My Tips to Getting a Mechanic to Tell You the Truth

A couple weeks ago my car began a familiar dissent into infirmary. I was going a good 75 on the highway when I noticed the engine gage was closer to the red part of the "H" than it was to the "C." I did what any single gal would've done in my spot, which is Frogger my way over to the right to get off on the nearest exit, all while shouting panicked curses to the automobile gods, who clearly find my financial instability and overall desperation amusing. I have a cliff note's comprehension of how cars work, and a clue or two of what needed to be done, just hoping it wouldn't cost me a savings that I didn't have.

Thankfully a [male] friend was able to check it out. He said I needed an oil change and my radiator flushed. Sounded easy enough. I don't mean to imply that this archaic gender stereotype is true; I'm sure there are many capable, unintimidated female auto experts. However since none of them live near me, it's good to have a guy around that can at least tell you what's wrong with it and how much it may cost. This is almost as valuable as an actual mechanics opinion, and often times we'll take a friend's assessment as law before an actual expert's, which would never happen in terms of, say, needing an operation or something.

At any rate, I took the car to a reasonably trusted Valvoline mini service store. And just as I'd hoped, they took good trustworthy care of me. But an exchange between one of the mechanics and I gave me a convenient epiphany.

While they were flushing my radiator, the mechanic discovered that I had a more pressing mechanical problem. "Your engine hose is blown," he said, which admittedly sounded bad. "We can't really do much to help your radiator until you get that taken care of." The kicker? They'd already began the flushing process when they discovered the problem, and decided not to charge me for the $79 service.