Went to another Silver Spring Auto Shop twice - first experience pretty good, fixed a variety of brake issues (front and back), put the car back on the road, charged I guess what is reasonable nowadays, no bargain. Second time I went in, had an unusual problem - a previous mechanic ( a few years back) had apparently destroyed the thread on one spark plug hole and put in a threaded insert without telling me he had cross-threaded and destroyed the hole. Now, a few years later, the spark plug blows out of the engine taking the insert with it and I have just an unthreaded hole in my cylinder head. That shop in Silver Spring carefully considers whether they want to touch this new issue as there is a lot of perceived risk if they attempt to fix the problem and it blows out again - what mechanic wants that problem?? So they give me back my car (Toy Sienna) and charge me $40-$50 for looking at the problem and deciding to punt.
I canvas a bunch of shops by phone and find one - BRIAN'S AUTOMOTIVE - who is willing to try putting a new, over-sized thread insert into the cylinder head despite the perceived risk! I guess Brian is an old-fashioned mechanic who gets off on fixing things that were broken before he looked at them - imagine that?
So Brian fixed the problem, puts a new oversized thread insert in, a sparkplug in, and a few months later, my Sienna is happily driving around without any indication that there ever was a problem. I have to say thanks for shops like Brian's Automotive who are willing to take a business risk and have the satisfaction of calling me up and telling me "she is running pretty good"!
I give ALL the credit to Brian's for their work and for going the extra step. Brian's is a bit off the beaten path in Silver Spring, at 8810 Monard Street (or a street number close to that). It is in an industrial park location. He does super work. Thank you.
As for the usual criteria here on Yelp for auto shops: how did it smell there? Did they have fresh flowers? Made me feel like more of a woman? Smiled throughout our interaction? No comments.... just thoughts on what I think is important. read more