Congress may soon decide where certain auto repair work is performed.

At issue is the escalating battle between independent station owners and auto dealers.

The two sides are at odds over the so called, "Right to Repair" legislation.

Independent auto mechanics are happy to check under the hood, but when it comes to repair work, they say consumers may soon be forced to go elsewhere.

"You take your car in for certain repairs and then independent shop does not have the code for certain repairs you can't fix it. So he has to turn them away to go to the dealer," said Jim Quinten of the Automotive Parts and Service Association.

Independent mechanics are battling car manufacturers over access codes needed to link to on board diagnostics systems.

Without those codes, Jim Quinten says independent shops are being forced out of business.

"The car manufacturers are a very formidable competitors. Yes, they've got a lot of bucks!" added Quinten.

"It's not a service issue it's a parts issue," said Bill Walters of the Texas Automobile Dealers Association.

He argues that turning over information would also force car makers to hand over valuable trade secrets that could be used to build knock off car parts and systems.

"The manufactures will have to give up a lot of their rights and they will never spend hundreds of millions of dollars again to develop these great automobiles," added Walters.

Walters says access codes are already available to mechanics and that intellectual property rights for systems including anti theft devices and key codes need to be protected.

Mechanics, however say what needs to be protected is consumers rights to chose where to get repair work done.

"It takes away from the consumer their choice of getting the car fixed where they want to get it fixed. If they want to take it to the car dealer they've got that choice," said Quinten.

The "Right to Repair" bill, as it's called, passed out of a Congressional subcommittee by just one vote.

It is headed to the House Energy and Commerce Committee for a full hearing.

The Chairman of the committee is U.S Representative Joe Barton of the Fort Worth-Arlington area.

Congressman Barton is also a sponsor of the bill.