Are These Repairs Worth Doing? Pros With Automotive Service Advisor Training Say Probably Not
When it comes to auto repairs, a key consideration always has to be asked: Are these required repairs cost-effective? In other words, does paying for major repairs make sense considering the overall value of the vehicle? This is something that has to be scrutinized whenever major repairs are required, especially with used cars.
If you’re interested in a career as an auto service advisor, assessing damage and determining repair estimates will be an essential part of your job. In many cases, your estimates will be for smaller repairs that don’t break the bank. Sometimes, though, you might need to tell your clients that a repair just isn’t a good financial decision. Several particularly common “major surgery” examples are outlined below, which more often than not tend to be too expensive to undertake.
The Safety Issues of Major Body Frame Damage
Every day, thousands of vehicles across North America are involved in crashes and collisions. The damage that can be caused to the frame and bodywork of a vehicle is perhaps one of the most visual examples of damage that just isn’t worth the repair costs. Repairing a bent vehicle frame requires specialist equipment and comes complete with a host of serious future safety assurance issues, while the labour required for major paintwork restoration tends to make it wholly unrealistic. If during your career you have clients come in looking for frame repair, you might have to let them know that the repairs might simply be too costly to be worth it.
Transmission Issues Should Set Off Alarm Bells for Pros with Automotive Service Advisor Training
Difficulty changing gears in manual vehicles and the outright locking of gears are tell-tale signs of major transmission issues. Maintaining a sufficient level of transmission fluid in a vehicle is crucial, and changing transmission fluid when recommended by the driver’s manual is important for keeping a car’s transmission running smoothly. If these important maintenance points aren’t followed, auto service advisors know that it can lead to expensive repairs. In fact, the cost of replacing the entire transmission on a vehicle can often be too much to bother with. While the exact price for a new transmission can vary greatly between vehicles, significant labour costs will often rule this out for many vehicle owners.
The Difficulty of Resolving a Blown Head Gasket
Graduates of automotive service advisor training will tell you that thick white smoke from the vehicle exhaust is a classic indication of a head gasket issue. When a gasket fault develops, it signals a major repair decision for a vehicle owner. Due to the location of the gasket—right between the engine block and cylinder head, as well as in close contact with engine coolant liquid—any major fault that develops can create a substantial mess that a skilled professional will need to spend many hours comprehensively cleaning out, even before a replacement is installed. Electing to carry out a repair after such an occurrence is a significant financial call to make, and one that many car owners opt against.
Pros With Automotive Service Advisor Training Will Tell You Rod Knock Is a Red Alert
If during your auto service advisor career a vehicle limps into the shop with a worrisome loud rattle in line with engine revs, you may be observing your first “rod knock”. This occurs in engines that have been pushed to the extent that rod bolts within the engine have become displaced and an audible vibration is constantly heard. Unresolved, this can result in a sizable section of the engine being compromised by the sudden and violent loosening of this component. Isolating and resolving such a problem is often beyond the budget of many car owners, especially as it usually takes significant hard use of the vehicle for this issue to appear.
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