terrible...dropped off car with a damaged radiator and after amonth and a half got the car back and it overheated 2 days later w/ damage and I checked it out and 10 minutes later when I got to the thermostat and the bolts were rattling around!!!! When I told them what happened they replied, "Thats your problem." and only held out there hand and said,..."We fix for $1500."
On April 11, 2023 I was in a minor accident and I ran into a large commercial vehicle at @ 20 MPH on the 2 FWY (N). After failing to get the truck to pull over I exited the freeway and pulled over. After determining that I had a compromised radiator, I had the car towed @11 miles 1/2 from my home. (I had used up all my available tow miles. The next morning, I walked to my car and tried to fill the radiator and confirmed that it was damaged and leaking. I started the car and it sounded fine so I immediately dropped it off in front of the mechanic in the complaint. I had already confirmed that the insurance would cover the storage fee so I engaged the mechanic and his son (I believe) to give me an estimate. But as the car had started to heat up before I exited the 2 FWY I asked them to do a compression check first to be safe. They told me $3600 and suggested they would be done in 3 days. I told them wait until my settlement arrives and do a compression check again, Finally on 05/05/23, my settlement arrived and before I went to the bank I told them to get the paperwork ready and let me know what the check "readings" were. On the same day, when I got there, they had not prepared an estimate and apparently had not done compression check, but had received the hood and lighting assembly. But I wanted to be sure we were communicating accurately so I went to my neighbors who spoke Armenian and he followed me over to confirm my expectations. They had drafted a rudimentary looking receipt page with very little detail and my neighbor said they wondered why I wanted a compression check. I told him to explain to them I had been in a similar situation before, and had wasted 1000's of dollars in repairing body work, only to find my car "allegedly:" had a blown head gasket also. I had been told always do comp check when buy a car or think there is any chance you have damaged the engine. I told them I would only give them $2000 until I got the readings on each cylinder and a detailed estimate. After being told 3 days again, a week passed and they said they were waiting on the A/C compressor when I asked, But told me they compression check was good at 141 and handed me a much more thorough estimate so I agreed to give them another $750 in cash on 5/19/23. As my financial situation required me to get back to work ASAP, I daily checked in on them and after telling the son I needed to get back to work, he told me , "not my problem." On top of that I spoke to a friend who rebuilds VW vans, and he told me that its virtually impossible to find an engine with a 100,000 miles on it with the exact same pressure readings on each cylinder. Finally, I got them to finish on 05/25/23. Getting ready to close they promised me a receipt the next morning and I needed to get to work. I looked over the car and it sounded good so I was hopeful. Two days later, on the 210 FWY I noticed the temp guage start to spike and pull over with the needle only hitting the red for a few moment. I waited for about 45 minutes filled the radiator with 1 gallon coolant and 2 gallon water and started to head the additional 4-5 miles home, but had to stop and repeat the same thing one more time. When I arrived, and entered the shop telling him what happened the mechanic and his son(?) popped the hood, and almost instantly told me it was the head gasket and then said, "$1800.00." I asked them shouldn't they try to see why the car had overheated again, right after they had supposedly fixed the radiator and "bleed cooling system?" After a couple more days more of conversations and them only asking for more money I decided I had to try to determine what was going on. I had almost entirely exhausted an $9,500 settlement paying for their "repair," living expenses for a month extra they took fixing the car, and the tools I knew I would need once I did the chemical test and found gasses in the coolant. While underneath the car checking the radiator I reached up to get a socket on the thermostat and found the bottom bolt loose enough for me to remove by hand, explaining why it overheated again. I have replaced a head gasket successfully before in a Dodge Ram van, so having no other choice I have slowly but carefully gotten down to the valves, waiting for a 9mm triple square long stem socket to arrive, or a mobile mechanic to agree to come out remove the head bolts for me so we can confirm a blown head gasket and work our way back. I have already purchased all new gaskets, head bolts, and necessary items to flush out coolant system and oil change, spark plugs, etc. Additionally while installing the ra read more