<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face=" Arial, Verdana, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ben:
HI gregsmahoney;
I just happen to be an auto mechanic that loves to read this stuff.
If you give me a lot more info I can give you my opinion.
What type of car?
year, model, engine,
Did you have an antifreese leak?
Do you have the "old parts" ?
What did the dealer say the bad part was?
With the info from your post either or both could be full of it.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
ben: 1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT. It all started with my needing a new water pump. Local independent garage said they could do it. I suggested they put a new timing belt on it while they were at it. They did. I picked the car up the next day and it seemed fine. About 3 days later the car was stalling, very rough idle, very poor acceleration. Engine made lots of noise. I knew I needed a new battery anyway so while I was at it I bought and installed the new battery. I called the garage and told them how the car was running. They said that I needed to run it for 50 to 60 miles to allow the onboard computer to reset, a Mitsubishi thing. After about 100 miles it still would not run right and was getting no better. The garage said maybe I needed to clean the throttle plate. I cleaned it, drove another 50 miles, no improvement. I called the garage. They said the computer would have to be reset by the dealer because they did not have the equipment to do it. I took it to the dealer. They said it had jumped time because the auto-tensioner on the timing belt was not adjusted properly and now had to be replaced, timing reset, and possibly I had bent valves because the timing had jumped 5 teeth (they determined later that the valves were okay). I called the local garage. They did not answer so I left a detailed message about what was going on. They didn't call me back so I told the dealer to go ahead and fix it. The dealer claims the work they did was necessary because of the mistakes made by the local garage. About the time the dealer was finishing up, the local garage finally called me back and said if I had the car towed to their location, they would make it right. By now it was too late. The local garage said they would not pay for someone else to fix it and they would have fixed it if I would have brought it back to them. If you read the earlier part of this message, you will see that that is what I tried to do but they told me I needed to take it to the dealer. Now I have paid both the local garage and the dealer for the same work. I think the local garage should admit their mistake and at a minimum refund their labor cost to me. By the way, now the car runs GREAT, better than it has in years!
