I'm sure these guys are good at oil changes and stuff. Anything else, I'd probably take it to a specialized shop. If you stay with this long story here, you'll see the shady side of automotive repairs.
My wife's '05 Civic overheated on the Grapevine; the radiator blew a huge crack. After replacing the radiator myself (along with every other cooling-related part), the car overheated again 3 months later. I brought it to Steve's Express based on ratings and being new to the area, and as a former mechanic myself I thought it would be worthwhile to have someone with access to more diagnostic tools than I find the root of the problem. After diagnosing it as a blown head gasket, we paid Art at Steve's Express $1400+ on his word that the overheating problem would be resolved. Cool. Well, not cool, but at least it'll be done and with a warranty.
A couple months later, the car starts overheating again. We left it at Steve's for 3 days, using a rental car while he checked it out. He finally called, saying it was running just fine after "driving it around all day", despite the odometer only having 2 more miles from when we dropped it off. We picked it up, finding a couple new small dents and a huge scratch across the trunk lid. Wasn't us, he said. But he did say he flushed the radiator fluid just as a precaution, which is really hard to do when the radiator fluid was still blue from the dye he put in it to check for leaks!!!
The car overheated almost instantly after we got it back from him, at which point I took it back and told Art not to call until he had a solution because we'd paid $1400+ to have it fixed, not more problems. He called 4 days later, saying the radiator was clogged and a new one was needed, but lucky for me, he already put in a new radiator and the car didn't overheat, so Art asked if I wanted to just buy the new radiator and labor, etc. I advised him that I'd already done the new radiator 3 months ago, it was under lifetime warranty from Autozone and that I'd get him the free replacement so when he takes out the new one he had decided to put in to test, he could simply replace it with the new warranty one I would bring him. Nope!! He can't do that!!
There's 2 issues here:
1) We paid $1400 (!!!) to fix a problem that never got fixed or they either did a bad job and refuse to own up to it, and then he puts in a new radiator to test it. Because I didn't buy his new part with labor costs, he's got to take out the new radiator anyways, so instead of putting in the 3 month old supposedly "bad" one, he can't simply help me out and put in the replacement one instead?
2) We paid $1400 to fix a problem because he said this is the problem, and now suddenly its a clogged radiator? What happened to the $1400 head gasket job? This incredibly reliable car has two separate cooling system failures a couple short months apart that exhibit the exact same symptoms? And what if I buy this radiator, and the car overheats again? What will he tell me next time? I pay a mechanic to get the problem right and stand behind it, not guess by fixing things as they go hoping they finally get the right combination. At this point, I'm doubtful that it even was a head gasket, because the car is still overheating with another brand new radiator!
So we finally got the car back, now there's dirt and grime all over the driver seat, floorboard, kick panel and door panel, and a couple more new dents. Wasn't us, he said. Just kick me while I'm down, huh? We moved from Los Angeles 3 weeks ago. Towed the Civic behind the U-Haul truck because we can't drive a car that can't drive 5 miles, 400 miles. I've got a guy up here that can find anything with a car, and if he finds the head gasket is blown, I will give Art one chance to pay a mechanic of our choice up here to fix it before I take this to the CA BAR.
Long story? Yes. Story of dishonest mechanics taking advantage of people? Yes. Moral of the story? Buy some tools and learn to do it yourself!! I made a mistake I will never repeat. read more