Hi, I've had my car 11 years and it has about 108K miles on it. I bought it used at 38K miles. Never have used a Toyota dealer. A few weeks ago the Check Engine Light came on and I drove straight to my usual repair shop -- it was code PO 304, cyl 4 misfire. wound up getting new ignition coil ($193) and 4 new spark plugs, and did oil filter/change while I was at it. Total repair $498. A week later the CEL comes on again...I run over again and it is throwing the same code. They ask me to leave it a day to check. I do, they do...say mechanic drove it around half hour and CEL never came back on and they couldn't find anything wrong with other coils or anything else. So...Christmas Eve the CEL goes on again. I took it back to shop Friday to check the code and it was the same one, yet again. I don't like to ignore the CEL in case it is a new problem...even though for about a year it kept showing the "loose gas cap" code and it wasn't.
Anyway...as this place guarantees their work for 3 years or 30K miles I am dropping it off again tomorrow. Desk guy said they have some $5,000 machine that takes an hour to run and I guess check what is going on with this code for a problem that was already repaired.
Any other thoughts on what might be going on here? I of course don't want to hear that it is yet another coil or something even more expensive. I am finding that repairs on a nearly 18-year-old car are the meaning of "nickel and dime" in the sense that they are $500 or more! I do trust these folks....I don't believe they try to upsell and sometimes have told me I can wait on something, that it doesn't need replacement/fixing yet. So I think I trust them...I'm just wondering if they have any clue what is really going on. I am tired of being stranded for the day while they have my car. They do drop me back home and pick me up though.
Thanks.
Anyway...as this place guarantees their work for 3 years or 30K miles I am dropping it off again tomorrow. Desk guy said they have some $5,000 machine that takes an hour to run and I guess check what is going on with this code for a problem that was already repaired.
Any other thoughts on what might be going on here? I of course don't want to hear that it is yet another coil or something even more expensive. I am finding that repairs on a nearly 18-year-old car are the meaning of "nickel and dime" in the sense that they are $500 or more! I do trust these folks....I don't believe they try to upsell and sometimes have told me I can wait on something, that it doesn't need replacement/fixing yet. So I think I trust them...I'm just wondering if they have any clue what is really going on. I am tired of being stranded for the day while they have my car. They do drop me back home and pick me up though.
Thanks.
