mechanics

[Lawrence Hahn]

i'm going this coming weekend to look at a 96 tsi in chilliwack that i mite wanna buy but i was wondering if anyone knew any good mechanics i could take the car to get inspected..cuz all the places i know are in town...so i thought maybe someone here knew a good shop/mechanic thats in chilliwack or maybe abbotsford....or somewhere relatively close...closer than vancouver i guess~~ ...k...thanks a lot!

[John Hartman]

Mertin GM will do a good job.  I work there.  They are pretty expensive, and are a GM based shop of course, but they will do it properly.

Also if you bring it by when I am at work, I can look at it body wize and tell you about the paint/body.  I do this for a living and have for a while.

[Lawrence Hahn]

anyone else?  i'd like a couple options~~

[Mike Schmid]

I'm another Chilliwack area DSMer but I do all my own work so I can't recommend anyone, sorry...

[Kevin Standeven]

buy a $15 compression tester from canadian tire and bring a tool kit, that'll give you an idea of the engine condition.
with the hood popped, tug on the throttle cable; look for smoke coming out of anywhere it shouldn't, especially around the turbo.

test drive it; make sure it spools up quick and smooth. cycle the gears quickly and be aware of any grinding. also listen for any squeeks and feel for any shudders, especially while braking.

other than that, I don't have much experience with mechanics in chilliwack so yeah...see how it goes and get icbc to run a background check on it.

[Dan Harshey]

and get icbc to run a background check on it.

YES! make sure you do this, i didn't and it was a huge mistake, never trust a sellers word, my bad i can only learn from it.
Dan

[Lawrence Hahn]

hmm...whats a throttle cable =ppp...and whats a compression tester and what do i do with it and the toolkit to check the engine? haha..sorry im so n00b~

[Kevin Standeven]

that black cable is the throttle cable; if you follow it along the top to the left (can't see this in the picture), the cable comes out of the rubber sheath and is exposed. tug on it.

as for compression:
http://www.dsmgrrrl.com/FAQs/compression.htm

[Lawrence Hahn]

hehe..i think ill leave that up to the pros..cuz i read all that stuf in the link and im VERY confused and i doubt i could do that..but thanks for the help....ill make sure to do an icbc check and check for leins or whatever too...thanks!!