Can't trust anyone but yourself

Last week, I took my car to Mopac Performance and auto supplies to get my Corsa exhaust installed. Well, they installed my exhausts in an hour, but I wasn't able to watch the mechanic work on my car. The only thing I saw him doing before I left was him taking a saw to my car! After a week of driving, I started to hear slight rattling. The only thing that has changed since last week was the exhaust install, so I assumed it was because of a bad install.

I went out to my car this morning, and I went under the car to make sure everything was installed properly. Turned out, the mechanic didn't tighten all the nuts and bolts to the specified torque settings! Bastards! This is why I don't trust other people working on my car. I can't really hold him accountable, because he might possibly make some excuse. Regardless of how pissed off I was, I decided to fix things myself, AGAIN. I spent an hour under the car, tightening all clamps to 45 ft-lbs of torque.

The only reason why I even took my car to the shop, wass because I didn't have a lift, and I wasn't too positive on installing exhausts on jack stands. Man, if I had a lift or a shop to work at, I'd do this myself lol.

My personal advice to all you car lovers, if you love your car, you will work on the car yourself. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but I've had my car at the shop a couple of times, and everytime I get the car back, something else is wrong. The thing is, if you work on the car yourself, you only have yourself to blame, and lets face it, it's easier to forgive yourself. When you have someone else screwing up your car, you'll spend so much time hating them and hating yourself for trusting them. In my opinion, not worth the stress... I want to live long and happy lol. Just remember, these "professionals" are just humans too, and nothing makes them any more qualified than you. I went to another shop called Drive Hard a couple weeks back. I went with my brother to get his intake installed on his 99 Honda Prelude. One look at the mechanics, and I realized, "What the F-bomb? They are just teenagers". They had to look at the instruction booklet just like you and I, and their install left the Prelude with a mis-attached bumper. I spotted the mistake right away, and I told them to fix it. They replied, "Huh? that's weird..."

Seriously? What are we paying you for?

Let me give you all the verdict on Mopac, or any other shops for that matter: Don't go, unless you absolutely need to. I'm sure you all have friends around you that know how to work on cars, gather them together, you guys would be just as qualified.