phanatic21

Ok so my water pump was going bad, spilling coolant out right into the alternator, so I say what the heck and purchased a timing belt, alternator, thermostat, and everything needed to do a tune up.

I put the shop in the car on Friday morning, and by 5 p.m. I was told my car was the first on the list for the following morning.

Saturday they spent the day doing the water pump and timing belt. He said he'll finish the tune up tomorrow. This is were everything started to go to hell.

Sunday I call and call and call. Around 8 p.m. I decide to call again and he picks up the phone saying he didn't go to work because he was tired. WTF?! He assured me it would be done by Monday afternoon.

Monday I spend the whole day calling and when he finally picks up, he says he didn't go in till late so the car isn't complete. At this point I question his professionalism and stated he could at least called and let me know about his late arrival. Once again assures me the car will be done the next day.

Tuesday after work I go over and the hood is still up, he's screwing stuff back together. He pulls the car out the show and says the coolant leaking is runoff from when he cleared the cooling system of air.

Wednesday on the way to work the temperature gauge starts going past the halfway mark, so during the work day I pick up two containers of coolant figuring i'd top it off with one bottle and keep the other as a spare. I poured one and a half bottles in before it reached the top of the radiator.

I didn't drive at all on Thursday, so this morning I pour another two containers of coolant in the radiator so I can get to work. At this point i've spent forty dollars on coolant in the last three days, so as soon as I was done work I decided to take a peek under the hood. This "mechanic" left a bolt out of the water pump. I tell him about it and he tries to say that all bolts were replaced properly. That's weird because I've never seen a hole with threads in it on a car that didn't have some sort of screw or bolt to go into it.

I'm going to do a search and find out what size bolt goes there, replace it myself, and if it is still leaking i'll just take it to a Toyota dealership.

I try to give the little man some business but this half *** attempt at a water pump replacement has only made me want to shy away from lesser know "mechanics".

STRTORPTR

Sucks to hear.

This is why I always research shops and at the very least have ASE-certified techs work on my car.

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

there are many good shade tree mechanics you just have to find one that doesn't suck

ihiryu

iTrader: (7)

I will say this as a mechanic, anyone can get ASE certification. When I took my test there was an older woman in her sixties taking the test with me. It only takes two years of experience to get the patch, and schooling is counted as a single year, and working a desk job can be passed off as being another year of experience.

Just wanted to put that out there.

ThomasGS4

iTrader: (19)

I only take my SC to Sewell

parnzen

couldnt go in cuz he was tired? what kind of shop is he running?

phanatic21

Update.

I took the front valve cover and timing belt cover off and the two water pump screws that are behind the belt were hand tight. Got those wrenched down, ran the car with the radiator cap off to clear the air out, and now my temperature has held steady and no more coolant under the hood.

Anthony85

You need to find a mechanic who specializes in toyota's only for simple and major issues with your car...

trackball

Sounds like you got straightened out in the end. The guy "doesn't go nuts with overtime work on his weekend, and when he does get the work done, it's kind of sloppy but non-catastrophic" doesn't really qualify as a horror story compared to some of the nasty mechanic / repair tales I've heard.

To me, him not phoning when there were delays to an agreed deadline is a worse offense than his sloppy workmanship. Time for a new mechanic, and you now have a good story to tell when advising friends and family with Toyota products to avoid his shop.