should I take it to a shop?

[BryanK]

Once again I'm dumbfounded. I can't decide whether or not I should take my car to a dealer and have a full engine diagnosis done... basically have the entire car looked over by a professional so I know for sure what does and doesn't need to be done. I need to have my speedo fixed (doesn't work anymore) and have my steering wheel realigned (it sits crooked right now... the car tracks straight, but the wheel is crooked) anyways, so should I just take it to a dealer and have everything looked over? It runs fine as it is, but I just want to know beyond any doubt. Should I just do a compression test, and change the belts and do all the stuff I can see myself, or should I take it to the dealer and see if there is anything else wrong with it that I haven't or can't notice. If I should take it somewhere, anyone have any suggestions in IA/IL? I also considered getting a pocketlogger/dsmlink and do all my own engine diagnosing (even though I don't have a clue how to use it.... yet). Is that basically what the shops are going to do... just hook it up to a pocketlogger type computer and diagnose it by what the computer spits out?
Thanks for any and all help,
Bryan

 

[ryan2987]

Well i would suggest going to the dealer or a garage but then sometimes they ruin something else or the find this to fix that arent broken. The speedo cable might not be attached with would mack it not work. There sould be a cable that runs down to the transmission. A tune up would be a really good idea for the car and if its about time i would have the belts changed.

 

[BryanK]

well what do they do when they "tune it up" anyways. I was just going to do the mopar combustion chamber cleaner thing and change the belts myself. I just wish someone could tell me what they're going to do if I take it to a shop. If all they're going to do is change the belts and clean things up a little bit, hook it up to a datalogger and see what kind of numbers it spits out and try to diagnose any internal problems that way, than I'd rather just do this stuff myself. Oh, and for some reason or another, I can't defog my windshield for anything. no matter what, I always get in the car and theres condensation on my windshield. I even turned the AC on full blast and it wouldn't get rid of it... any suggestions? (thats just yet another reason I want to take it to a shop...)
Thanks,
Bryan

 

[turboholic]

-The steering wheel off center is just a misalignment of the wheels, any tire place can fix it.
-You can always have the dealer of some shop do the diagnosis then do the actually repair yourself, this way you can learn & save some $ at the same time.
-It's easy to hook up a posket-logger, knowing what to do with the data is another story.
-Windshield not defrosting, is the inside of the windshield clean?

 

[BryanK]

yup, first thing I checked. The inside is clean. Not sure what is going on there.
I think I'm gonna take your advice.... take it to a shop and have it all diagnosed and then do the labor and buy the parts myself. I was also curious as to whether or not/how much my car has crankwalked, but don't the have to take off the oilpan and whatnot? Anyone have any suggestions of a good shop in IA/IL... or maybe even missouri? I just don't wanna be going somewhere thats going to screw me over.