[scruffboy]

I had a leaky coolant system and took it to a mechanic my friend had worked for. He found the leak, it was the "upper return hose" and sat just under the distributor. L shaped hose about 4" long. Then he tells me to get it off he will have to remove distributor and this will cost me 225 dollars. When he goes to office I check the hose and can see the worm screw on the side, quite accessible under distributor. I go around to the front and move the fan blade and sure enough, there's the other one. It's a little tight but definitely doable. I says to the guy "Yo, buddy, you don't need to remove the distributor, here are the worm screws right here" and I point em out. He looks all perplexed and says "Oh yeah, alright, it will only cost 165 dollars". I said "What are u freakin nuts" and left. I went to auto parts store and bought hose for 6 dollars and two new worm screws, some anti-freeze and replaced hose. I went to strauss auto and asked them to do pressure check. They did it for a couple of bucks and said it was just fine. Two weeks ago, I went to the mechanic at the gas station I always fill up at. I asked him about putting in an O2 sensor. He said with thick accent "Oh, very difficult job, need special tools". I looked in my book and saw nothing difficult about it. I went to Autozone and bought O2 sensor for 50 dollars and put it on with one socket and a rachet. Is everyone out there to rip me off. How can I find an honest mechanic? Do they exist? I'm startin to get P.O.ed here. I live in North Jersey, and if anyone can recommend someone who they know will be straight with me, please let me know. I had a tune up done in the spring and now I'm wonderin if the guy even took off the throttle body to get to the rear plugs. People Su*k.

James in NJ