Last Tuesday my head gasket decided to blow. I have a 1988 Toyota Camry and I never had any issues with it even though there are some things that need to be fixed on it. I was recommended Walton by another car repair shop that does not work on head gaskets. I called Walton and let the guy know what was going on. He said he would give me an estimate and call me back. When he called me back he quoted me $1150 to fix a blown head gasket. Now I assume that's for parts and labor. Sounded OK to me so I called my insurance and had them tow my car to Walton. Well I received a call back from him the next day and the price had raised from $1150 to $1400 to replace the water pump, timing belt, and something else. Then he says IF my engine has a crack it would be an additional $500 for a new engine. So the total came up to be $2000. One thing he said was I had coolant in the oil.
Well when I called my ex and told him everything the guy told me he said "your oil was fine and there was no water or anything in it". Mind you 3 guys checked my oil. The night it stopped 2 guys checked it and said it looked fine and my ex checked it twice and even showed me. It looked like normal oil. My ex was also questioning where the other charges would come from because number one the mechanic would already have to take off the water pump, timing belt, etc to get to the main source to fix it. So there shouldn't be any extra charges for labor on that if you already have to take that stuff off. When it would be time to put the new equipment on you would just replace the old with the new. My ex also had me go on auto zone and google water pump kits which only cost $111.99. So technically he would have only needed to add on $111.99 to the $1150. Then if there was a possibility of a cracked engine then you'd add on the $500. My ex asked me if the guy even took any of the parts off and did a check to which the guy didn't. He was just giving me an estimate off the top of his head. Which is pretty stupid. Until you actually take apart the parts and see the actual damage you really can't and shouldn't give someone an estimate. So my ex and I agreed we would go down there and talk to the man in person. When we got there I asked him if HE could show us that so called coolant in the oil and at that moment he looked at my ex and said yeah y'all can go look at it.
That's not what I meant though. I meant for HIM to walk out there with us and show us. When my ex came that morning he had me google what coolant in oil looks like and when I last saw the oil it looked nothing like what the pictures showed. It just looked liked regular dark oil. After going back and fourth the man basically flat out refused to fix it. Then my ex stepped in and let him know that we googled how much a water pump kit would cost and he let him know that there shouldn't be any extra charges for labor since you already have to take the parts off to get to the main source. He still refused and basically what it came down to was the mechanic didn't think it was worth it and didn't want to put the time into fixing the car. Since it's a 88 Camry you really don't know what other issues you might have once the head gasket and others were fixed and if the car would even run after that. Granted I can see that from his point of view and the money you would be putting in an old car like that to get it fixed you could use to buy another one. My issue with Walton's automotive is the guy flat out lied. There was no coolant in the oil and not only that he was trying to charge me more for labor.
He specifically stated the water pump, timing belt, etc would need to be replaced. Well we found the kit for $111.99 and he would already have to take those old parts off. Well when putting them back on he could just replace the old with new and there would be no extra charge for any labor or any higher costing parts. So it should not have been $1400 as he was trying to charge me. He also kept going on about it would be a liability to him because I could take him to court. I gave that man my word that I would not take him to court that I only wanted my car since out here in hillbilly land there is no public transportation. He still wouldn't budge and my ex asked him if we put it in writing about not taking him to court would that help and he still said no. I was leery about this place from the jump when the idiot couldn't even give me the address to the shop while I was on the phone with him. He could only give me the highway it's on lol. Well I'll do him one better and leave him negative feedback on yelp. The point is he was being dishonest and tried to gyp me and when confronted and called out about it then he flat out refused to fix my car. But funny on the phone when he told me about the $1400 and the $2000 amount he even stated he would still do the work and to let him know what I wanted to do.
Makes me wonder if he's just that dishonest or possibly dishonest and racist. read more
