I take no pleasure in this review because I know he's a guy trying to get by, but if you just read…read moreto the end then you'll understand why it had to be done. A year and a half ago I was having an issue with my Nissan Quest. I could drive it, but it was going through the coolant every couple of days and would start to overheat if I didn't keep adding. I was told that the thermostat probably needed replacement. My regular mechanic quoted $100, but his shop was 50 miles away, and given it was late Saturday I would have to wait until Monday. I had important business Monday and so I looked online for a mobile guy and found Kris, who was willing to come to me on Sunday morning and only wanted $50 if I provided the part. I thought I had found an amazing deal.
He showed up as promised, and there was a woman with him waiting inside his truck. I asked how long, and he said it depended on how soon he could locate the thermostat on my vehicle. My Spider Sense was tingling when he was googling on his phone to find info on my engine but I decided to have faith- I would regret that. I let him do his thing, and later when I checked on him I discovered that he was having to borrow tools from one of my neighbors. Not a good sign at all. He did the job but there was bad news: he said the thermostat I purchased was defective and not sealing properly, and so he had to take everything apart so that I could return it to AutoZone for an exchange part. I did, and he put this one one but more bad news: when the car was running the coolant was pouring onto the street (again not sealing). He informed me that what he would have to now do is "make a gasket" for it. I had the feeling of being dragged into quicksand.
I had some errands to run and so I left him to work on it. After a few hours of no news I called, and he said he was not able to stop it from leaking and the part wasn't going on correctly, and so he was going to pull it all apart so that I could take it to a shop, as he was unable to fix it. Also, he would leave the old and new thermostat inside my van. I conference called my brother-in-law who is a master mechanic, who tried to talk to Kris about what was going on and how to do the job, and it was clear in that conversation that it was a black belt explaining to a white belt. Kris was clueless. My brother told me privately that hopefully he didn't crank it too hard and damage the housing, which would mean more costly repairs.
By the time Kris was finished he had been at my house for 9 hours, that poor woman waiting in his truck the whole time and looking quite pissed. Kris said that whoever had previously replaced the thermostat before had done damage, and so it was all a booby trap waiting to happen (I later found out the thermostat said 'Nissan' on it and was the original part, hence he was making a BS excuse). Really I should not have paid him for this. Not only was my van not fixed but NOW it was totally undriveable, and I would have to have it towed and pay someone else! AND I would miss my important business Monday. But, I could tell they really needed the money, they were stuck in my driveway from dawn to dusk, and I felt sorry for them so I paid him. The van was eventually towed, where it was fixed immediately and correctly. My guy said that Kris must not have been installing it right. When I told Kris this he said that he had tried every configuration. I also told Kris that he didn't leave my new thermostat so that my mechanic could try it out, or if anything I could return it to AutoZone and get my $15 back, and he replied that he would stop by and drop it off for me. I never saw him or the part again..
I could have forgiven ALL OF IT and not have left this review but for the fact that we discovered some items missing from inside the van: my wife's $120 sunglasses and a device she had just bought that wireless connects her phone to the car stereo. She had it for two days and it was gone forever. So NOW I was in hot water with the wife because she had wanted me to send him away at the first sign of trouble and I didn't listen. I know Kris had been inside the van, and my first thought was he was upset at spending his entire Sunday to make $50 and decided to supplement the job. Maybe some new glasses to smooth things over with his own woman? But to be fair the tow truck driver theoretically could have done it as well. Those are the only two suspects.
It was a terrible experience.