning lights.
As an engineer I have actually brought my car to the shop because of a light bulb. You need to disassemble the grill, the front bumper, loosen the front fender and move a whole lot of hoses out the way to get the headlight out and change the bulb. Most frustrating design I have ever encountered.
Best lesson of all..............deal with someone you know and trust....! Best advice ever, especially as more and more ppl do not understand how a car works....Thanks Mr. Wizard..!
I thought my flip key snapped off in te ignition, turned out that it snapped off when I was putting it in my pocket and landed in the garden, I paid $150 for an auto locksmith to come out to my house and use the spare key. It did look like the key was still in the ignition but it was just the metal dust thing
Here is one that isn't as common these days as when first implemented (the inertial switches are better today) but still happens. Driving along, hit a big pothole or go off the road for a moment and the engine dies and car won't start like it has no fuel. The fuel pump safety has tripped and needs to be reset. Sometimes it is in the trunk sometimes under the hood. It's a safety feature introduced in the 90s in case of a rollover or severe crash the fuel pump won't keep pumping fuel if the supply line gets ruptured after the regulator and the engine won't keep running after a rollover and you might me unconscious.
What you go through in those "false alarms" is EXACTLY what goes on with me in IT when I deal with people and their computer problems. Trust me, I feel your pain lol
One of the guys at work was having trouble with his phone not syncing to the cloud and couldn't send emails. I asked if he had tried restarting it and said no, then took it to our IT department after trying for a few more minutes. When he returned and was uploading pictures I asked what IT had done to fix it, he told me they turned it off and back on LMAO.
I got a 70 Nova from my neighbor he had Sear's work on getting the generator light fixed. They replaced the battery, alternator, and other thing's. I had an old Thunderbird he wanted so we traded. I noticed the dash lights were out. Replaced the fuse and the gen light went out.
11:00 Seems that we used to have some warning back in the day, slower starting. These days it seems that they are good one day and then dead, dead, dead the next, click.
Yup! My 2yr old battery, (with a 5 yr. warranty), went dead 'overnight'. No warning, exact same situation. But I knew it was the battery. South Fla. heat kills batteries FAST, and a $110 'Wal-Mart Battery'. But the same battery was $150 at Discount Auto, or $180 at O'Reillys! Same maker, just different labels.
Years ago, (late 80’s) I knew this chick who said she “hit a deer” who ran out in front of her car one night... It was a ‘K car’ from what I remember. She told me that ever since that night she heard a scraping sound coming in from underneath her car... I’m no car mechanic or anything.. I took a few seconds and looked under her car and saw the decapitated deer head with horns wedged underneath... I pulled the head out which stopped the shaking... she was driving that way for WEEKS !!! Luckily for me that’s not the only head that got pulled out...
I personally run a shop in the UK 🇬🇧 so to me all of this stuff is second nature. But I absolutely agree with you Car Wizard a video like this it saves the customer money and saves both the shop and customer time. Well done you and keep up the great work 😀👍🏻
I had this recently, a 2016 Nissan Rogue came to me with the owner complaint "the AC isn't blowing cold even though it's on!". Looked at it and determined that the AC was indeed on, and so was the heater on full blast...almost died laughing haha
Part 2 of being a retired heavy duty diesel mechanic and OTR truck driver and fuel gauges. As a truck driver I always carried a wood stick that I calibrated to my fuel tanks and I would stick the tanks because I didn’t trust the gauge and also the tanks are round so if your gauge is reading 1/4 tank is there really 1/4 tank of fuel. So I would mark my stick in gallons so I knew what I really had on board. On the modern trucks with complex fuel systems you do not want to run them out of fuel because it will require a field service call and a diesel mechanic on average about 2 hours to bleed out the air and get diesel fuel through the hole system so the engine will restart.
Some devices, like Apple iPhones/iPods, when plugged into the USB port on cars like BMWs, will also activate additional components in the vehicle that drains the charge even if you turned off your device!
Hey car wizard, thanks for the entertaining and informative videos. I work in a small repair shop and I struggle keeping my space clean. Do you have any tips for keeping such a large space organized, cleaned and keeping the overall dust particles in the air down? Thanks!
Any person and/or business who has the ability to recognize where they stand based on their perspective and experience, and to openly communicate that to outsiders deserves applause. That has value for a lot of people.
Funny enough number 5 happened to me with ice and salt from living in new England and freaked me out. I'd never had it happen and I was convinced it was my tire pressure
#5 dirt roads: a more common of version of this is snow/ice stuck to your rims. The weight is enough the throw the balance off and it won't fly off on it's own (probably because of centrifugal force).
My brother-in-law once thought that he blew the transmission on his ‘04 Grand Cherokee because it wouldn’t shift at all, so he scheduled an appointment at a local transmission shop And was going to schedule a tow. I went over to check it out and showed him that the shifter cable had simply popped off the side of the transmission and it was no big deal! Not saying they would’ve ripped him off at the shop but he would’ve been an easy target to get a couple thousand dollars off of. Great video Wizard!
I absolutely believe that lawyers bring their cars in for service when the window kill switch is engaged. When I was a law clerk I had to show an attorney how to properly zero the mechanical counter on his tape recorder so we could record a deposition. He was only pushing the button halfway down so the recorder wasn’t resetting to 000 and it “thought” it was at the end of the cassette 😂😂😂
Another false alarm that sends people into a shop is those completely unaware of ABS system engagement, or how the system works. Sometimes there is a bearing or sensor issue, but most of the time it tends to be someone hitting brakes going over a slick patch or a speed bump, and it scares them
What a great idea for a feature. As you say , not everyone is mechanically minded. Was this good idea a Mrs.Wizard idea? Cool to see her, as ever. Great channel. Thanks and good wishes from a UK fan 👍🏻👍🏻🚗🚗
What is almost as bad as running out of gas and spending $100 on a tow...is that most insurance will pay for the tow, even if the car is in your garage.
I work at Halfords and yes, the flashing indicator- so many people don’t realise it simply means the bulb has gone. And yes the electric window button.. it happends a lot. Another one is on a lot of automatics you can’t remove the key unless its in Park.
The AC can also have that problem because the Ford dealer (Metro Ford Schenectady NY) didn't open the grill vanes when they installed a new front end. I had the pleasure of having a blown motor as my warning. I thought they f'd up my refrigerant system. Nope, they basically put my radiator in a plastic box. Took a week or two for it to happen as it was March and was very cold the first few days I had gotten it back from the dealer. They had the car for over a month and while they had it to repair front end damage managed to damage three out of four doors. Unreal. Not to mention this is a 14' focus with the absolute trash dual clutch auto trans. End rant. Another great video Wizard.
When I did AAA Roadside, I made up a list of common “no it doesn’t need to be towed” problems. I’ve seen so many “doesn’t start” calls that turns into needs fuel. My favorite was an 2015 Prius where the owner went to a park, did a hike, and came back and it wouldn’t start and the check engine light was on. The fuel gauge showed one bar left, was not blinking. I put the code reader on, and turns out there is a P-code for “Less than 2 gallons of gas, disabled start” After me and the owner laughing for 20 minute, I put in 5 gallons of gas for him and it starts up. And I ran into so many people trying to start the car in…Drive….
Definitely a public service, thank you. How come I feel the need to say, I knew those thing? Oh, Mrs. Wizard does a great job on both sides of the camera.
I’m glad you’re like me, an honest mechanic. I know that I am fixing to leave this world because of pancreatic cancer. But I know that I can leave it with the knowledge that I did not ever screw a customer over for something little.
Sad to hear about your cancer. My wife just lost her aunt to it. Thanks for the comment. Best of wishes to you.
I wish I could have met you in real life and I wish I could have worked for you. I’m damn good at what I do but life decided that I wasn’t damn good at that. Both of you take care and enjoy what you’re doing and everybody else will continue to enjoy it as well.
Car Wizard
It’s OK. That’s the incredible thing about a terminal illness. Once you come to the realization that your time has ended it’s kind of like “going over” during World War I. You climb over the edge of the trench KNOWING you’re going to be shot and killed. But the peace that comes with the terror is the realization that it is the way that it is. Acceptance is a hard thing. But once you accept your fate.... All the pain goes away and all the fear and you just do what is left to do. At that point you are prepared to meet your maker and you walk in with gusto and pride for the life you have lived. At that point you gain the only strength that you can have. The strength to go with honor and grace.
Karl - An honest mechanic (or an honest anyone) is such a rare find these days. Thank you for your integrity. It really matters. People like you and the Wizard set a great example for others.
@@KarlandKristy
I'm pretty sure everyone is going to remember your honesty and courage Mr. Sachsenheimer.
I hope people will remember me in a good way when my time comes. Godspeed sir.✌
Wizard is the most wholesome mechanic in existence
What do u mean by wholesome
MrTwisted1977 the fact that he's nice and honest. He breaks the stereotype of most (not all) mechanics being dishonest sleazeballs basically
along with scotty kilmer
@@MrTwisted1977 Wholesome: opposite of the guy who charged me $20 for a bolt from his miscellaneous pile 30 years ago. It promoted me to attend school to learn about auto repair and never visit a repair shop again. Except for tires.
This was a horrible business practice. Since I lived less than 1 mile from it. No wonder the shop folded some years back.
@@MrTwisted1977 he comes across as very genuine and honest. He breaks the mechanic stereotype. I do believe there are a few things that that spoil the bunch.
I was on a road trip and out in the middle of no place and my girlfriends car just up and died. Crank, crank, nothing. We called a mechanic. After 5 minutes he replaced the low voltage coil wire that had vibrated off. It started right up. He could have asked us for whatever he wanted. $20. That's it. There are honest good people like you out here in the world. Glad you are too.
Mech. wise I am still looking for THAT kind of person. BUT in this 'current world', I just needed 2 pairs of rubber gloves to go to work for the week. Went to a hardware store, only had 50 pairs per box.$45! A total stranger came up to me minutes later and handed me 10 pairs for free! Only asked me to.... 'Please just pay it forward'. First time in 55yrs of life, anyone GAVE me something, just to be nice.
I brought a Lincoln Town Car to a transmission shop for a second opinion of a place that said it needed a full transmission rebuild because they thought the reverse gear was screwed. What was really happening was a brake caliper was missing a bolt and was locking up anytime the car moved backwards. They scrounged up a bolt and fixed it for $20, real great guys
Thought condensate water from the AC compressor would be on the list, people thinking they have a leaking car.
After moving to Texas that almost got me a time or two...
It's funny. I knew about the condensation for a long time. I had developed a coolant leak in roughly the same spot at some point and thought nothing of it. Well, a few days later, goodbye radiator.
those people would be me, whenever i buy a new car. lol
I was just about to say the same thing. That one almost got me a couple of times when I was younger.
Yeah it also happened to me and my parents when they finally bought a "new" car with AC. They told me to check out some leak.
Since I have never seen AC on a car at that point I couldn't figure out what that mess of cooling lines was for, spent like 15 minutes just looking at it with bewilderment.
" You got mud in ya tires." - My Cousin Vinny
Two yutes.
After driving on a beach my car developed a horrible vibration. Turned out it was about half a pound of wet sand inside the all the hubcaps.
“Let me ax you something, how do you get mud IN the tire”. -Cousin Vinny
I used to work at a medical building and one of the doctors was really frustrated because when he would turn on his lights all the gauges in his Lexus wouldn’t light up. He told me that he asked four other people but saw me doing an oil change in the garage (back when I lived in apartment and building manager would charge for spilled oil) and asked me to look at it. This was a brand new Lexus and the dealer told him it was $600 to replace a module. Anyways, looked at the dimmer switch and it was off, showed him how to turn it on. He gave me a $200 gift card for Christmas.
"You mean I just paid $100 to have the car towed?" Yes, and you also paid for five gallons of hand-delivered gasoline plus the mechanics diagnosis fee. Next time don't be an idiot
Don't forget the $1000 for a new fuel pump if they continue to run their car near empty...
All the cars I've possessed from this millennium have an audible warning when fuel gets low. And on startup when fuels low. So are they ignoring that as well?
@@benholroyd5221 Not all cars have this feature. Especially cheap and old cars don't have this feature...My wife owns a five year old opel that doesn't
Someone could have disabled it, too.
I've bought a 02 peugeot 206CC that has a horrible alarm when you come down to the last 100km that you can drive with your fuel, however I've also tested the same model from another dealer that seemed quite fishy. There was almost no fuel in the tank, the light for it was on, but the alarm didn't go off.
However some people just ignore it, I guess.
@@Toni7926 well if you're disabling it, that's kind of your own fault?
I've got a 2004 Panda, which I guess would count as cheap and old and that has a warning. The last car I had that didn't was a Ford Escort.
@@benholroyd5221 a lot of people sadly do ignore that.
Here in Finland snow and ice makes sometimes wheels unbalanced in wintertime.
Same here in Canada
@@wst8340 Believe me, it happens in most parts of the US also!
Had that even in Germany a few days ago. A few kicks against the wheel arches and it was good to go again
My personal favorite was when sister-in-law complained about locked steering wheel with key in ignition.
Reminds me of when people turn the key with a crazy amount of force because they don't realize they should be wiggling the steering wheel a little while doing so.
I'll be honest I've been working on my own cars for almost 15 years now and it still takes me a while to figure that out when it happens.
I’ve solved this for others a few times. I’ve also had this issue a couple times but it only took a couple seconds to figure out.
Rafal Rocks yep my V70 holds the key unless it is in Park lol
Had the same thing with a neighbour aksing for help to get the key out. A slight turn of the steering wheel, and.........
When I moved from a small town to "the city" it opened my eyes a little. Went from being charged $10 (hell sometimes it was free) to mount/balance a tire...In the city, they want $60 and shit, that's with a coupon!
Connor you have to think when your in a “city” opposed to small town/country side more people are living in apartments less home garages and a lot more people who don’t work on their own vehicles. Auto shops in cities can charge that because people will pay it cause they need their vehicles repaired.
@@Bandito518 So people in rural areas don't need their vehicles fixed????
@@ttsupra95 no, I think what they're getting at is that a garage in the city is willing to capitalize on the fact that there's less people who have the ability or the space to work on their cars. When you're in a rural area there's also more mom-and-pop shops who generally are cheaper.
@@scott8919 This does have truth to it. I was up at my summer place in NH and I bought a tail light for one of our older vehicles we had, I went into a NAPA store, got the bulb, went home to install it and found out it was not the right bulb. .(I should have checked before leaving the store)....instead of driving 15 minutes back to the store, I drove 5 minutes to the mom and pop gas station and one of the guys there just simply traded me the bulb for the correct one. The one dude knew my face fairly well since we always bought gas at their shop...and this is in a small town in NH, but it's also a big summer place. It does show that they cared.
There's also the cost of living in the city, the shop in the country might be worth $35 sq/ft while downtown a large city it can exceed $3,000 sq/ft. This also means rent is higher and the shop has to pay his staff more money for the same service.
Good to see the minivan in there with the exotics.
Lmao for a couple of years, my sister's rear driver's side door wouldn't open from the inside and we just thought the internal handle might have been broken.....turns out the door had those little manual child lock tab set to lock😑😑
Yeah had that happen to me on a Chevy cargo van at work. Could not figure out why the cargo door on the pass side wouldn't open from the inside, but opened from the outside just fine. Stupid thing has child locks on that door, in a cargo van with two bucket seats up front.
@@AaronSmith-kr5yf that's because they use the same mechanism on other doors.
Well it did its job!
I caught that button on my hip pocket, (work van) and because I was on a slope the door slammed shut. The side door was disabled so I had to take the lock apart to get out because nobody could hear me yell for help and there were no windows. I ended up snipping the switch off after the second time this happened. (Okay, third time it happened.)
On the bright side she didn't keep pulling on the door handle until it broke off!
I love, how the beard of the car wizard is sparkling from pure knowledge.
The fact that the Wizard made a video like this proves that he really is a really honest and great down to earth guy! BTW Wizard, how about naming your new Beetle "Herbie!" :-)
I was a Service advisor for almost 39 years and saw several of these false alarms , but the one that stood out the most was some people would replace their own batteries and still wont start. Had the vehicle towed in and we found when they installed the battery they left the protective plastic caps on the posts. We did not charge them .
LMAO!!!
Being willing to change battery while not getting how electricity and electric insulation works, this is pure gold!
Best thing out of all of this is the Wizard is honest enough to tell a customer small everyday issues can be sorted for free or low cost. Rather than taking the opportunity to rip off some poor person that doesn't know any better.
I've had our local mechanic do this for my Mrs since I was away at work or something to sort it out. That's why I'll always go back to that mechanic before all others.
A company I used to work for had a someone call us out for a flat battery, checked the car for current draw but it was all OK, we tested and charged the battery, gave it back and said all OK.
Then we got a call out again for a flat battery, this time the first thing I checked before getting in was the light switch and saw that they had left the headlights on (yes it was an older car, maybe late 90s, it had a chime for it but that was the only reminder). We put in a new battery at the customers request, checked for current draw and it was all OK., I made a comment to be sure they're not leaving anything on, from power socket devices (there weren't any in the car, but just incase) and specifically said headlights etc.
We got another call and she was irrate that we hadn't fixed it, I went out again and saw the headlight switch was on again, we jumped it and they headlights came on, I left the switch on just to prove to the customer that it was them leaving it on (I didn't out right rub thier face in it but made mention, oh the headlights are on?), but they refused to admit it. We said that we can put a switch so that they turn off with the ignition, but they refused.
About a week later it happened again, and their partner agreed for us to put the headlights on a relay to shut them off with the car. They stopped having the problem.
Sometimes it's just people that are the problem.
I used to work repairing computers, you would be surprised how many come in for repair that have nothing wrong.. a friend of mine used to repair washing machines and he told me 30% of call outs were just not plugged in or not switched on. He would ask the customer to check that it was plugged in and switched on before he came out..but they still got mad when he had to write a bill.
I wouldn't been 👋 slap slap probably won't happen again
what a moron
Hey car Wizard, you forgot the old I forgot to properly reinstall my gas cap and now my check engine light is on situation.
^ this
This knowledge should be required for a drivers license...🙄
Why? Not knowing this doesn't make you a unsafe driver... at least most of them doesn't.
@@volundrfrey896 I think there's a argument to be made for some minimum level of mechanical competence. Not perhaps these non issues, but if your engine explodes in the middle of the road, that's putting others at risk. It's perhaps reasonable to expect any driver to realise that steam coming from the bonnet = bad. And pull over before the explosion.
Damnpunk also raises a good point. If you have a puncture in the outback, that's a potential life and death situation. And a situation where you're requiring the emergency services to come out, all because you can't change a tyre.
@@volundrfrey896 because it's really called an "operators licence". If you dont know the basics of operation, are you really licenced? Why do you think part of the practical exam is showing you know how to operate signals, lights, and wipers?
@Damnpunk 78 Makes sense, could be the difference between life and death in some parts of Australia.
in times of comunism here you had to know your car as the pilots their planes...but the cars were so that a 2 metre wire, plzier and a couple of wrenches was what was needed to do a general overhaul....nowdays they only ask where and how to check oil or tire pressure.
“Mr Wizard , I got a new car... what is that third pedal?”
@Joe Home well I know for a fact that she was pushing the clutch in because on VWs and Audis if you don't push the clutch in to start the car it doesn't even crank at all, and the dash will tell you to depress the clutch to start the car. Been there done that before many times on those cars.
If it's a Mercedes it could be a parking brake.
Must be parking brake because new cars done come in manual anymore 😥
Lmao, asks everyone born after 1995! Good one!😂😂😂
That third pedal is the modern day theft deterrent system.
Sometimes you just have to RTFM (read the f****** manual), even on a car.
unfortunately nobody does that.
"even on a car"
I think you mean *especially* on a car lol
So true. This goes not just for cars, a friend of mine bought a washing machine a while a go, installed it and ran it. It shredded all his clothes. He called me a couple of days later on another matter, and told me about it. "Well, did you remove the transportation safety plugs?" I asked him. "What's that?" he replied. Well, it's clearly stated in the manual, had you taken the five minutes to read it before installing the machine your clothes would've been fine. And clean.
He was trying to get money out of the insurance, but of course he didn't. RTFM for f***'s sake, how hard can it be?
@Perry Elyod Your story is quite the emotional rollercoaster - you've got humor, relief, dread, frustration, pity, and anger all in one!
markiangooley Oh how right you are! I run a parts store where I live and I can say from experience that saying "Look in your owner's manual for that information" can solict looks of bewilderment, resentment, and utter disdain. I've learned to follow that line with "if you don't have a manual, the vast majority are available on the automaker's owner support website for free," but even then there are still those that consider themselves to be above such things. Fuse box diagrams come to mind. I actually had a customer a while back decide to use a random Google search result fuse diagram rather than follow my recommendation to download the owner's manual from Ford's website. The genius put a high amperage fuse in a low amperage position and smoked something in his dash.
Sigh. You can lead a horse to water... right?
I love when Mrs Wizard is in the videos. You guys work really well together.
Don't forget not tightening the gas cap, that can put the check engine light on
New subscriber!
Thank you and Mrs. Car Wizard so much. Just had oil changed by my mechanic's garage on my 2006 Highlander 4 cylinder bought used last April with 119,000 miles. I've learned a lot from Car Care Nut about the 2AZ-fe, avoiding overheating with recent coolant flush. No head gasket leak and no oil drop so far with light driving to 120,500 miles.
Am changing every 6 months if not up to 5000 miles driven. Not sure if my mechanic reset the maintainable light, but will look it up and clear it. Want this to last, as I'm retired, now.
Your wife, btw, is a great role player!
Will really benefit from your list!
God bless you and yours.
A new one...TPMS Failure warning. Unplug all your items hooked up to the power point/lighter and drive another 20 miles. If it goes out, one of your accessories or the plug itself is putting our enough RF interference the system cannot communicate
Car wizard , the honest mechanic everyone with a car wish they had. 👍🏽
Sometimes simply driving in reverse can dislodge a pebble stuck between the pad and the rotor.
#1 is straight out of Sling Blade: "It ain't got no gas in it."
This channel is so awesome. I love how Mrs. Wizard is actively in your videos and your business! You make such a great team. well wishes to your health!
At least someone didn’t bring a car to the workshop for a seatbelt warning light or sound, because he didn’t wear his seatbelt.😂
"This is one of those times where you need to look at your fuel gauge." - I lost it.
Like the needle beeing hard over on empty and the flashing light for the last 12 miles weren't enough clues?
I never let my tank get past 1/4.
Wow, number #2. That carries over into computer repair. I used to work the repair counter at an office store and no telling how many times people would come in, complain about trackpads not working, having no WiFi or no sound, and a single button press fixed it. Many laptops have trackpad and WiFi lockout buttons and people have no idea they even exist. Also, some people were dense enough, that when there was no sound, they didn't even try just turning the volume up. They hit the mute button at some point, then get embarrassed as I press one button and now there's sound.
Wizard. My car has a terrible screeching noise.
But only when my mother-in-law is in it.
Any clues?
Something else with window switches. If you disconnected your battery or it went dead recently, you might need to hold it up/down for 15 seconds or so for it to 're-calibrate' the switch and auto up/down features.
Lambo Murci, Ford Mustang, Honda Odyssey. This place is awesome.
It’s nice to see a technician who will put out a video like this to educate the masses and keep them from costing themselves money and tying up shop time.
Another excellent video which could potentially help a lot of folks who aren't very mechanically minded... and I especially enjoyed Mrs. Wizard in her starring role as "Helpless Customer"!
As a old retired mechanic out of the business watching this video I learned a few things to. One thing about AC systems in the old days just about every US car manufacture had a sight gauge window on the high pressure side and if it was clear and the system was blowing cold air your AC system was full of Freon. But as the system was operating and you see bubbles then you where low and you added Freon until the bubbles disappeared, a no brainer. Then the car companies eliminated the sight glass all together and now comes the 5, 000.00 AC machine what a rip-off. He’s also correct on being low just a few ounces in car or home AC. My home AC is about 3.5 ton unit and it’s total capacity is 149 ounces of Freon, but the system is made up of pre-charged lines so all you do is connect the components and you are ready to go, but these connections leak a tiny bit over time and if the temperature output goes up , it’s time to add some Freon and it’s not much generally about 4 ounces on a 149 ounce system. My big grip here is there’s no sight glass either. The thing is sight glass assemblies are available to be installed on car and home AC systems but a qualified technician has to do the procedure, it’s not hard at all and these sight glass assemblies are available through HAVC parts suppliers for about 20.00 dollars.
That's wartortle when he gets hoovies black beetle with the egg headlights, that's blastoise
Great acting miss wizard!
You're so honest i'd buy you a pint any time dude!
Thanks for the infotainment during the quarantine. '96 Audi A6, check engine light comes on. Advised its an O2 sensor. The light stayed on another 250k miles with no hiccups. Tires/wheels, out of balance vs out of alignment. In Minnesota, we get a buildup of icy/snow in wheel wells we call it fenderberg. Batteries, that's why I like gauges instead of warning lights.
As an engineer I have actually brought my car to the shop because of a light bulb. You need to disassemble the grill, the front bumper, loosen the front fender and move a whole lot of hoses out the way to get the headlight out and change the bulb.
Most frustrating design I have ever encountered.
Yeah the Wizard's VW Beetle is like that. Gotta remove the wheel and inner fender to change the headlight bulb.
What car is it? Brand and year?
@@Kauffman578 2006 Alfa 147 GTA
Best lesson of all..............deal with someone you know and trust....! Best advice ever, especially as more and more ppl do not understand how a car works....Thanks Mr. Wizard..!
I see a wizard vid in my feed I'm like aw shit here we go with some quality content
Finally, a mechanic on UA-cam debunking some stuff...and showing he cares about people! Keep on making some of us mechanics looking professional.
I thought my flip key snapped off in te ignition, turned out that it snapped off when I was putting it in my pocket and landed in the garden, I paid $150 for an auto locksmith to come out to my house and use the spare key. It did look like the key was still in the ignition but it was just the metal dust thing
Here is one that isn't as common these days as when first implemented (the inertial switches are better today) but still happens. Driving along, hit a big pothole or go off the road for a moment and the engine dies and car won't start like it has no fuel. The fuel pump safety has tripped and needs to be reset. Sometimes it is in the trunk sometimes under the hood. It's a safety feature introduced in the 90s in case of a rollover or severe crash the fuel pump won't keep pumping fuel if the supply line gets ruptured after the regulator and the engine won't keep running after a rollover and you might me unconscious.
What you go through in those "false alarms" is EXACTLY what goes on with me in IT when I deal with people and their computer problems. Trust me, I feel your pain lol
One of the guys at work was having trouble with his phone not syncing to the cloud and couldn't send emails. I asked if he had tried restarting it and said no, then took it to our IT department after trying for a few more minutes. When he returned and was uploading pictures I asked what IT had done to fix it, he told me they turned it off and back on LMAO.
I got a 70 Nova from my neighbor he had Sear's work on getting the generator light fixed. They replaced the battery, alternator, and other thing's. I had an old Thunderbird he wanted so we traded. I noticed the dash lights were out. Replaced the fuse and the gen light went out.
11:00 Seems that we used to have some warning back in the day, slower starting. These days it seems that they are good one day and then dead, dead, dead the next, click.
Yup! My 2yr old battery, (with a 5 yr. warranty), went dead 'overnight'. No warning, exact same situation. But I knew it was the battery. South Fla. heat kills batteries FAST, and a $110 'Wal-Mart Battery'. But the same battery was $150 at Discount Auto, or $180 at O'Reillys! Same maker, just different labels.
Mrs. Wizard is adorable!!!! So cute!!!!!
Car Wizard. You're THE MAN!!!
my car hasn't run for 6 months, just checked and sure enough, it was out of gas, thanks mr wizzard.
Years ago, (late 80’s) I knew this chick who said she “hit a deer” who ran out in front of her car one night... It was a ‘K car’ from what I remember.
She told me that ever since that night she heard a scraping sound coming in from underneath her car...
I’m no car mechanic or anything.. I took a few seconds and looked under her car and saw the decapitated deer head with horns wedged underneath... I pulled the head out which stopped the shaking... she was driving that way for WEEKS !!!
Luckily for me that’s not the only head that got pulled out...
I believed your story until the last line
Evan Parsons true story man... the good ‘ole days lol
@@JoeyP322 liar
What do you mean by that last sentence?
lol I like how helpless Mrs Wizard sounds when she has these problems
That's acting. Lol
You can get the pebble out of brakes by reversing and turning the wheel full on both sides.
Thats a good trick to remember.. the reversing bit I understand, but turning the wheels to the sides I do not understand.
I personally run a shop in the UK 🇬🇧 so to me all of this stuff is second nature. But I absolutely agree with you Car Wizard a video like this it saves the customer money and saves both the shop and customer time. Well done you and keep up the great work 😀👍🏻
My mom called me last month with the window button problem. Her assessment: "This button is stupid!"
The window button lock happened to me. I felt like an idiot when it was pointed out to me. I agree, the button is stupid!
My wife is the same,anything she doesn’t understand,which is a lot,is stupid. 🙄
That button keeps children and passengers who wont roll the window back up from rolling them down.
Wish we had more mechanics like you in this country,keep doing what your doing.
I would name the Beetle, Wartortle. Blastoise would be the Beetle RSI. Although that is even Rarer...
Great coverage to things that even knowledgeable people can often overlook.
I had this recently, a 2016 Nissan Rogue came to me with the owner complaint "the AC isn't blowing cold even though it's on!". Looked at it and determined that the AC was indeed on, and so was the heater on full blast...almost died laughing haha
Exceptionally stupid, lol
You would think that a car could only do 1 thing at a time xD
Part 2 of being a retired heavy duty diesel mechanic and OTR truck driver and fuel gauges. As a truck driver I always carried a wood stick that I calibrated to my fuel tanks and I would stick the tanks because I didn’t trust the gauge and also the tanks are round so if your gauge is reading 1/4 tank is there really 1/4 tank of fuel. So I would mark my stick in gallons so I knew what I really had on board. On the modern trucks with complex fuel systems you do not want to run them out of fuel because it will require a field service call and a diesel mechanic on average about 2 hours to bleed out the air and get diesel fuel through the hole system so the engine will restart.
The wizards is giving all the car mechanics secrets away 😂
Mr and Mrs Wizard always restore my faith in humanity
Some devices, like Apple iPhones/iPods, when plugged into the USB port on cars like BMWs, will also activate additional components in the vehicle that drains the charge even if you turned off your device!
No clickbait, no crazy thumbnails, what you see is what you get. Have always been a big fan of your channel sir.
Hey car wizard, thanks for the entertaining and informative videos. I work in a small repair shop and I struggle keeping my space clean. Do you have any tips for keeping such a large space organized, cleaned and keeping the overall dust particles in the air down? Thanks!
Any person and/or business who has the ability to recognize where they stand based on their perspective and experience, and to openly communicate that to outsiders deserves applause. That has value for a lot of people.
Everytime I had a rock stuck in my brakes i immediately go in reverse and it spits it out. Hope this helps!
You seem to be getting more comfortable in front of the camera, WEE-ZERD! Good work!
Wartortle, that way we can poke fun at hoovies porsche being blastoise
Funny enough number 5 happened to me with ice and salt from living in new England and freaked me out. I'd never had it happen and I was convinced it was my tire pressure
Service Required Light = Time to get this sucker back into the stealership to scare him/her into paying for carap they don't really need.
#5 dirt roads:
a more common of version of this is snow/ice stuck to your rims. The weight is enough the throw the balance off and it won't fly off on it's own (probably because of centrifugal force).
If Mrs Wizard has so many problems in so many different vehicles, maybe she's the problem! :^)
@Lookup2Wakeup REALLY>?!@!
@Lookup2Wakeup u don't say I thought it was real
Lookup2Wakeup whoosh
I guess some of you get more the notion of second degree murder than that of second degree humour... The man was joking, for crying out loud!
My brother-in-law once thought that he blew the transmission on his ‘04 Grand Cherokee because it wouldn’t shift at all, so he scheduled an appointment at a local transmission shop And was going to schedule a tow. I went over to check it out and showed him that the shifter cable had simply popped off the side of the transmission and it was no big deal! Not saying they would’ve ripped him off at the shop but he would’ve been an easy target to get a couple thousand dollars off of. Great video Wizard!
How many cars can the Car Wizard fix?
All of them
liked for being Mr G.Freeman
All of them
Fixed my s60r last week!
The answer is just
Yes
Very good video. Mrs Wizard plays her part very well!
I absolutely believe that lawyers bring their cars in for service when the window kill switch is engaged. When I was a law clerk I had to show an attorney how to properly zero the mechanical counter on his tape recorder so we could record a deposition. He was only pushing the button halfway down so the recorder wasn’t resetting to 000 and it “thought” it was at the end of the cassette 😂😂😂
Another false alarm that sends people into a shop is those completely unaware of ABS system engagement, or how the system works. Sometimes there is a bearing or sensor issue, but most of the time it tends to be someone hitting brakes going over a slick patch or a speed bump, and it scares them
I dont charge 100 dollars for a ride just because i paid 30,000 for the car.
I've worked on cars for years and still make dumb mistakes. Videos like this a good refresher.
Turbo S(quirtle)
I was thinking to obvious internet choice: Turby McTurbface.
@@whollymindless I second that!
Car wizard, stay rad, stay humble, and keep on rocking. Thank you for sharing, you guys rock 🤘🏼
What a great idea for a feature. As you say , not everyone is mechanically minded. Was this good idea a Mrs.Wizard idea? Cool to see her, as ever. Great channel. Thanks and good wishes from a UK fan 👍🏻👍🏻🚗🚗
Beetle's name should be VWizard or just VWiz - simple!
What is almost as bad as running out of gas and spending $100 on a tow...is that most insurance will pay for the tow, even if the car is in your garage.
I work at Halfords and yes, the flashing indicator- so many people don’t realise it simply means the bulb has gone. And yes the electric window button.. it happends a lot.
Another one is on a lot of automatics you can’t remove the key unless its in Park.
first. and first like. omg i'm good. Hi Wizard :)
It would be so nice if Car Wizard had a garage in my city... I feel like a lot of garages aren’t as honest as they could be.
The AC can also have that problem because the Ford dealer (Metro Ford Schenectady NY) didn't open the grill vanes when they installed a new front end. I had the pleasure of having a blown motor as my warning. I thought they f'd up my refrigerant system. Nope, they basically put my radiator in a plastic box. Took a week or two for it to happen as it was March and was very cold the first few days I had gotten it back from the dealer. They had the car for over a month and while they had it to repair front end damage managed to damage three out of four doors. Unreal. Not to mention this is a 14' focus with the absolute trash dual clutch auto trans. End rant. Another great video Wizard.
best car channel on youtube
Over the years I've helped friends and family with almost all of these. Great list and it's spot on 🍻
@Joe Home Get another wife?
Train her to pull it
When I did AAA Roadside, I made up a list of common “no it doesn’t need to be towed” problems.
I’ve seen so many “doesn’t start” calls that turns into needs fuel. My favorite was an 2015 Prius where the owner went to a park, did a hike, and came back and it wouldn’t start and the check engine light was on. The fuel gauge showed one bar left, was not blinking. I put the code reader on, and turns out there is a P-code for “Less than 2 gallons of gas, disabled start” After me and the owner laughing for 20 minute, I put in 5 gallons of gas for him and it starts up.
And I ran into so many people trying to start the car in…Drive….
Definitely a public service, thank you. How come I feel the need to say, I knew those thing? Oh, Mrs. Wizard does a great job on both sides of the camera.
Wizard! The word is "rigmarole ". I thought it was "rigamorale", so I learned something! Love you, dude!
I actually didn’t know that a crazy fast blinking signal is a burnt out bulb. Glad I watched this
What a great asset to have a wonderful honest mechanic like you in your home town.