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Mechanic issue

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hous

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? FL

FACTS:
-Car overheated.
-Charged 400 dollars for repairs they said I needed to fix the problem.
-I payed with credit card.
-Car overheated very next day within 24 hours of getting car back.


LONG STORY (May skip):
On Wednesday my car overeated, I poped the hood and both the radiator and coolant box was empty. I filled it up and got maybe 1 mile before I overheated again. Traveling on the Interstate I stoped at a rest stop, where I made phone calls on how to get home and fix my car so I could go back to school on Friday. 2 hours later I realized I had to get the car home even if I had to make frequent stops, I filled the radiator and retainer box and amazing made it home just fine with no problems at all.

The next morning i took it to a local mechanic shop and told them everything. They checked it out and said my "radiator was corroded" and if they cleaned it they would poke holes in it and make it worse, and I had a leak in the hose. They said that was the only problem but recommended me change the entire collant system. They charged me for a new radiator ($129) Flush the system (48.95), Pump lube (6.95), antifreeze (15.98), Hourly rate (7.50 X 21 = $157.50), heater hose (6.00), and a hose clamp (5.00).

The guy who worked for them drove me home and to pick up my car told me that the establishment is doing really really bad with getting customers in because of the economy and they are losing alot of buisness.

Now the reason Im here is because 2 days later and $400 poorer my car is having the same exact problem with my car overheating. I went to Autozone and they told me if the radiator was corroded then theres no reason why they replaced it because all they have to do is run water through it and that will remove the toughest rust. They said its probley just a simple thermastat issue which is a 9 dollar repair.






On my receipt it says
"OUR WARRANTY IS VOID IF OUR WORK IS TAMPERED WITH AND OR WORKED ON BY ANYONE BUT... (INSERT NAME HERE) WITHOUT OUR EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT.

I feel that I was obviously charged for car work I didnt need and they overlooked a significant detail. I want to fix my car but I dont want to work on my car myself because I fear it could terminate their warranty and disprove I was charged for uneeded car repairs.

What should I do?
 


hous

Junior Member
I was planning on putting a dispute pn the credit card charges and telling them to fix my car if they want to get paid. But I know they are going to want to charge me more money to fix the car and until tommorrow I wont know for sure.

If they refuse to fix my car they can sue me, can I fix my car through another mechanic or myself (Im pretty sure its the thermastat and easy to fix) or would that ruin my contract?

Also the establishment has two locations.
 

quincy

Senior Member
I am not a car person, but you seem to be waiting here for an answer, so I will give it a shot.

If your warranty says it is void if the car is worked on by anyone but them, take the car back to them and have the repairs done. If they fail to repair or refuse to repair, report them to the licensing bureau in Florida. If you are sure the other repairs made to your car were unnecessary, you can dispute the charges and they might reduce the amount. Or, again, you can report them to the licensing bureau.

Now wait for someone with actual car knowledge to post. :)
 

hous

Junior Member
I am not a car person, but you seem to be waiting here for an answer, so I will give it a shot.

If your warranty says it is void if the car is worked on by anyone but them, take the car back to them and have the repairs done. If they fail to repair or refuse to repair, report them to the licensing bureau in Florida. If you are sure the other repairs made to your car were unnecessary, you can dispute the charges and they might reduce the amount. Or, again, you can report them to the licensing bureau.

Now wait for someone with actual car knowledge to post. :)
I just had a moment of realization that I feel could save me abunch of money and it isnt on auto insurance. Sorry if thats corny I was literally in bed when I realized this.

A week prior I heard a boiling noice coming from my car and looked to see the antifreeze in the white container was boiling. It didnt overheat or anything and I took it into my same oil change place I always take it into. EXCEPT this time I asked them to look over the antifreeze system because I noticed the fluids were low. They looked at it for an hour and told me they noiced the radiator cap was damaged and charged me $15 to replace it. If I really had this so-called corrosion wouldn't they have noticed this? I still have the receipt and its literally just a week prior maybe less.
 

outonbail

Senior Member
I just had a moment of realization that I feel could save me abunch of money and it isnt on auto insurance. Sorry if thats corny I was literally in bed when I realized this.

A week prior I heard a boiling noice coming from my car and looked to see the antifreeze in the white container was boiling. It didnt overheat or anything and I took it into my same oil change place I always take it into. EXCEPT this time I asked them to look over the antifreeze system because I noticed the fluids were low. They looked at it for an hour and told me they noiced the radiator cap was damaged and charged me $15 to replace it. If I really had this so-called corrosion wouldn't they have noticed this? I still have the receipt and its literally just a week prior maybe less.
Well, first of all, what year is the vehicle and approx. how many miles are on it?

If the radiator was actually corroded any significant amount, I can assure you that running water through it will not clean it out and certainly not remove the toughest rust. Auto-zone does sell chemicals that will chemically boil out the radiator to a point. However, they are used while the radiator is in the vehicle and they actually are supposed to clean out the entire coolant system, through the engine block, the heater core and all the hoses. Personally I wouldn't recommend this fix, as the chemical can eat through more that you want it to if you don't get it flushed out completely. Also, it can loosen rust and corrosion from the walls of the block that can not pass all the way through the water jacket passageways in the block and orifices through to the heads. It can however clog up these passageways and make your problem worse than it was before you started flushing it.

You have to realize, that auto-zone and in fact most all parts store personnel, have experience selling parts, cross referencing them on the computer, answering the phone, and the usual counter person type of skills. They are not mechanics! In fact, my experience has shown that most of them even sell you the wrong parts about 30% of the time. So don't put too much faith into what you're told by anyone working the counter at auto-zone. If they were qualified mechanics they certainly wouldn't be whoring themselves working for auto-zone. (unless they were getting free merchandise out the back door)

The radiator shop should have all the equipment to check for leaks, check that there is not combustion or exhaust entering the coolant system and visa versa. Check the flow through the radiator etc. However, as much as I bad mouthed auto-zone, I am surprised that the shop installing the new radiator wouldn't have went ahead and installed a new thermostat at the same time. Because what you described as seeing boiling in the overflow tank, could be caused by a faulty thermostat. This is not guaranteed, but I would certainly have the shop replace it to be on the safe side. I don't think they should charge you the labor to do so since they just had everything removed and replacing it at that time would have only taken an extra five minutes at the most. (depending on the vehicle) So you shouldn't complain about having to pay for the part, but if they are a reputable shop, they should be willing to eat the labor. Especially since they failed to correct the problem.

Now, as far as the itemized list of parts and labor you posted, there are two things that bother me. One is the "water pump lube". Because this sounds like a fancy or sneaky way of describing Bars Leak. Which is stop leak.Because Bars leak does claim to have water pump lube in it and that factories install it in new vehicles blah blah blah. However, the shop did not install a new water pump, so I doubt the one in your vehicle required lube. If it wasn't pumping properly, all the lube in the world will not bring it back to life.
However, if they weren't sure if there was an internal leak of some sort, they may have used the Bars Leak as a band aid type of fix. I certainly can't say from where I'm sitting, but it just seems funny that they would need to put stop leak in the system if they didn't find any leaks.
The second think that I find absolutely ridiculous, is the hourly rate this shop is charging. The counter people at auto-zone are making more than seven fifty an hour. Are these guy about a hundred years behind the rest of the country on labor rates or what?
Now they do make up for it somewhat in the amount of hours they charge for completing the job, as 21 hours to do this work is about double what it should take a one armed mechanic without pneumatic tools. So the whole hourly rate/labor charge part of the bill sounds flaky, which would have me questioning the overall professionalism and skill of this shop.
Again, this is just an observation, they may be top NASCAR pit crew mechanics for all I know. But out here, you will have a hard time finding a mom and pop type of repair shop that charges less than fifty dollars an hour and you don't even want to know what Mercedes, BMW and Lexus dealerships charge for an hourly rate.

I suggest you bring it back to the shop that didn't get it right and ask them about the thermostat, the water pump lube and if they actually checked to see that no exhaust is entering the coolant system and see what they are willing to do to make the situation right. You can mention that they could be paying a towing bill if you had gone that route when it overheated.

A couple of things you should check yourself,

Is there water in the motor oil? Pull dipstick and see if it looks muddy or light chocolate color. If so, you've got a leak between the water jacket and oil galley somewhere. Could be a water pump housing or mounting flange, a bad head gasket, cracked heads or all of the above.
Is there any water coming out of the exhaust? Visually look at the tail pipe and see if there is any water dripping from it while the engine is running. If so, you've got a bad head gasket, cracked heads or both.
Is the floorboard carpet wet around the front passenger area? If so, you have a bad heater core.
Start the engine without the radiator cap in place. Carefully look into the radiator and see if the water is bubbling up or constantly rising and lowering or if there is any exhaust gasses coming out. If so, probably a cracked head.

One last thing, the radiators in new vehicles usually have plastic tanks. This makes repairing them or "rodding them out" almost obsolete. The radiators with brass tanks can be removed, rods pushed through the passageways to clean out the corrosion, then the tanks soldered back together again. The radiators with the plastic tanks, have them crimped together. While they can have some success un-crimping and then re-crimping them the first time around, most shops will no guarantee that the radiator will not leak when they're done. This is why most just replace the radiator rather than take a chance on it leaking.
Also it isn't always possible to see the corrosion or how clogged the core is by looking into the tank since the sediment falls to the bottom and the lower tubes are the first to clog up.

Hope all this information helps, this is starting to sound like an automotive advice forum.....
 

outonbail

Senior Member
Forgot to mention a couple of things in the last novel.
Please post exactly what the make, model and year of the vehicle in question is. Some vehicles have a certain process that needs to be followed in order to bleed the air from the system and get them completely filled with coolant.

Also, does it have electric fans, or a clutch fan run off the water pump?

Some vehicles also have a front spoiler or air scoop type of arrangement that directs air up and through the radiator when it is traveling at highway speeds. If this is damaged or torn off the front lower bumper area, the vehicle will overheat when driving on a highway or over 55 miles per hour for long distances. However, it may not overheat when driving on residential roads or at speeds less than 45 MPH.

This is why I'm asking for the make, model and year.
 

hous

Junior Member
Forgot to mention a couple of things in the last novel.
Please post exactly what the make, model and year of the vehicle in question is. Some vehicles have a certain process that needs to be followed in order to bleed the air from the system and get them completely filled with coolant.

Also, does it have electric fans, or a clutch fan run off the water pump?

Some vehicles also have a front spoiler or air scoop type of arrangement that directs air up and through the radiator when it is traveling at highway speeds. If this is damaged or torn off the front lower bumper area, the vehicle will overheat when driving on a highway or over 55 miles per hour for long distances. However, it may not overheat when driving on residential roads or at speeds less than 45 MPH.

This is why I'm asking for the make, model and year.
Its a 93' Honda Civic.

And it overheats if I go over 30 it seems.

That kind of sucks that I can't prove I didnt have radiator corrosion.

Thx for the advice, Ill call them within the hour.

EDIT:

just got off the phone with them and told them I have the same problem. They told me to bring the car down and they will check it out. I asked if I would be expected to pay for any repairs and they said yes $78 for a new thermostat. I told them I feel I was already charged a $400 for auto repairs I obviously didnt need and she immediatly told me to bring the car in and they will look at it for no cash.

I think this is fishy...

Im going to hold my credit card transaction with them for the time being.
 
Last edited:

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