A complaint to the BBB would also be warranted...

 

I spent 8 hours working on her truck. It actually has 136K miles. She confirmed that she has owned it since new and the plugs had never been changed. 6 of 8 plugs broke. Used up all the washers in my Lisle tool; have to see if I can find more. I charged her $360- half of what the dealership would have charged for the plugs plus $40 to R&R the VCT solenoids and clean the throttle body and MAF sensor.

Recommended the following:
Replace the 4x4 vacuum solenoid with the new, hooded style.
R&R the front O2 sensors
Check the FPDM for corrosion and R&R as required.

Also found a recall on ETIS for the wiring harness, clockspring to airbag. Told her to take it to Ford and they will do it for free.

Other than that, her truck runs great. Still boggles my mind that a shop told her she needed a new motor @ $6K, or was going to steal her truck for $1500.

 

Good on you VTX! Most people aren't lucky enough to have friends like you!

Sounds like a shop that didn't want to do their jobs so they figured if they gave a bad enough diagnosis she'd give up on it! Had a dealership tell me I needed a new cat when all that had happened was one of their technicians had cross threaded and stripped the bolts that connect the manifold and cat. Hard to trust some mechanics these days.

 

You're a good man!

 

Perhaps not, if it were just one item, but it appears they did it on several items and then tied to an offer to take it off her hands. That adds the criminal intent to the equation. I have had friends sock it to a garage/dealership for similar. At minimum it was severe negligence on the part of their "trained" staff.

 

I worked on it Friday and she didn't get the seals for the VCT solenoids till Sat morning. I just put them in on my way home from work and took her truck out for a test drive. 5 minutes into the drive I had a bad misfire.... at least one dead cylinder. I 'bout crapped.

I limped it back to my truck and put my code reader on it. Cylinder 4 coil open circuit. I texted her and told her she had a bad coil and would need to replace it. Even at my discounted prices this has been expensive for her. She replied "UGH!". Told her I was going to swap coils around to see if the code followed the coil to verify the problem. Went to disconnect the electrical on #4 and found that I had not clipped it all the way down. DOH!!!! Secured the wire, started it and it runs like a new engine.

Moral: always check your work and test drive when done!

 

Wow. Sad but true, most shops are ****. I am a "shade tree" mechanic and do all my own work for this reason. Rather, I had my '93 tbird and brought it in for alignment and had to show the techs what bolts they did not tighten down

Also have had people do brake stands with my cars or bump the stereo, or tell me how fast my vehicles are