My wife took our vehicle to this Kwik Kar location to get a state inspection. The tech told her the car battery died during the inspection process and, as a result, the sensors in the car had reset causing four of them to trigger "not ready" readings, so the vehicle inspection couldn't be completed. The tech then told her she needed a new battery and tried to sell her one. She declined the new battery, knowing the battery in the vehicle was only about 6-months old, and the tech said he "would jump the car so it could start". The tech told her to go ahead and get a new battery, drive the car 50-60 miles so the sensors would reset, then come back to complete the inspection. She paid the cost of inspection and was told when she returned the re-inspection would not cost anything.
That night, I tested the battery. It showed a full charge (12.7V). I took it to Advanced Autoparts and got it tested to be sure. Sure enough, it passed. I then tested it each day for the next 3 days and confirmed it held the charge.
Four days later, after driving over 100 miles, she returned to Kwik Kar to reattempt the inspection. Again, she was told the car did not pass due to 2 Not Ready sensors. Initially, she was told she "might need to drive the car another 100 miles for the sensors to reset". Then, the same tech looked at the paperwork from the previous visit and told her he "had to test something else". When he returned, the tech told her the battery died again during the inspection saying it was a bad battery that needed to be replaced. She told him that we had the battery tested prior to the visit and it was fine, and hadn't given her any issues. He then went back to the car. When he returned, he told her the cause of the battery dying was the alternator. Knowing the alternator had been replaced a month prior, she told him that didn't sound right. After questioning the tech, he proceeded to flip back and forth talking about the battery and alternator, giving her conflicting information like he was purposely trying to confuse her. At this point, my wife called me to talk to the tech.
During our conversation, the tech could not answer my questions about what he thought caused a perfectly good battery to "die" during the course of a state inspection. He repeatedly tried to speak over me, so I asked him to pass me to his manager. The manager got on the phone and immediately started trying to explain what was wrong with the alternator. At this point, I was fed up. I told him to put the battery back in the vehicle so my wife could leave.
The next day, we took the vehicle to a garage to have the alternator checked. It passed without issue. We then took it to a third garage for a state inspection, and it passed without issue.
If you've had a similar experience with this Kwik Kar, please comment and let me know. read more