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A little scratch: $1500. A wear out device replacement: $3500. A fresh trunk-release switch cover: $150. All these are genuine repair costs related to AOL Autos since drivers took their vehicles to the auto shops with apparently small problems that resulted in excessively expensive repair bills. Not all motorists can choose to repair his vehicle himself or purchase a new one as trouble occurs in the existing one. Most of the car owners are left with limited options like gathering the big bills and paying it. Let us focus on some of the regular repair jobs that resulted in exorbitant repair bills.

Beyond the Bumper

Deana May, at Los Angeles-based AC Auto finishing, is aware of the surprises a store has for even a car brought in with just a minor scratch. According to May, “It’s a scary thing — looks can be deceiving. You can do an estimate on a front bumper then take it off and behind it there’s all kinds of damage. Low-profile cars with low-profile tires go over a bump or up a driveway, they don’t take an angle, often they need a whole new front end.” In addition, problems of these types arrive frequently at her shop. Last month a Lotus driver was billed a sum of $5,400 for his car repairing; however, after verifying the condition she had to agree. She informs about the possible dangers and costs of drivers receiving incorrect quotes for the upkeep with high-performance components, like for an AMG, for a Mercedes or Brabus.

Up in Your grille

Willy Stroppe, president of automotive engineering firm Bill Stroppe & Sons in Paramount, California, says he once looked at what seemed like insignificant damage to the front of a Ford pickup truck that ultimately became a huge repair bill. It looked like the front plastic grille was broken by a light hit, but when we got into it the housing behind the grille was cracked and broken all the way up. Replacing everything from the fenders, to the headlight vessels, to a new front end, it all adds up. In many cases you gotta pull out the radiator. That’s not something you can do in a couple hours. Stroppes seen similar problems on a Ford Explorer ” he works mainly with Fords ” and the pickups repair bill crossed $1200. Its not like the old days when everything was steel, he adds. He also says that second hand car buyers should beware of a practice hes seen plenty of in nearly 50 years in the car business ” a repair shop buys a car whose frame and shell seem fine but whose inside needs a lot of work, for example, on its suspension. Often, says Stroppe, an unscrupulous shop will make the car roadworthy with a substandard repair job, and then sell it on to an unknowing buyer, leaving room for a huge future repair bill.

$150 Cover Up

Mark Essig, a writer in a small town in North Carolina, says he was shocked when a local technician charged him $150 to replace a missing cover for the trunk-release switch in his ten-year-old Mercedes 320 CLK. And while Essig was expecting a reasonably expensive repair bill given that he owned an upscale European make, he was certainly not expecting a $150-add on to a $2,000 repair bill, particularly since it came as an additional cost that was not included in the original estimate. He says: It was part of a $2000 repair bill that included valve cleaning and brake work, and I was so sick to my stomach that I couldn’t quibble over $150. Best part was, I didn’t ask him to do it. Meanwhile, Michael Russell, an AOL Autos friend who owns a Porsche 944, found out to his dismay that an old-school German car could cost more than he had budgeted for. A $15 exhaust valve replacement eventually cost him $3,500 once labor had been factored in. Essentially, he says, they had to take out the engine to reach the valve, which had burned out, a common failing in older performance vehicles. But without the repair, he says, he had no way of traveling to work.

Cool Conditioning, Not-So-Cool Cost

Taking my wife’s 1995 Nissan 240SX S-ER to my local mechanics to fix the air conditioning proved to be a costly affair. I had taken the car a week before that to get the air conditioning fixed. They found a leaking gasket that had depressurized the system. So they fixed the gasket, re-filled the system with Freon coolant and pressurized it. The bill came to be $300. I heaved a sigh of relief until two days later I found to my utter dismay that the system was again blowing hot air. So much for getting it repaired. I took it back to the shop for a second look only to be told that another seal had broken and this time it was in a hard-to-reach spot which meant extra labor that ultimately translated to an $800 dollar repair bill. I pointed out the fact that the original fix was under warranty. My mechanic argued that a different component had malfunctioned this time and therefore the additional repair was not under warranty. All attempts at bargaining failed so I was $300 out of pocket, and my wife has a hot summer ahead (unless she decides have mine). Here a word of advice: Always get a second opinion in situations like this besides assessing the general system integrity when replacing individual components on older-model cars.

Coolant Chills

Ken Lavacot, of online mechanics 2carpros.com, says its better not to ignore a little steam coming out of your exhaust, which could seem like nothing initially but it can blow into something major and cost you later on. He says: “Coolant is used to cool the engine during normal operation. If coolant is allowed to enter the combustion chamber, the engine will burn the coolant creating white smoke and steam. He says the gasket replacement is among the most expensive solutions. “If the gasket that seals the intake manifold to the cylinder head fails it can allow coolant to enter the intake port and then the combustion chamber. To check for this condition the intake manifold will need to be removed.” Most of your money goes in getting to the gasket and reassembling the parts after its replacement. Lavacot says that the engine must be taken apart if nothing is wrong with the gasket and there is coolant in the combustion chamber. He adds: “This can be tricky because it is difficult to tell which is causing the problem. For example: A repair shop has told you the cylinder head is cracked, and as they start disassembly they can discover it was the intake manifold gasket that has failed. It’s up to the honesty of the repair shop to alert the customer the repair will be less. Or the opposite can happen. A repair shop has told you your engine has a blown head gasket, once the disassembly is complete they inform you the head gasket is OK, and the cylinder has been pressure checked and is OK. This only leaves the engine block as the failure and must be replaced to repair the problem, and that can be costly.”

Paintwork Blues

My brother-in-law got a little more than he bargained for when he lent his Jaguar convertible to a family member. The car was returned with a scratch in the back panel on the drivers side. This can be fixed at minimal cost as a bodywork shop can buff out a scratch but the Jaguar XK8s aluminum shell meant that a costly adhesive had to be used to fix the scratch so as to prevent further deterioration or warping of the cars monocoque shell. It cost a whopping $1500. Most luxury carmakers like Audi, Mercedes and BMW harness the aluminum-shell technology which is very expensive to repair. He was told that he was lucky the scratch was not in any other part of the car as it could have easily doubled or tripled his cost. Get several estimates for the paintwork and think twice before lending your Jaguar.