Have you ever been screwed by a wrench?

[cantdrv55]

Taken, that is, by a P-car mechanic. You don't have to name names if you don't want, just let us know how and what happened. I'll start.

Took my SC to have the idle/timing, air/fuel adjustment made because it would stall during cold mornings. Left it with the wrench for a couple of days. When I picked it up, it ran like a champ...until the following weekend. The next time I started it up, it smoked bad. I mean billowy smoke coming out of the engine lid. Turned out to be siezed up smog pump.

Easy enough fix, I bought a remanufactured one on-line. Next week, I talked to the wrench about another thing and he asked me how my car was running, specifically the smog pump?! I didn't put 2 and 2 together until he asked me that question. I can't prove it but I'm pretty sure dude booby trapped my car.

[john walker's workshop]

got an oil change and the next day the tire was flat! bastard!

[island911]

By a wrench? No. But one time at BandCamp. ...



Surely this screw-thread does not belong on the Tech board.

[Jims5543]

Called a shop to do a valve adjustment. Asked for a quote first. They quoted $300. Seemed fair.

Then they called and wanted to know if I wanted the plugs changed since they had to be pulled anyway. I said yes.

The bill when I picked it up was $700.....

I will be doing my own valve adjustments from now on.

[Zeke]

Originally posted by cantdrv55
Taken, that is, by a P-car mechanic. You don't have to name names if you don't want, just let us know how and what happened. I'll start.

Took my SC to have the idle/timing, air/fuel adjustment made because it would stall during cold mornings. Left it with the wrench for a couple of days. When I picked it up, it ran like a champ...until the following weekend. The next time I started it up, it smoked bad. I mean billowy smoke coming out of the engine lid. Turned out to be siezed up smog pump.

Easy enough fix, I bought a remanufactured one on-line. Next week, I talked to the wrench about another thing and he asked me how my car was running, specifically the smog pump?! I didn't put 2 and 2 together until he asked me that question. I can't prove it but I'm pretty sure dude booby trapped my car.

Come on...

Originally posted by john walker's workshop
got an oil change and the next day the tire was flat! bastard!

Funny.

[Zef]

Was screwed by a lot of thing...but not a wrench yet...

[john walker's workshop]

let the ladies answer this one.

[joe payne]

You're mechanic most likely could tell the smog pump was on it's way out. Just ask him. He could have done alot worse by you.

[Rot 911]

I'm my own mechanic and I can testify I have inadvertently screwed myself more than a few times.

[MattAlpha]

I'm with Kurt on this one.

Though a wrench did rip my wife off when I was deployed and she was pregnant with our first kid. He said the car needed an entire brake job. So when I got the email, I was leary, but the wrench had come highly recommended. So I told her to go through with it. She let the wrench do the work the next week and was charged $1800 for new pads, rotors and a brake fluid flush. I was very angry that she got charged so much, but there wasn't much I could do at sea. Two months later I got home and looked at the car. The pads had been replaced, front rotors had been replaced. Rears were still original and brake fluid didn't look new to me. To make matters worse the right front caliper was now sticking. I was furious, but it was past the month window that I could claim the work wasn't done properly. To make matters worse my wife had been driving this Grand Cherokee for two months like that. Very frustrating. Now if I do not do the work, I only take her Jeep to a 5 star dealership that I've already checked out. We haven't had a problem since.

-Matt

[Evans, Marv]

I thought you said "wench."

[island911]

BaDum Chinnnng....

[Jeremy Cottrell]

I left a wrench on my drivers seat once, but I saw it and didn't sit down.

[Moses]

When I was starting my 3.6 adventure, I found a nice low miles euro Varioram motor that I agreed to buy from Harald Julicher (Speedster98) for $10,000. My mechanic, let's call him Wayne Hynes (because that's his real name) insisted that I give him the money and he would handle the transaction. Months later there was still no motor. Wayne insisted that the motor was in his garage at home and he was prepping it for install. I found out later that he had no motor and the money was gone. He was looking for a cheap older 3.6 to put in my car.

I emailed Harald to find out exactly when he shipped my motor. I found out my mechanic had never sent him my money, so Harald had sold the motor to Steve Timmins. I called Dr. Timmins and he graciously agreed to sell me the motor for the original $10,000 price. I was able to recover the money for my engine.

Wayne Hynes is no longer in business in our area.

More on Mr. Hynes here;

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8771&highlight=Hynes

[dentist90]

Anybody else like to get their old parts back, just to see them?
I always like to see the worn parts before they're trashed... mostly just to learn a bit more about things automotive. My shop here knows me well enough that they know I'm not questioning the need to repair, just learning. I can imagine some mechanics could get quite defensive about it. I wouldn't trust that mechanic.

[LakeCleElum]

It's only been 3 years. I have to calm down for awhile before I can talk about. Was a Seattle shop, but not JW....

[Kevin Stewart]

Me to the wrench at the porsche dealers ship drained my power steering fluid and put gear lube got busted, no more porsche dealer ship, i guess that was a typical practice for the wrench to sabatage cars, i have a letter from porsche stating they closed them , no regrets, Kevin

[cantdrv55]

Originally posted by joe payne
You're mechanic most likely could tell the smog pump was on it's way out. Just ask him. He could have done alot worse by you.

A good mechanic should tell you if he thinks something may be going bad. This guy didn't mention anything about the smog pump until the week after. That's what made me suspicious.

[kstar]

Does a lubeless, multiple wrench screwing qualify?

Can you say "California Proven"?

I knew you could.

Best,

Kurt

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by joe payne
You're mechanic most likely could tell the smog pump was on it's way out. Just ask him. He could have done alot worse by you.

Ahhh, I am a aircraft mechanic and have more than a little bit of experience with air cooled engines and might dispute the above statement a bit...

Mechanics are not Superman. We do not have x-ray vision and cannot tell when something is "getting ready to go out." If the pump was making noises when the wrench was working on it then he should have mentioned something but come-on guys, these cars are over 20 years old and the air pumps were a band-aid fix then, not a highly engineered device even when it was new.

Joe

PS, I HAVE been screwed by a wrench. It was way back in the 1970's when we took our second airplane into the shop for an annual inspection. The other owner and myself did ALL of the grunt work, pulling all of the interior and covers off of everything so that the mechanic just had to look inside and inspect everything.

The normal bill in a case like this should have been $400 or so at the most. Our bill came to be $1200, showing loads of extra labor that they could not really explain but we could not do anything about it and had to pay. I enrolled in aircraft mechanics school 9 months later so I could do my own work legally. Never treated anyone like this jerk did...