Vehicle Repair Horror Stories

Over the years, we have heard our fair share of horror stories about the dealers and other shops.  We decided to share a few of the more recent stories with you!  We hope you enjoy.
 

What Parking Brake?

A customer comes to us with a Mini Cooper in need of rear brakes.  The rear brakes are very worn down and we go ahead and replace the pads and rotors.  The customer tells us that he has had to replace the rear brakes before and that he seems to develop more wear on the rear than anywhere else.  We check the functionality of the calipers and the parking brake mechanism and everything seems to be working correctly.  Approximately two weeks later he calls to tell us the brakes are making a terrible noise and asks us to take a look at them.  Upon examining the rear brakes we see that there is no life left on the pads - they are meta to metal.  He's traveled approx 1500 miles since the brake change - and yes, he knows how to use the parking brake.  Long story shortened - he works nights and unbeknown to him, his teenage daughter has been driving the car during the day - asked if she releases the parking brake, she says "what parking brake?"  We replaced the pads without charge as we figured he had other things to worry about.
 

I Need a New Transmission?

An older lady brought in a Honda and asked if we would take a look at it because she was having a transmission problem.  Initially, we politely declined, as Honda is not something we typically work on.  She explained that she was previously told she had a transmission leak and needed to replace her transmission at a cost of $6,000.  We started to become more suspicious as she went on to explain what the mechanic had described and how he had priced the work for her.  She explained that she never had any shifting problems previously, and she was shocked that she needed a new transmission.  After that, we knew something funny was going on, so we inspected the car while she waited and found no leaks with the transmission.  We did end up finding a leak; however, it was an oil leak that was coming from a camshaft oil seal - not her transmission.  We replaced the seal (which cost a mere $0.18 from the Honda dealer) and sent her on her way - without any cost to her.
 

How Much is a $19.95 Oil Change?

Just the other day, a lady came in and was acting sort of frantic.  She explained that she just had an oil change completed on her Volkswagen a few miles up the road at one of the low-cost oil change shops; after she left the shop, her car was not changing gears and it started making all sorts of funny noises.  We inspected her car and discovered she had no transmission fluid - the transmission was completely dry!   Not only that, but her engine oil was overfilled.  The low-cost oil change shop had drained the transmission fluid rather than the engine oil; then they proceeded to fill the engine oil without ever draining the original oil!  We drained her engine oil and refilled it properly and then refilled her transmission. Hopefully there was no long term damage to the car because she acted quickly.  What is the real cost of a $19.95 oil change?
 

Second Opinions Save You Money!

A customer had brought us a 3-series BMW that the dealer had recommended having the transmission replaced on it.  The car would regularly set a transmission light on the dashboard and go into fail safe mode where the car would not go over 20mph.  The customer also reported that his check engine lights, ABS lights, and more would come on.  After multiple visits with the dealer and a quote for $6,000 to replace his transmission, he decided a second opinion was needed.  Upon inspection, we discovered that the car did indeed go into the safe-mode setting, along with a multitude of diagnostic trouble codes.  However, the very first code it had set was a low voltage code.  After testing the battery and charging system, we found that the battery had a weak cell which was causing it to not maintain enough output voltage.  Given this information, we changed the battery (approx $150) and the car ran beautifully.  This guy was smart to get a second opinion; in the end it saved him over $5,000!