Car Trouble. Off to the Shop...

[canyonwalker]

I've been having trouble with our Nissan Xterra. Yes, this is the car that's had the "SERVICE ENGINE SOON" light on & off intermittently for the last several months. Oddly the light was off this week when the problem became more severe.

The symptom here is that the engine occasionally loses power. The revs drop even if I'm pressing on the throttle. Sometimes the engine catches again after a few seconds; other times it stalls out. Today it stalled out 3 times in the course of about 15 minutes. Thankfully I was able to restart the engine right away each time. Also, I was driving around town on short errands, so if I did need a tow it wouldn't be a huge inconvenience.

It's mildly frustrating to have to deal with this right now. I mean, it's never a good time to suffer car trouble. But my schedule this week is pretty tight. I'd be willing to put it off to next week when my schedule is more flexible except this Friday I need to drive 220 miles round trip for a Covid-19 shot. I'm not going to try nursing the car on such a long highway trip in its condition. There's too much chance of getting stuck a long way from home and possibly missing my shot— which might take months to reschedule at this point.

Which Shop?

Where to take it? was the next question. My first idea was the local Nissan dealer, less than 2 miles from my house.

I know some people say, "Never take it to a dealer." Or, "Dealership is a stealer-ship." Car dealers in general get a bad rap on repairs. They tend to be expensive and don't necessarily have mechanics who are any more skilled than a good independent shop. But I haven't located a Nissan specialist. And last time this car had trouble and we took it to a generalist indie shop, they couldn't diagnose the problem. We had to pay around $1,000 to tow it to a dealership 150 miles away. But hey, at least we got a few cool pictures  towing it over a major mountain range! 😂

But the local Nissan dealer is now closed. A casualty of the pandemic shutdown.

The next closest Nissan dealer is about 15 miles away. That's not ideal. I just keep reminding myself, though, 15 miles is a lot less than 150. But still, it'll take some planning.

I'll drop the car off late this afternoon so the shop can start work first thing tomorrow. Hawk will meet me after work to drive me home. If they can fix it tomorrow— unlikely, but possible— I'll take a Lyft over there to pick it up. In the more likely case they need at least through Friday to work on it, I'll either drop Hawk off at the train station to get to work on Friday so I can drive to Davis for my shot, or I'll go to SJC airport Thursday night to rent a car for my Friday vaccine run and return it Friday night.

Whew. So much to do. Starting with leaving for the dealership... NOW.

UPDATE: $1,400 later....

Comments

[jsbowden]

Rent a car. It's what, $30 for the day? Well worth not having to worry.

[canyonwalker]

I'll rent a car if I have to. That's really Plan C, though, at this point. Plan A is the shop fixes & returns it by end of day tomorrow, then I drive it Friday.

Plan B is it's not ready by Thursday afternoon then on Friday I drop Hawk off at the train station to get to work and I keep the other car for the day. Her transit commute is about 45 minutes by train then a 3/4 mile walk to her office. I'd pick her up in the evening at her office on my way home.

Plan C is if by Thursday night she knows she doesn't want to take transit then I rent a car Thursday night and use that for the drive Friday. The best price I found as of this afternoon for a rental car was $45 all-in for one day, $70 for two. It could be higher or lower at the last minute tomorrow. Plus there are the costs/time of getting to & from the rental depot. The cost isn't a hardship but it's enough of a cost that Hawk taking transit is nontrivially cheaper if she's able to do it.

I spoke to the service writer

[canyonwalker]

Update: when I dropped the Xterra off at the service center Thursday afternoon I discussed the problem for several minutes with the service writer. As I carefully described the symptoms he explained, "It's probably [part 1] or [part 2] given [the specific combo of symptoms described]."

That gave me optimism the repair could be completed Thursday rather than stretching across multiple days. It also validated my idea that taking the car to a dealership would be good because the mechanics there would have more experience with the model's engine and control systems than the mechanics at a generalist shop. It's Thursday approaching noon now; I expect to get an update soon.

[amdilick]

I had resolved to go to the dealership for car troubles after my (then) car needed a new catalytic converter. In an attempt to save money, we had a friend/mechanic replace it. I don't recall all the picky details, but the catalytic converter that was installed did not work with the O2 sensors, so the check engine light was on and I couldn't pass the yearly emissions inspection with the engine light. The dealership fixed it up right nice. It was more expensive to fix at the dealership, but that car is still running even after I transferred it to my son at 220k miles.

[canyonwalker]

BTW, I'm not advocating for "Always take it to the dealership." My point is that the dealer's service center is going to be better prepared to diagnose & fix complex problems than a generalist shop, because they have significant experience with your model of car. If you find a specialist independent shop, they likely have the same experience— or better— and they're often also cheaper.

I've taken my BMWs to an independent BMW specialist for 16 years. There was a period of 1-2 years within that when we went to a BMW dealer. That was because the car we owned had a warranty at the time. The good news was the repairs were free. The bad news was the car was in the shop seemingly every other month. Once it was out of warranty we went back to the trusted specialist. After one visit to their garage it ran trouble-free for at least 2 years.

[culfinriel]

My and my family's experience has been that if you have a good recommendation and a reliable mechanic, that's awesome, and we never used to use the dealer. But as things become more and more expensive and less profitable to even have a mechanic shop, as well as cars getting more and more particular, they can be hard to find.

Similarly, dealer's mechanic shops can be reliable or not and it depends a lot on recommendations and experiences. For example, here I go to the dealership and they have done some things for free and even said I should go find a muffler shop to fix a tailpipe hole because they would do it faster and charge me less. Otoh, it costs more money sometimes for parts.

It can be harder to get good quality aftermarket parts, sometimes, now. For one thing, there are fewer suppliers and parts makers, and that whole effort to get rid of all the old cars for the environment took away a reason for there to be parts for older cars, or sources for them. We had totally gotten junkyard parts in the past and I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that, now.

My sister still has a reliable mechanic in Ann Arbor and I'd go to him if I were there. He's getting old, though, and it's a good question whether that shop will continue to exist for how long. Maybe he'll get someone younger in and it will keep going for decades. That would be nice.