I took my 1996 Honda Accord to John because my check engine light came on and the car stalled and ran rough. I've been taking this car to John since 1999. He's done multiple repairs on it. Brakes, rotors, camshaft sensor, water pump, timing belt, tune up, suspension work. He's a always been fair, and has done good work. This time I scanned the car and came up with a bad camshaft sensor or crankshaft sensor.
He diagnosed it and came up with the same thing , prior to that he had replaced both those items 40,000 miles ago and here they went out again. Ok I can live with that. So he installs the sensors and the car is still running rough, he calls me and says I don't know what's wrong with it and it's giving him headaches. Ok, so your asking me if I know what the problem is, I'm paying you $160.00 an hour and that's what you say. Then he says it might be the distributor cap and it could take 5 days to get the part, really. I could have gotten the part overnight at rock auto.
Now he's had the car close to two weeks, I called him one time in two weeks to see what was going on with the repair, cars not my daily driver, I wanted repaired so my son could use it to commute in. He charged $1,800 for the repairs. Then his son tells him I can't believe you can't figure it out since you've been a Honda mechanic for years, and he used to work at a Honda dealership as a mechanic. I finally come and pick the car up and it doesn't start very well, prior to him getting it, it started fine, the next day it won't start so I call him and ask if theirs anything you might have done to create this, he says no it might be dirty battery terminals. Ok, I had a hunch it was the starter because I had full power everywhere, so I get my little crowbar bang on the solenoid and it starts right up. The minute I started at his shop I knew something was wrong, you mean to tell me he didn't recognize the sound of the starter being a Honda mechanic.
I ordered a AC Delco starter from rock auto and it installed myself because I didn't want to get hosed by John for probably $700.00 he knows everybody in the Bay Area makes decent money and has no time to have their car down. He also tells me when I walk into the shop that this newer Acura is giving him a headache, when your charging a customer a $160.00 an hour that's the last thing you should say. If these vehicles are giving you headaches maybe you should Change your profession.
Long story short, I would never recommend this shop to anyone again, very disappointed. Plus I don't know where he gets his parts from, but I can tell you their low quality. And he never shows you your old parts that he has replaced. read more