LETTERS: DEFENDING REPAIR SHOP

To the editor:

This is a letter in defense of the auto repair shop referred to in Mike Royko's Nov. 3 column, "Car repairs no day at the beach -- maybe dunes."I am a retired auto mechanic who still is a consultant for friends, neighbors and children for auto problems.

Recently a friend asked me to help with the problem she has on her car. She had it in the dealer's repair shop several times for a problem of stalling out on the road. Each time, after it had been repaired, it would stall in traffic and have to towed back to the dealer's shop. Each time there was some repair. Each time there was a tow bill.

When I was asked for help, the car had been in the dealer's shop for two months. I drove the car out of the dealer's repair shop, took it to my shade-tree repair shop, checked it for obvious problems and found none. So, with the owner's permission, I kept the car for a week and drove it each time I went to town. I took my tool box along in case it stalled. Soon it did stall -- again and again. After a period of checking and driving over and over, I found the problem. It took five minutes to repair with no parts.

This was a problem that could never have been found with test equipment, only with test driving. I probably put at least 276 miles on the car, first to diagnose the problem and then to test it after repair to be sure it wouldn't happen again. It has now been a year with no re-occurrence of the problem. The friend is even more of a friend.

You might want to forward this letter to Mike Royko for his information.

DARWIN E. MARKWELLPerryville