A number of things on my 99 2dr 4x4 Blazer need repairs. I have been putting it off while paying debts but now it is coming to a head and I need to start figuring out where to get this repaired. If any of you are from Calgary and know a good mechanic or shop, please reply to this thread.

 

Stay the he!! away from Crappy Tire. Fountain Tire has a good reputation (look them up on BBB and elsewhere), but you will pay for it. The guy at the main desk in Walmart Auto shop here looks scary to me, if he doesn't care about his appearance he likely will care about as much about your car. The best is if you can repair things yourself (for fun and saving money, but make sure you figure out how to do things properly). Otherwise a reliable and honest mechanic would be a godsend. Sorry I can't help you about Cowtown, I'm up the road in Oiler town.

 

Whats your problems heffty?

 

I found some dude on kijiji that works out of his home. Charges $40 an hour labour which is a hell of a lot better than $120 at other shops. I have quite a bit of work that needs getting done and I don't have a garage at home to do some of it. I'm worth $40 an hour in my trade so I'd rather pay someone to do it in the mechanical trade to do it faster than waste my time on it.

Needs:
Good Solid Tune up,
Re-adjust the leaf spring on passenger rear to stop sagging
Oil Cooler lines are cracking badly and need replacing
Front wheel bearing is shot and also likely need new rotor
Front Brakes need replacing
Rear diff needs to be checked out and topped off with fluid.
ABS light is on constantly but that probably has to do with the rotor and bearing issue...got melted prob.

Future work:
Might get the guy to replace factory suspension at some point with something stiffer
Crank the torsion bars to get a bit higher
Might go for a 2 inch lift at some point, get some wheel spacers or something, bigger tires...who knows.

My 99 2dr Blazer only has 160,000km on it so I plan to keep it for at least another 150,000 if it will last that long. I plan to keep up on the maintenance from now on, just finances were tight so I was letting things slide a bit for a while. Once that wheel bearing went I had no choice but to get it into a shop.

Anyway, this guy I found seems really nice, works out of his home. He calls and lets me know where things are at cost wise. I took a risk not going to a shop but really...we're talking a difference of around $100 an hour for labour between a licenced mechanic working out of his home compared to a shop somewhere. Bottom line is all the stuff I listed up top there came to $640 Canadian.