We asked our readers earlier this week to share their worst experiences with a mechanic. The responses featured independent shops, manufacturer service centers and a few confessions of incompetence. Beyond the thread of botched repair, there were also plenty of mechanics who squeezed every dollar they could out of customers without any other option. Without further ado, here are your worst mechanic stories:
I had my X5 at the body shop for repairs (I was sideswiped by a semi on the way to a toll booth) and after doing a great job fixing the passenger side rear quarter bodywork, the shop handed me back the key with a dead body. They claimed they didn’t know how to replace the battery, despite having the ability to take a complex car apart and put it back together again.
I went home, popped open a new pack of 2032 batteries, and replaced the one in my remote in less than 60 seconds, just like every car key battery I have replaced over the past decade. It had me scratching my head a bit.
Submitted by: oddseth
There is a reason Sears Auto is no longer and this is just one of the reasons:
It’s 1988ish and I’m driving an ‘81 Audi GT Coupe. I’ve got 2 jobs and I commute to college so I don’t have time to do the more serious wrenching on the car. So, I go to the local Sears Auto Center to have new struts and alignment done as they had late evening hours that worked for me and the struts and associate installation were on sale. I go sit in their cold waiting room (its November in Northern NJ) while they get the job done. Literally closing up behind me after I’ve paid.
So I’m driving home and the car feels really weird like the front end keeps moving around on me. I can’t go back because they’re closed but when I get home, I look underneath and can see that one lower control arm was not bolted tightly and was moving back and forth. Next morning I jack the car up and there were 2 bolts on a fixed plate however I realize that they had stripped one and left the other hand tight.
I ran to the Audi dealer and got the new part, bolted it in properly to roughly where it was supposed to be.
I took it back to them to complain and they just shrugged.
Submitted by: Monsterajr
My family generally doesn’t go to mechanics because we don’t need to, but my parents had a new (at the time) Ford truck with a warranty, so may as well, right? It had a simple problem: anytime we drove it, there was a strong smell of burning axle grease coming from the rear wheels. Took it in multiple times, to several different dealers, and they ALWAYS said “we don’t smell anything.” The smell was always there, so the only way to miss it would be if they never took it on a test drive to begin with.
Finally, the warranty expires, so now it’s time to fix it ourselves. Take the rear wheels off, and the entire left side of the axle is completely encased in burnt grease. The seal was blown. If they had spent even 5 minutes looking at the truck, they would’ve found this out. Simply sliding under it and shining a flashlight would’ve revealed the problem.
This is to say nothing of the other idiocy from these dealers. This was a long bed, king cab, dually F-350 we bought specifically for heavy farm use. So what did they give us for a loaner each time? A fucking Fiesta. Just unbelievable incompetence at every level.
Submitted by: Garland - Last Top Comment on Splinter
Obviously, this is the opposite but since I had not seen the question posed, I wanted to share anyways. My 2002 Honda Accord’s transmission went during a long drive home from a failed attempt at “spreading my wings” and “making it on my own”. It was almost adding insult to injury as my ass Charlie Brown walked (drove) back home. In the Tejon Pass, the transmission gave and wouldn’t shift. I basically had 2 choices: pray I can get a tow and pay an ungodly amount to do so, or, since the trans is fried anyway, try to limp it to the edge of LA so it’s closer to a AAA/insurance-approved shop.
I chose the latter. I decided to call my mechanic at Laguna Woods Auto Repair in Orange County, CA. They’d been working on all my family’s cars, and my aunt/uncle’s cars, for decades and were very helpful. Darryl stayed on the phone with me for like 40min while I cursed and winced my way through the pass. Once my 2nd gear had been ground down to what I would imagine is a fine dust, the car came to a halt close enough to a shop that I could have it towed. The car sat for like a week before they saw the car’s transmission was under the Honda recall anyways, so I was able to get it towed to a dealership and replaced for free. All in all, that car was put through a lot of abuse and survived, but having a good mechanic to help out is always a good insurance policy.
Submitted by: Ac_slater
I don’t know where to begin. My mechanic tends to be lazy and puts off work. They get frustrated and make up new and exciting curse words. Jobs tend to take longer than expected due to needing to make parts and tool runs every five seconds, despite significant planning ahead of time. At least the end result usually ends up good.
...wait, that’s me.
Submitted by: MP81
Years ago I joined a business networking group where all the small business owners were there to look out for each other and help find referrals. One of the guys owned a local repair shop and I had already done some reduced-cost work for him since we were in the business group. Then one day I took my wife’s otherwise running-perfectly-fine-car there to get something minor done (I can’t recall; maybe a brake job) and the guy called me with this “Oh, man, this car needs a lot of stuff; it’s not safe to drive” call telling me it needs a new exhaust, tires, CV joints, all 4 brakes, and on an on up to a $4,400 estimate on a 4-year-old Civic. Just proved me me that so many of them are snakes, even the ones that pretend to be your friend/colleague.
Submitted by: ReluctantFloridaMan
Roughly 5 years ago I swapped the front struts on my Aurora. Outlined the old struts on the towers, marked the knuckles, that way it would still be driveable until I could get it realigned. After putting in the new ones it was definitely off, so I called my local Mavis, set up an appointment, explained to the manager the alignment points, everything seemed fine. Over an hour later car comes back from the test drive looking like a ballerina on it toes. I look at the young tech and simply say “no”. “But it tracks straight!” Manager comes out, looks at it and also says “No”. He takes the car back, apologizes after the camber is fixed and gives me a discount. It was that bad.
Submitted by: Drg84
I had a ‘78 Granada that I was having alignment issues with. I was working construction and didn’t have time in the summer to work on the car myself so I dropped it off at an alignment shop and asked for them to diagnose the issue. They called and said it was done, and by the time I got home the tires were howling on turns again. Repeat 3 more times at 3 different alignment shops with the same result. I decided that the local Ford dealer should be able to figure it out so I explained the issue. I asked them to diagnose the issue and quote repairs, but not do the alignment. They called and said it was done. They had “aligned” it with no other problems found. By the time I got it home the tires were scrubbing again. At that point, I took a day off, and pulled the car into the garage. Jacked it up, took off the tires and started looking for the problem. Quite quickly found that the factory weld on the subframe to the lower control arm mounting bracket had broken, so under cornering it would move. Occasionally it would move back to where it was supposed to be and it would be OK until I pushed it hard in a turn. I ground off the broken weld, and pulled out the welder and welded the bracket back to the subframe. Did the other side as well just in case. Aligned the car myself and never had another issue.
Submitted by: Cal67
I foolishly fell for a transmission shop’s pitch and let them try to fix our 95 Escort’s transaxle. They screwed up and had to eat two rebuilds, which still left us with a cursed transaxle that stumped a dealer until we did what we should have done and replaced it. The replacement transaxle never gave us trouble. Apart from the cursed transaxle and the harmonic damper failing every 58,000 miles it was a reliable car.
Submitted by: Slow Joe Crow
I replaced the steering rack struts control arms tie rods and entire braking system on my wife’s V70 and called a local place for an alignment, $99 they say 1hr or so, I drop it off in the am walk to work and come back at 4 to pick it up. They hand over the bill $425.00 umm what ?? oh the tie rods were really seized in place and we had to heat them up, and then the inner ones had too much play so we replaced them. Hmmm okay can I get those parts as they were brand new and want to claim the warranty on them, much talking and grunting from the back and I notice that the invoice states brakes need doing immediately ‘safety issue’ The ‘owner’ comes out and hands me some rusty things that are my tie rods, I have my invoice and show them that they were new and I refuse to pay. They grumble and say they must have confused my car with somebody else’s I pay the bill - they added $30 in shop supplies and drive off- the thing is just as bad to drive so I take it elsewhere, $125 and it was out 3mm on one side I tried a chargeback but they disputed it so I let it go- before the days of online reviews, I did see that the place got a new name about 3 years later though
Submitted by: sklooner
Honestly, mine likely pale in comparison to most.
I had an independent mechanic split a boot on a tie rod end when replacing a half axle and not take responsibility for it. That only cost a couple bucks and a few minutes of my time to fix myself, so not too bad.
Another mechanic cracked the oil cap tightening it down too hard (thankfully nothing fell in). They admitted it and said they would replace it if it leaked (it did), but it was faster and easier for me to just get a cap myself and send them the bill.
Worst was probably when I took my current Fusion in for airbag replacement under recall - mechanic tore the leather in the driver’s seat at a seam. Took no responsibility for it and OEM parts were no longer available (car was 16 years old at the time). They wouldn’t cover aftermarket leather, either. Still have that tear to the day.
On the other end, my current independent mechanic is awesome. Not the cheapest, but ALWAYS fair and honest. Recommend him to everyone. One coworker took his car there for a timing belt change. A few days later, the car died driving down the road. Did it again shortly after that, and they had it towed back to the shop. Mechanic thought he must have made a mistake. Turned out to be coincidence - mouse got into the car, chewed up the air filter, and a piece of the filter was blocking the MAF sensor. Not the mechanics fault... but he didn’t charge for the diagnosis or fix, and even offered to pay for the tow out of goodwill (he knows coincidental issues like that can reflect on the shop, even when the owner knows it wasn’t anything but a coincidence).
The problem now is that I recommend him to everyone and its getting harder and harder to actually get in to the shop when needed.
Submitted by: Shortyoh
Oh boy. After breaking my back mountain biking, I decided to focus on 4-wheeled fun and bought my “dream” car. I can’t specify what it was (thanks to legal proceedings) but it was older, Italian, and a fun little coupe. I spent 5 years rebuilding things as money allowed (engine/transmission sent to a specialist, body sent to a specialist) and when I got most of it back together, I sent the car to one of the best shops in my half of the US for the finishing touches. I was quoted 4 months and “no more” than $12,000.
While the car was there, communication was horrendous. But I tried to take it all in stride and other than requests for updates every once and a while, I never lost my cool. Even after I had to remind them, for the 3rd time, what I wanted them to do. Well, 4 years later I finally got my car back.
It was a mess. On the first drive, the shift knob fell off in my hands, the gas gauge failed, and someone hailed me down to tell me my brake/tail lights were out. On my second drive, my front wheel almost fell off. What’s worse, they didn’t do much of what was agreed (hidden Bluetooth radio) and did a bunch I didn’t ask for (turned aluminum trim). At this point, I made the mistake of adding up all my invoices....$43,000.
Now I lost my cool. I sent the car back to them to fix what was needed and made them promise it would be back in 2 months. 3 months later I got it back after paying another $2,300. Idiot, I know.
Still, the car was a mess. The reverse lights wouldn’t work, the parking brake wouldn’t work, the brake booster was still bad (I had asked them to replace it when I dropped it off 5 years earlier.) I called them to ask if there was anyone they knew who wanted to buy the car. I was done, the juju was all bad and I couldn’t afford to fix the issues they never did. The owner offered to take the car back, for free, to make things right. Against my better judgment, I agreed and loaded it on a trailer (at his expense) to go back to him.
The 3-month promise came and went, and after 5 months I got a message from the owner telling me he was heartbroken. He had been told about a forum post in which I had outlined my experiences. It was not a bashing on them, just an honest accounting of the good and bad (they did do some things right).
He refused to interact with me after that even though he still had the car. I’ll skip some details, but I ended up needing to hire a lawyer to get my car back and have them fix (some) of what they promised. Luckily I keep all records and despite them trying numerous times to make me look like a goon, I had proof that all tomfoolery was on them. The car came back to me, plus a bit of cash. I fixed the rest myself and ended up selling the car for a huge loss.
Submitted by: SantaCruzin6