I don't know if any of you are located in the Los Angeles Area, but from you guys' experience I'd like your opinion on a course of action I should take.
I'm 19 years old, and the 96 accord lx coupe is my first car.
I noticed my car was idling funny, and it wasn't running as well as it had been. I took it to the Honda dealership of Santa Monica, and I wanted a diagnostic and oil change with the vehicle considering it was a Honda dealer, and that's all they do, so i trusted them to know what they were doing.

Oil change was fine, but then they found a whole slew of things wrong with my car. Ok, understandable, its 12 years old.
-new front brakes
-resurface rotors
-replace timing belt
-replace front motor mount
-oil on spark plugs, possible internal oil leak
-power steering fluid dirty

The quote for all the work was something ridiculous in the neighborhood of 1200 or 1500, which is half what i paid for the car in the first place.
I took the quote back home, decided not to do any work to the car for the time being, and mulled on whether to sell it or not.

My friend is a civic driver, and has a little souped up civic he likes to zip around in. He told me to take my car to his friends work, and he could get the work done that needed to be done for way less than the dealership. He works at a national brake master place.

Anyways, I told the mechanic what was wrong with the car, and he said ok, they'll do brake and valve cover gasket and rotors and check on all the things the dealership said was wrong with the car.

my mechanic friend found that the rotors were so far down they had a lip, that it is illegal to resurface the rotors when they are this thin, and that i definately needed to replace my front rotors. There was no way he could resurface them. He showed me the rotors of a car next station over as well as mine. He said he could check the timing belt when he replaces the valve cover gasket.
I went to lunch and come back a few hours later, and he said the timing belt was fine, there were no cracks.

So basically, I feel cheated and that they aren't doing their job completely because the dealership said all this stuff was wrong with my car, and it makes me feel like they didn't even check it out completely considering they didn't know the rotor was that low, yet they said it needed to be resurfaced, they didn't find my burnt out turn signal although a fluid / brake and turn light / check comes with the oil change.

I'm unsure what to do, should I write a letter or an email? Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

If the rotors/brakes were that bad then they were correct to advise replacement, the front motor mount may very well be bad, the oil in the spark plug tubes isn't actually a problem with the valve cover gasket it's 2 sets of 4 little spark plug tube o-rings (look in our DIY section for exact pictures/instructions of what's required) the power steering fluid needs replaced periodically so that doesn't suprise me and the timing belt might look just fine but if it has never been done and you're over 100k miles then it needs to be done asap EVEN IF it looks ok.... if that belt is weak and breaks then you're going to ruin a LOT of stuff in that motor because it's an interferance engine (the piston will hit the valves if the belt breaks)....

My opinion is that they did tell you acuratley what was wrong and chances are they have tools or equipment to check the rotors and see if they are in fact to thin or not, they noticed they were bad and said they need to be resurfaced (which is true) if they do in fact turn out to be to thin they would notify you at that time.... The price they wanted to charge you is consistent with what a dealership would charge, of course it's high they're a certified dealership, the fact that some guy said the timing belt isn't cracked it's fine scares me, and if all he replaced was the valve cover gasket and not the spark plug tube o-rings then he didnt' fix a dang thing.... It sounds to me like he's not used to honda motors, my guess would be that he's great with domestic cars but doesn't know about the tolerances or specifications of a Honda.... So long story short, the dealership probably was correct in giving you a list of problem areas that need to be checked on your car, and chances are they didn't charge you for an inspection... So basically if they had done what most places do you would have gotten your oil changed, never known that there was a problem with anything and driven it like things were fine until your timing belt randomly snapped or your brakes failed to grab and you got in an accident, they (from the sounds of it) went above and beyond what was asked and didn't charge you anything extra, that's good business.... are they expensive? sure, they're a dealership....

Doesn't sound like you got cheated, it sounds like they prevented an accident, and the timing belt, if it hasn't been done before and you are over 100k I don't care how it looks replace it or risk the motor that's up to you....

 

Thank you for your reply. That makes me feel a lot better. Would you advise replacing the spark plugs since they had oil on them? I'll check out the DIY section regarding the o rings, or should I just bring it back to where I had the work done and request they do that as well?

I don't know the etiquette of getting car work done and looked after.

 

the oil in the spark plug tubes shouldn't affect the spark plugs that much since the electode part should be clean, if you feel comfortable doing the work yourself (check out the DIY section) that's what I would do, brakes, most any place can do that just fine... As far as having them do the work I may suggest finding a local mechanic that is honda specific and just show him the quote and ask his opinion/price for the repairs and you may be able to get the same quality of work at a fraction of the cost, insit on genuine honda oem timing belt (if you get that done) and have the seals/waterpump done at the same time (it's cheaper and safer to do it all at once)... I almost always suggest doing the work yourself since it saves a ton of money but if you can't then just find a reputable place for honda's and be honest with them, you're shoping for a mechanic, if they don't want to deal with you or brush you off/rub you the wrong way then don't use them because they don't deserve your business

 

I live in an apartment complex and the extent of my DIY is limited with cars. All work is done at night after work/school in my alley under a streetlight and worklight running off an extension cord through my window. It's kind of difficult to do things myself, so the simpler jobs I can do myself, but with full time job and a full load of classes it's easiest to just get it done somewhere.

Have you heard of anyone getting garage time to work? or what about autoshop at a community college?

Thanks for your help. If you ever need an I.T. solution... I'm a 19 year old sysadmin...

I do computers and robotics competitions... not really cars...

 

Well I'm not much older than you but I'm an IT manager/Customer Service Manager myself *L* cars are kind of my fun thing I started working on when I was young because I couldn't afford a mechanic.... I don't know about your area but I do know that if you're in college usually they have a shop program, if they do you may be able to use the facility or talk someone in there into taking on your car as a "project" and letting you help....

 

$1500 isn't bad for where you live considering that the timing job is $700, front brakes about $300, front mount is about $200, valve cover gasket set is $135, PS fluid change is about $100, plus tax and shop supplies...yeah it's about right... I'd pay it just not to have the hassle of doing it

 

The quote was just for timing belt and brakes, not the other stuff.

 

WOW! I guess I missed that.... if that quote was for just a timing belt and brakes that's WAYYYY to high....

 

tell them for that price you better be getting some "action" on the side :P