Long Review - Part 1:
I usually do my own work. Recently, I could not put my finger on an issue that I was having with an almost constant grinding and occasional vibration in my car. After spending a while trying to figure it out I happened to be close by Davis Auto and it seem to be getting worse so instead of potentially causing more serious damage I decided to go and talk to Gene and get his advice and, hopefully, a cheap diagnostic. For some reason they did not do a test drive and simply drove straight to the bay in the back of the shop. My friends and I thought it was odd at the time but I assumed they knew perhaps what the issue was right away and after all they were the experts, right? Well, after describing the problem to Gene and about 20 minutes or so of shooting the sh** with Gene in the front office one of his questionable mechanics came back with his diagnosis. He told that me (us) that the rack and pinion was the problem. Ironically, I asked Gene after the guy left the room if he was pretty good and of course Gene said yes that he had been there about 5-6 years. So after thinking about it for a second I knew the weather was not favorable and I did not feel like dealing with it this time around and agreed to the repair. I received a call a short time later from Gene saying that the repair may be slightly higher in cost (about $50 more) than agreed upon earlier and also that the part was not in stock and would not be there until the following morning. I called later the next day and Kerry said that they were just doing the front-end alignment but it should be done about 15 minutes before closing. I arrived about 5 minutes before closing time and Gene was there. While searching for the keys to my car inside Gene commented that the mechanic told him that while test driving the car he noticed that the car was making grinding sounds and also severe vibrations in the car - all of the same symptoms/sounds that I described the day before. Gene then said that he and the mechanic agreed that it must be the center bearing by the drive shaft. This would turn out to be the 2nd wrong diagnosis as you will see in a moment. So, of course a red flag went up but they were closing so I drove away like the good little consumer and I immediately noticed the EXACT same issue to the EXACT same degree as the day before. I hopped on the phone with Gene as I was driving away and told him there was no change whatsoever. I then told him that the rack obviously was not the problem and he said, "oh no he inspected it and it was bad". Of course ALL the logic was on my side and he finally relented (slightly) and had the nerve to tell me to come in the next morning as I could do the job myself and he would get me the bearing. Admittedly, during the course of the conversation I did tell him that with something as easy as the center bearing, I could have done the job myself. But evidently it slipped his mind that I was just charged $500 for an incorrect diagnosis. Anyway, the next morning I show up and Kerry was in the parts room as always talking with someone. I proceeded to tell him that his mechanic made a wrong diagnosis the day before and he almost immediately knew what I was talking about and said. "oh yeah the center bearing, right?". I was a bit surprised that he knew about it and said yes and then he said he would have Jody look at it after I mentioned that I needed to drop off my son at school. When I came back I waited a short while before they pulled it in. Evidently Jody was too busy I guess because, a short time later I saw Bob (another mechanic) driving my car out of the parking lot and onto the road. Two minutes later he (Bob) returns laughing kind of to himself and out loud and proceeds to show me what the actual problem was the ENTIRE time. He reaches into his top pocket and pulled out a rock about the size of a quarter. Evidently, the rock had wedged itself very tightly between the lower part of the exhaust system/drive shaft area and the chassis (body). Bob commented that they had to really knock it out of there and it was not easy. The problem was finally fixed - immediately and completely. No more grinding whatsoever, no more vibration whatsoever. Everything was completely back to normal immediately after removal of the rock. Now grant it my steering has improved slightly but only slightly mind you. As a matter of fact I commented to Kerry that I was planning on changing the tie rod ends eventually, possibly next summer, but certainly not the rack and pinion yet ($$$). Regardless, neither of these two items was necessary to replace at that point and time. As a back yard mechanic of 30 years I have changed dozens of tie rods and a few rack and pinions over the years. In retrospect, NONE of the symptoms even remotely warranted changing of these two items. read more
