Brought my car to shop, fix everything or...?

[z1ggy]

Automatic, Mazda3 2011, 145k miles.

-EVAP Leak - Seems to not be effecting anything, really only need to fix the code for emissions test

-Tranny fluid pressure sensor blown/fault

-Tranny fluid dirty (shop recommended not to change)

-Right strut blown

-Wheel bearings making excessive noise and should be replaced.

What should I do in this case? Need this car to last me a good while longer. Shop recommended not changing the fluid in tranny because there's no record of it being done previously so it's a risk I guess to do it this late in the game. They never mentioned to me on the phone about the strut or the bearings. This car has always been loud.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Bearing is a must-do, or the bearing will seize and the wheel will fall off. See also:
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

EVAP leak is a must-do to pass inspection. You can try to cheat but an honest shop will catch you and bribing a dishonest shop with whom you do not already have a relationship is usually an equally nontrivial expense.

New struts (replace in pairs) is probably a good idea, for both comfort/ride quality (if you want to keep the car a while) and safety. Although they are not usually considered safety equipment, and the weight of the car is borne by the springs, blown struts can effect the suspension behavior in braking conditions and may increase braking distance. But it's not critical and you can wait for your tax refund or something.

I'd get the pressure sensor fixed eventually, but if nothing's actually wrong, you're only doing it to get rid of the warning light. I'm anal; you don't have to be.

The transmission fluid is... well... I think a lot of places recommend not changing it past a certain point because they figure it's not been maintained, will fail sooner rather than later, and they don't want to be the last guy who touched it. Hot potato. There's also the "flushes will occasionally kill a transmission because of dislodged gunk" thing. If your transmission is behaving "normally" at this point and you want to maximize its remaining life without risking any of the damage a full flush might do, just do partial fluid changes - drain and fill - every 30-60k miles. It's an easy DIY, fluid is cheap, and it will refresh enough of the fluid in the system to be good-enough. (This is normal practice on Hondas, which are known to really hate being flushed.)

 

[mindless1]

Depends on how much you trust the shop. At 145K mi, if your struts and wheel bearings are the originals, it's likely they all have limited if any life left in them, but it is doubtful that ALL of the bearings suddenly started making noise simultaneously, unless you are hard of hearing and they did it one at a time and now all are marginal.

All faulty sensors should be replaced.

I agree with dave, do the fluid swap, not a flush.

In what way has it already been loud? Mazda is known for not trying much to mitigate engine noise... it's a zoom zoom feature, but you never should have had suspension or wheel noise, except the normal progressive type of little squeaks and rattles that many vehicles get after years of use, depending on whether you mitigate those one at a time or wait for an outright failure if it's a critical component rather than trim rubbing.

If you can do some of this work yourself, you are likely to save hundreds of dollars in labor and possibly fewer hundreds of dollars addt'l savings on parts. A Mazda dealership shop and genuine mazda parts, is the most expensive way to go. That does not mean I advocate generic parts, just that there are major parts manufacturers who usually offer better values before you even consider a dealership's parts markups, and at a dealship you are probably stuck, that they will only use OEM parts at highest cost possible to you, and highest profit to them.

 

[pauldun170]

Automatic, Mazda3 2011, 145k miles.

-EVAP Leak - Seems to not be effecting anything, really only need to fix the code for emissions test

-Tranny fluid pressure sensor blown/fault

-Tranny fluid dirty (shop recommended not to change)

-Right strut blown

-Wheel bearings making excessive noise and should be replaced.

What should I do in this case? Need this car to last me a good while longer. Shop recommended not changing the fluid in tranny because there's no record of it being done previously so it's a risk I guess to do it this late in the game. They never mentioned to me on the phone about the strut or the bearings. This car has always been loud.

-Evap leak ...Did you check you gas cap? They are cheap
-Tranny fluid pressure sensor blown/fault? If you are draining the fluid anyway, dropping the pan to access the switch is a no brainer. Switch is what? 35 bucks? If you have a good relationship with a shop, they could cut you a deal on labor between the drain and fill + switch work.
--Wheel bearings? (checks OP to see if car is actually a Subaru) umm...Sorry to hear about that.

If you need the car to last you and its paid off...just fix it. Outside of the wheel bearings, nothing you mentioned seems abnormal for 150K on the clock.
If financially you need to hold on to it...just fix it.
Based on your description, you won't get much for the car if you try and sell it as is. Might as well milk it for all its worth.

 

[z1ggy]

Depends on how much you trust the shop. At 145K mi, if your struts and wheel bearings are the originals, it's likely they all have limited if any life left in them, but it is doubtful that ALL of the bearings suddenly started making noise simultaneously, unless you are hard of hearing and they did it one at a time and now all are marginal.

All faulty sensors should be replaced.

I agree with dave, do the fluid swap, not a flush.

In what way has it already been loud? Mazda is known for not trying much to mitigate engine noise... it's a zoom zoom feature, but you never should have had suspension or wheel noise, except the normal progressive type of little squeaks and rattles that many vehicles get after years of use, depending on whether you mitigate those one at a time or wait for an outright failure if it's a critical component rather than trim rubbing.

If you can do some of this work yourself, you are likely to save hundreds of dollars in labor and possibly fewer hundreds of dollars addt'l savings on parts. A Mazda dealership shop and genuine mazda parts, is the most expensive way to go. That does not mean I advocate generic parts, just that there are major parts manufacturers who usually offer better values before you even consider a dealership's parts markups, and at a dealship you are probably stuck, that they will only use OEM parts at highest cost possible to you, and highest profit to them.

It's been loud as in Mazda in general have high road noise, etc. If I have no radio on (well.. my radio is broke...) it's not a very pleasant ride. But the bearings are definitely causing a kind of... wobbling noise that's in sync with the cars RPM. It's not loud it's just a mild persistent kind of hum. It's probably cropped up within the past 2 years.

The work was done yesterday at a local shop, I'd never go to a stealership.

-Evap leak ...Did you check you gas cap? They are cheap
-Tranny fluid pressure sensor blown/fault? If you are draining the fluid anyway, dropping the pan to access the switch is a no brainer. Switch is what? 35 bucks? If you have a good relationship with a shop, they could cut you a deal on labor between the drain and fill + switch work.
--Wheel bearings? (checks OP to see if car is actually a Subaru) umm...Sorry to hear about that.

If you need the car to last you and its paid off...just fix it. Outside of the wheel bearings, nothing you mentioned seems abnormal for 150K on the clock.
If financially you need to hold on to it...just fix it.
Based on your description, you won't get much for the car if you try and sell it as is. Might as well milk it for all its worth.

I've replaced the gas cap already and I had a smoke test done 1 year ago and basically the perge valve was "acting weird" but wasn't fully stuck. They (same shop) went ahead and replaced it, yet... here we are over a year later and the code is still there. Why would I have them smoke test it again? Obviously something weird is going on that they couldn't fix the first time.

General comment - Transmission already acts a little strange. In first gear it sometimes struggles to find second.... I'll be going maybe 5mph and then I give it some pedal and essentially the car almost doesn't react for a second, then suddenly RPM jumps up and car shoots forward, then immediately goes into 2nd. I just don't want to put more money into a car like this unless I know I'm getting a solid 2 or 3 more years out of it.

I can do the tranny fluid, as I do my own oil no problem, but I'm obviously not doing struts or bearings. How much should something like that run for parts? How about hours of labor?