I've struggled to find a mechanic that provides good quality service, is honest and communicates with me about what's going on with my car in more than 3 words.
Following the recommendation of a friend, I went to Dirk's. I'm so glad I did. I took my car in because the heater wasn't working right and the car had been overheating. I knew that my coolant was dirty so I asked for a coolant flush (I didn't tell them the heater wasn't working because I thought I knew that all it needed was a flush).
I drove the car only about a mile or some home and didn't use the heater. The next day, however, I noticed that it wasn't working. I was a little upset because I was afraid that I guessed wrong and the coolant, although dirty and needing to be flushed, wasn't the only problem. I called Dirk's and took it in the very next morning.
Not only did Dirk call and keep me updated, he was also honest. He told me that there was an air bubble in the coolant system; which is a pretty common problem. However, he said that they should have found it and had it flushed out the first time I was in. He flushed out the air bubble, took the car for a test drive to make sure that everything was working and didn't charge me a dime.
A lot of other places would have never admitted their mistake, would have fixed it but would have instead told me something like 'it was just your thermostat, which is cheap, but it did take us a few hours to diagnose and fix so you'll have to pay the labor'.
Dirk is also the first mechanic that has told me why my check engine light is on. My car is an expensive import (and subsequently expensive to fix); the car's sensors that trigger the check engine light to come on are very sensitive. Dirk told me that it said I had an 'evap' problem which was likely a very small leak in the fuel line. He told me that it wasn't causing a problem and was probably not much to worry about; they could fix it but it could get pretty expensive pretty quickly if they had to start taking things apart just to follow the fuel line to look for a microscopic leak.
Instead, he recommended that I get a new cap for my gas tank and try that first (apparently, after awhile, the gas cap doesn't seal as tightly and air is able to escape - the car senses this and the check engine light comes on). It worked! It was a simple $5 fix.
Although my experiences with Dirk are limited, they're the best I've had and I couldn't be happier. read more