I have just moved from MN to UT and finally purchased an LR3. I left behind a great huge garage where I did all of my own vehicle repairs and had a good friend who owned a repair shop whom I trusted for the repairs I did't/couldn't do myself. Since my first course of action with any new vehicle is to baseline all fluids I'm looking into a tranny flush/pan replacement. Does anyone know of a good independent shop I can have this done? I'm in Heber City but am willing to drive a little for someone who is good and trustworthy.

 

is there a shop you’ve found and still trust in the area?

 

I never found anyone LR specific, but I’ve heard good things about Great Basin Rovers in SLC. I’ve ended up doing everything myself except for rear upper control arms. Apparently after 16 years and 270k miles those original bolts don’t want to come out! I had 2 local shops turn me down because I had my own parts.

 

Thanks! That’s where I was leaning as well.

sorry to hear about the others refusing unless you used their parts. That’s pretty silly.

 

I am very pleased with Certified Tire & Service in Orem. Todd over there has been great! They are not LR specific, but they know LR's.

I understand why shops won't use customer parts. They have a TON of things to worry about running their businesses working on other people's cars. If we screw up working on our own cars, we get to look in the mirror and learn from our mistakes. They get to face angry customers, legal claims, out of pocket warranty work due to crappy parts (that they chose to use), and all the other headaches that come with running a business. You also must understand that the signal they automatically receive by someone bringing their own parts is mistrust. "The customer already thinks I'm going to screw them on parts cost." In my personal experience, the amount of time I spend researching and sourcing parts often exceeds the wrenching time. Proficiency in this department is part of what we are paying for when using a professional mechanic.

Building a relationship with a mechanic can be really difficult. As customers, I believe it is in our own best interest to give them some benefit of doubt until they give us a reason not to. I needed to do just this in Orem, and so far, Certified has been great!

The podcaster Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor, says, "A good mechanic isn't expensive, he's priceless."

 

Yeah, all it takes is a statement signed by the customer that there is no warranty on any work done with customer parts, which was the agreement I had with the shop who did work on it. It’s not like I bought my parts intending on taking it to a shop, it just happened I couldn’t finish the repair. I can’t remember a time that’s happened to me before. One of the shops that refused me mounts tires by the truck load for Ken Block, who supplies all his own wheels and tires. I guess I just need to be a famous person. The second shop implied he’d work on it if he supplied the parts and then got angry when I asked his lead time! It’s fine, that’s their right, but it’s also my right to go somewhere else and never use them.