Repair Shop Horror Stories

[Lee Stewart]

Let's here some of your stories. I am sure there are many colorful ones you wouldn't mind sharing.

On my way to the local supermarket (Albertsons) to pickup some fried chicken for lunch. About 2 miles from my house. Park the car, go in and make my purchase. Come out, get in the car, start it up - fine, no problem - put it in Drive and . . . .CLUNK! The car isn't moving while the engine is revving up as I press down on the gas. Oh-oh - this leads me to believe there is something wrong with the auto trans. So I call up the local AAMCO shop which is a mile away (back in the direction of my home) and ask them to send a tow truck. 45 minutes later, the truck arrives and just a few minutes after that we are at the AAMCO shop. The manger says he will get it on the lift in a couple of hours and call e with his analysis.

So I walk home - about a mile. 3 hours later AAMCO calls. Good news! It isn't the transmission. The drivers side drive shaft broke. Just needs to be replaced and my cost will be $300. I can pick it up at 10 AM the next morning. Sure enough - 10 AM - the car is ready. Two days later I needed to go to the hospital to have some tests done. On my way home, I wanted to stop by and thank the guys at AAMCO for the quick turnaround on the repair on my Camry. So I stop at the shop to give thanks and kudos for the service - get back in my car to drive home - turn the key . . . . nothing happens. Got plenty of power but the engine won't turn over. Ok - the manager says he will take a look at it and call me in a couple of hours. So I walk that mile home again. 3 hours later - you need a new fuel pump and fuel filter. It will cost $440. YUCK - so I authorize the repairs. Car will be ready at 3PM the next day.

Next day I once again walk to the shop. Car is ready - pay the bill and decide that I want to go to the Library to get some books to read. Drive over to the Library, and about 15 minutes later get back in the car and . . . .nothing. Car will not turn over. Call AAMCO - they will send a tow truck. After about 40 minutes of waiting I try to start the car and it starts! So I call AAMCO and tell them to cancel the truck, I will drive there. Get to the shop around 4PM - it's too late for any analysis or work. Manager promises to call me at 10AM next morning. So here comes that 1 mile walk home . . . and for sure the 1 mile walk to the shop the following day. Calls me at 11 AM - some electrical doo-hicky in the fuse block needed to be replaced - no charge - come get the car.

Make the walk to the shop - I am getting more exercise than I have in the last 10 years - get in the car and drive home in time to pick up my son to drive him to work. Drop him off and while the car is in park - the engine dies - can not restart it. It has occurred to me that when the engine is hot - car will not restart but when it cools, it will. So My son grabs a gallon of water for me and I start pouring it on the engine especially on the section where the sensors are. After 3 gallons of water - I can start the car. I immediately drive back to the AAMCO and explain that he has not fixed the car and I want my $440 back. He puts through a credit on my CC and I am able to drive home. I am now determined to fix the car myself.

So I jump on a Toyota Forum and search for the issue I am having. I find numerous posts with the exact same issue I am having and the solution is always the same. Something is wrong with the "sending unit" inside the distributor. I look up the "sending unit" on Autozone - they stock it and it's $65. Borrow a friends car - go buy the unit along with a new distributor O-ring and cap and rotor because they are original to the car and should probably be replaced - cheap enough. Take the distributor out of my car - open it up and low and behold - the "sending unit" is cracked in half. Remove it and replace it with the new one along with the new cap and rotor - button it all up - start the car and of course - that is the end of the problem.

I blame AAMCO for not taking the time to do any research on the problem I was having. Cars that don't start are almost always electrical/ignition related. I really had good vibes from the shop and the manager and being it was so close to home had delusions of granduer that I could get away from Firestone where I had all my repairs done but was 7 miles away.

So the repair cost me $65 and I got a brand new fuel pump and fuel filter for free. And I think I lost a few pounds from all the walking. The anguish and anger and disappointment has subsided. But I also now have an oil leak coming from the O-ring on the distributor. Have gone as far as ordering one from Toyota and installed it as per their recommendation - NG, still have an oil leak. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[pdub]

Lee, I've got a lot more "garage" horror stories than "shop" horror stories. When I bought Red some years ago, I didn't even own any tools. Yep, it's like deer meat alright, gets bigger as you chew it, and every single time I think "I can do this," it's been quite the adventure. I've invented cuss words and Yes Virginia, I have in fact thrown tools in severe anger and frustration. Maybe once, at least.... well once on that particular day, and there have been a lot of those days.

[G-Motive]

When I was going to school I had a Cordoba that only had reverse when the trans was warm. I wasn't allowed to work on cars where I was living so I took it to a tans shop for a fluid & filter change. When they dropped the pan they did the "old look at the shit in your pan" routine and refused to put the pan back on the car unless I bought a rebuilt trans. After going off on them and threatening to call everyone under the sun they finally did my fluid & filter change, I never had a problem with the trans again.

[yellomalibu]

19 year old young Marine, driving across the country in my 1966 Oldsmobile - it was 24 years old - I had just rebuilt the engine in California so I knew a little bit about stuff. I get to Oklahoma, and the whining noise I'd been pretending not to hear turned out to be a seized bearing in my alternator. A quick tow to a small shop from the interstate, and the attendant/ mechanic said he couldn't work on it until after he finished doing something else (I forget what), but he had one in stock for a decent price. I told him if he'd let me use a couple tools, I could change it, after all, I'd just rebuilt the engine. He said, sure - go ahead. An hour after I broke down and less than $100 later, I was back on the road.
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That's the good story.
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The next day, I'm almost home. Georgia. I stop at a full service gas station because I wanted to go into the bathroom and clean up, get a coke and a snack from inside. I come out and the guy tells me I have a gash in my tire. I said show me. He tried, but I couldn't see it... he said he could show it to me better if he dismounted the tire and bend it so I could see it. I'm instantly angry, because I KNOW he sliced it. How else could he have seen an invisible gash??? It wasn't safe to drive on it now ... I wanted to burn down his shop, but couldn't do anything, so I ended up buying not one, but two tires because he didn't have my size in stock. What's worse yet, was when I got home, the next day I went to a tire shop to buy 2 new tires of the correct size, and the guy only gave me $20 each for my "used" tires... and probably sold them as new to someone.
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Nowadays with cell phones and the internet at our fingertips, I'd like to think that people aren't victimized as much... but I'd be wrong. I'm sure there are still people in shops that take advantage of people every day.

[G-Motive]

I watched a customer literally attack a salesman once, the salesman laid him out cold and got fired. I was pissed when they fired him. Most guys I know would have done the same thing.

[corvettedad]

Lee, I've got a lot more "garage" horror stories than "shop" horror stories. When I bought Red some years ago, I didn't even own any tools. Yep, it's like deer meat alright, gets bigger as you chew it, and every single time I think "I can do this," it's been quite the adventure. I've invented cuss words and Yes Virginia, I have in fact thrown tools in severe anger and frustration. Maybe once, at least.... well once on that particular day, and there have been a lot of those days.

Peewee you keep referencing your problems with Deer meat, you need to come on down to LA and let me cook up some for you , you won't have that problem

[pdub]

Peewee you keep referencing your problems with Deer meat, you need to come on down to LA and let me cook up some for you , you won't have that problem

One of these days we'll sure do that Perry. You know we'd love to and laugh our butts off while it happened, like we do. But I've had a lot more problems with wrenches (or more specifically the WRENCHER) than there will ever be with deer meat.

[silver_bullet]

and now Peewee has stretched in to the electrical trade... let the house of horrors begin...

[pdub]

and now Peewee has stretched in to the electrical trade... let the house of horrors begin...

Fire suppression techniques are soon to follow, it's a natural progression.

[Barry Donovan]

I worked publically with people and cars, and am a mechanic..even disabled.

I guess there is a wavelength of noble truth, stuff just comes together.
My most amazing shop story is just another success..

a 1996 truck very well cared for by a dealer, long car fax record...went all the way to 350k miles, and it is still as young as ever. Engine, tranny rear end clutch, cv, bearings.. anything a dealer could keep after, it got it. A lot of bills.
they stopped at steel work that needed a welder and beyond factory ideals...that is where I stepped up.

Just play your machines at your skill level of whatever it is you do with them.. painless as it gets. Someone cares as much as you do. Everyone has a void that needs to be filled about their vehicle.

edit:

there is one shop error. It is the saddest of all. A long running place that takes in many vehicles, they gain a chain. Damn near atomic sometimes. Those places need to be levelled. I have witnessed that twice in maine. Perfect locations, smart people...

The lifts began picking and choosing which vehicles to attack. possibly a nuclear. Out of everbody's hands then.

too many different animals in one cage to share.
Makes me think of neighborhoods that gain one culture.. there is a reason us humans do what we do. Sure isn't hate at the heart.

[Loren]

This starts out looking like a customer's bad experience, but read on...

When I was nineteen (this would be sometime back), I got a job at a little hole-in-the-wall foreign car repair shop applying everything I had learned about rebuilding my Chevy Nova and 4-cyl Vega in high school to Porsches, Jaguars, even the occasional Bentley or Rolls. You wouldn't believe what kind-of place expensive-car owners can be talked into taking their prides-and-joys to but my boss was an expert talker and in fact we did usually get the cars fixed.
One day this nice sixties Mercedes convertible came in w/ a leaking intake gasket. Owner seemed very friendly, sincere...loved his car. I had done pretty well thus far around such things but that was the day for me to make my first good mistake. Later that afternoon I removed then dropped the f'n intake manifold, w/ carbs and all, right off the bench. What a klutz. Thank God it didn't land on a carb but one runner completely broke off.

No replacement could be located, of course. My boss found a welding shop that said they could fix it and I drove it over there. They did an OK job but left a big welding bead and it was a little crooked. I filed the mating surface as flat as I could get it with a file and stuck it back on, crossing my fingers as the owner retrieved his car the next day.

A couple weeks later on a Friday afternoon with the boss gone for the day, the one other employee and I were sneaking a beer in the office, a regular ritual. I couldn't help but notice laying on the desk an important-looking letter...hmm, I'm no snoop but it was obviously from the Mercedes owner. Oh, crap...this would obviously involve me and the damaged intake.

It was indeed a very angry message and, yep, he was suing us. I read on...

I couldn't find the part about the intake manifold I was expecting, but then it turned out he was claiming that when he left the car in our shop overnight we had removed his entire engine, some very-bitchin' special unit or so he was saying, and had replaced it with a substandard used junkyard motor from another car. He said we had horribly ripped him off by swapping his original motor out and keeping it, a fantastic way for us to steal money from an honest hard-working classic car owner. His "proof" this had happened was that there was an oil spot on the floor in his garage, under the pan. And another one, up front somewhere. And others. In all there were like a half-dozen oil spots, none of which supposedly had existed before...all documented, measured off, and he had photos. His original engine had never leaked but the piece-of-crap used garbage "we had installed" had oil spewing out everywhere.

He wanted twenty-thousand dollars, and his engine back if it hadn't already been sold by us (nice touch). That was a lot of dollars, I was making five-an-hour and imagining how long that would take a guy like me to pay off. What a scammer! We hadn't touched that motor...other than to take the intake off, and drop it, and fix it. And there was no mention of the big weld anyway, maybe he didn't even look under the hood.

My boss never mentioned the letter, I don't know if that customer ever won or extorted actual money, it wasn't my business to ask. But for the rest of my six-month generally successful stint as an auto mechanic I never quite looked at any friendly, sincere car-loving customer the same way again. It turns out many customers were as out-to-screw-us as we...well, yes my boss anyhow, were out to screw them.

(edit) I got the hell out of that whole scene soon enough. Business in the Valley was crazy.

[chevybuytroy]

One of my customers told me he once worked in a tranny shop where when they would drop the pan, the manager would want them to fill it with crap from the floor to make it look like it needed an overhaul. He finally outed the manager in front of the customer about it. .

[DanStokes]

No real bad stories. At not quite 16 I started working for a top-notch Buick dealer which was located about 5 miles from the entrance to the General Motors Proving Grounds in Milford, MI. Anyhow, most of our customers were great though we'd get the occasional PITA. I remember the one guy who managed to get to our service manager (brother of the owner) - the guy claimed to know all about everything that could possibly be wrong with his car and he wanted the Xxxxxx replaced (don't recall the specifics). Anyhow, the service managers sold him new muffler bearings "I recommend the platinum units - more expensive but they'll last the life of the car. The bronze ones are only good for 20,000 miles or so". The know-it-all went for it. When it was time to pay they comp'd the muffler bearings because he "was such a good customer".

A few years later I was working at a Toyota dealer in Pontiac, MI - this is when Toyota was still a small player in the US market. A guy brought in a Toyota Crown (who remembers THOSE) with (as usual) a fussy carb. On the dash was a stuck-on plastic sign that read "This is God's car. His hand guides the wheel........etc." After fighting with it for a couple of hours I shouted out to no one in particular "Then let Him fix the son-of-a-bitch!" I looked up the see the owner, a reverend, standing there with the owner of the dealership. The rev gave me a pass on that one.

I guess the service horror stories go both ways.

Dan

[Runner1972]

I got so many i can write a book.

Recent one was a local shop basically coating the exhaust with jb weld, spray bombing it sliver and then giving it right to the customer thinking it was a new exhaust. They returned the pipes saying the customer did not want to spend the money and pocketed the cash.

This is the reason i don't recommend anyone.

[chevybuytroy]

I got so many i can write a book.

Recent one was a local shop basically coating the exhaust with jb weld, spray bombing it sliver and then giving it right to the customer thinking it was a new exhaust. They returned the pipes saying the customer did not want to spend the money and pocketed the cash.

This is the reason i don't recommend anyone.

I tried that once to see if it would work... It was the worst smell ever when it started to melt off.