Lets hear your story. Have you ever gone to the mechanics shop only to find that your 3rd gen has been scratched, dented, upholstery ripped or stained in oil, stuff taken out of the glove box?

Well in my case, back in the early week of April, I had my IROC in the shop. I was getting a tranny put in. So on Easter Sunday of 2010, a 7.2 earthquake struck (Easter Earthquake of 2010). As the shop opened on monday at around 8:00 am, I checked on my IROC because I knew the Camaro was on jackstands. To my amazement, these 4 jackstands had my IROC about 1 & 1/2 feet off the ground. I looked under to see if there was any damage underneath. As I looked, the passengerside had slid and was barely gripping by about half an inch. If the earthquake would of shakin in a north and south direction, my IROC would of fallen sideways into a metal shelf full of repair manuals and car parts. Talk about luck. Wanna see how powerful the quake was?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeB-e3yBIho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVjYZnxIXaQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQXRZ...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFT21...EE49088D81BD67

And here is me and my youngest at 1:07 and 2:32
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbrMtIgSg_M

 

man i got to watching more earthquake vids, and i'm glad i live in texas. tornadoes are somewhat more more avoidable and easier to pinpoint. if your car's not mobile, it's still safer here than in cali. i've seen tornadoes over my back fence. had another one hit my neighbor, jump me and hit my other neighbor. so pretty much been as close as possible and still came out alright.

 

was at sams club getting new tires installed on my trans am. I was sitting in the waiting room when i hear my gta with gmmg exhaust getting reved very high about 6K rpm outside in the parking lot. i run out side only to see a bunch of workers around my car as this young kid who worked there rev the crap out of my ride. I was not a happy camper.

 

Had my car in the shop not long after painting it the first time and it came out with a scratch in the front fender. I noticed earlier that day when I was checking on things there was a tool cart right in the area that was damaged. Told the owner about it and he said it didn't happen there. WTF! Since I painted my own damn car, I knew every little imperfection on it and that wasn't there when I brought it to him. That's when I really started working on my own stuff and never took the car to a repair shop again.

 

Took my car into Jiffy Lube one day last winter because my oil pressure gauge was reading too low. I usually do my own oil changes and car work but I was driving and felt uncomfortable with the oil reading.

So I took it in and I told them not to slam my hood. That the hood will close on it's own if you just let it down easily. Near the end of my service there on my car, their tech guy just slammed my hood! I told his boss about it and that I said don't do it.

They also stripped the threading or something on my oil pan. Didn't find out till months later and I took it back to them because my new oil was leaking from my ride. The bolt that goes into the oil pan wasn't messed up before I took it in and I told them that one of your guys got over enthusiastic with the tools. So they ended up putting in a butterfly bolt that keeps the oil pan from leaking. Never, NEVER again.....

 

The only time dealing with a mechanic in my 7 year driving career, I was ripped off and he would not give me the key until I paid him.. He charged me $500 for a new cat, and to untwist one flexible fuel line.

My brother on the other hand.. He had a new transmission put in his 1989 IROC, 5.7 Hardtop, he figured someone was in the back seat for some reason smoking, they burnt a ton of holes into his almost perfect interior. He had them take a few hundred off the bill for it, so he made out like a bandit.

I take my Trans am to the local dealer for Etests, they all know me, and I'm sure I would hear sooner or later if something did happen to it

 

That sucks that you didn't get your keys until you paid considering he ripped you off. $500 for a cat is ALOT of money and to be honest you probably could've done it yourself and same with the fuel line. Your brother did get a break, dang. Yes, there are alot of bad mechanics out there and shady ones at that who'll do as much as possible to get as much money from people but not put much effort or quality into the work.

 

Had a transmission rebuilt picked up car ,paid took off buddy behind me honking and waving like crazy I get out there is tranny fluid all over his truck
a tow truck from the shop pulled in right behind us towed my car back seems they "forgot to put modulator back on". I have never taken my car to a shop for anything except transmission work, which since this incident I have found a guy I really trust for all my trans work.

 

I refuse to rip on automotive repair facilities. Those guys have to deal with a lot of stuff already from people who think they know what thier doing when they don't. But your car was jackstands cause they were working on it. If it fell off due to an earthquake it wouldnt be thier fault. Thier insurance would have to take care of it but you couldn't be mad at them for it. But anyway, no shop has damaged my car so I guess im lucky

 

back in 2001 or so, i had my 86 worked on at a local shop, i had just bought it and knew nothing. ended up with a dent in the fender and 100 extra miles i didnt have when i dropped it off. they also did other work i did not authorize, overlooked some serious safty concerns they were supposed to be looking for, and didnt do other work i had asked for.

another shop a bit later broke the carb flange after rebuilding it and that spelt the doom of the car.

Havent used a shop for anything since, except the dealer to do certain services to my truck.

 

The only issue I've had was a few year's back when I took my truck in for service and had to leave it overnight the shop was broken into and they broke into several car's....they took my cd player out it was a crappy one so I wasn't to pissed about it until I found out that in my cd player I had left my Metallica cd! I was reimbursed so no biggie.

 

Get this, the mechanic shop where my IROC was at, my wifes uncle works there. So had it fallen of the jack stands, I would of encountered the strangest of all awkward situations. The best part of it all is that my wifes uncle lets me do work in his bay for free. No charge. On top of that, He lets me buy stuff at AutoZone using his "mechanics/shop discount".

 

since i am a mechanic for life and that is what my job is. i have never and will never take one of my vehicle to a shop for repairs.

i have seen plenty of horror stories and even fixed a bunch of them.

 

I had a dealer scratch my 07 gtp g6 hood bad in the front, looked like a set of keys, they never fixed it.

 

Yep, have one, but it was not an accident.

I brought in my car for an oil change (easiest thing to do, but I did not have a jack or jackstands at the time so I thought, what gives?

I stayed in the shop during this time.
The employee asked me what kidn of oil should go in the car. I told him to use 10W30 for lack of something more suitable.
I gave him the filter and a new gasket and bolt for the oilpan which I had already purchased.

Employee disappeared under the car, came back again and told me he would not do the oil change.
I asked why. A senior mechanic was consulted, and asked me if I wanted to take a look under the car.

According to the both of them the car was so worn down that an oilchange wasn't worth the effort

Anyways, I told them to do what they're paid for, the oilchange.

About a week later I noticed a significant oil leak...
Turned out the oil filter wasn't properly attached!

(after I got access to a car lift the steering rack, shocks, springs, stabilizer endlinks, and some miscellanious items were replaced, I cleaned the undercarriage and painted it and now the car looks a lot better already. And I attached the oilfilter properly and put some decent oil in the car)

That only tought me one thing. Leave german shops to work on german cars. Hopefully they know what they're doing there.

 

I have been a professional tech for almost 40 years and a Master tech for 15 of that. I am very picky abour where I will hang my certificates. I've had shop owners lie and cheat customers while standing by my name on a Mastertech cert to give their lies some kind of credibility. I've also worked for alot of bait and switch artists who love to turn a $35 oil change into a $3,000 dollar overhaul.

Today, I work for a solid company with an owner who is a Master just like me and together we take the very best care of our customer's cars. We have long time customers who's vehicles have turned 600,000 miles and still run and look like new.

I hate to say this, but if you go to a place like Sam's Club or Jiffy Lube, where kids making minimum wage will f**k with your car, you pretty much get what you get. There's a reason why I make $25 an hour.

 

Two shop issues for me. Went in for a tranny rebuild cause my 3rd and forth gear were shot. They seemed good enough and a friend told me about them, well it ends up I get my car back on a friday night, I told them to lock the keys in the car cause I have a double set, get there and the door is unlocked and yadda, what ever. I drive home and everything seemed fine, was happy that my car shifted like a dream. Next day there's a big stain down the driveway of tranny fluid. I'm like wtf seriously? But seeing how the shop is closed sat and sundays, I had to wait till monday to take it back and have them tell me. Oh we gave you a faulty gasket. -Gun to head- Then when I was at a different shop 2 years later to get my cat installed. They had to do some pipe fab work what ever, long story short the hammering a pipe into my magnaflow cat back system and im just watching the tail pips smack the underside of my bumper. I do most work myself when I can cause **** like this scares me.

 

The only thing Ive ever had done to my car was the transmission build. It took Oregon Transmission 3 tries to get it right. Bear in mind that my specifications were that it hold up to 450hp, hold every gear to 6,500rpm, and hold 4th gear at full throttle. This was 11 years ago when most shops told me that the 700R4 was no good for performance and offered me a TH350. I wasn't going for the TH350 and searched out the best trans shop in the region. Even they weren't sure they could do it but Mike at Oregon Transmission is a genius and he researched to find all the goodies needed (Art Carr)to make it work.

Yes it took 3 tries and a little frustration on my part, each time I tore 3rd gear out on a 6,500rpm upshift from 2nd. But 11 years after their last try, this transmission stands up strong behind 470hp, holds every gear to 6,900, will not shift out of 4th gear above 80mph, and shifts with authority. Mike and I have been good freinds for these 11 years..

 

My car has been 'kissed" twice in-shop. In the first instance, a high schooler was moving cars around and smooched the reach bumper a bit. In the second, a tech was moving the car onto an alignment rack and smacked the front spoiler (that or the car was whacked in their parking lot. I never knew for sure). At any rate, both shops took responsibility and had the car repaired. I grimace at the thought of taking the car in, but there are some repairs that I'm unable to do (equipment or expertise).

JamesC

 

The only thing I cant really do myself is mount new tires, which I took to discount tire to do.

They used 4 floor jacks to jack it up by the door runner ground effects. Didnt even bother looking for jack points on the car. Low and behold my ground effects are now cracked and the metal strip that has the mounting hardware for it are all smashed in.

 

Bump

 

the only thing ill have a shop do is trans work. and ill take it out and bring it to them. If i need tires mounted all I take the shop is a rim and tire. not the whole car. i used to work in a shop and we had an older guy there who would contantly forget things. we had one customer have to have his car towed back because the older guy forgot to put the cotter pins back into the tie rods and they loosened and droped out. needless to say he doesnt work there anymore.

 

OOOOooooooo. OUCH. Did the guy jump the curb when the car began to veer?

 

So far i havent had any problems with a shop, mostly because i havent had any problems i couldnt fix myself.
BUT... something is wrong with the 92 once again, this time i cant figure it out, so sadly im going to take it to a shop next week, im going to use the shop my boss uses because they take care of him and dont BS with him. so hopefully everything goes alright!

but it would be cool if they hit something, then i could get the hood and fender fixed haha

 

Not really a shop story,but back in the 90's my dad had a 84 Berlinetta.He had it for a week before a deer ran out in front of it. He continued to drive it.Then my moms car broke down. So he and the Camaro were at home waiting for the tow truck to arrive with her car. The tow truck driver dropped off the car.As he pulled away,his bed Demolished the entire driver side of the car bumper to bumper. Covered in deep gauges and scratches and dents and plenty of other fun stuff.My dad yelled at the guy and told him what he had done. The guy said "heres my card just call my boss and he'll take care of everything." So he calls this guy and he says"well did u file a police report?"my dad replies No,he just told me to call you. the guy says "well without a police report theres nothing i can do and im not liable for anything"Sure enough my dad contacted the police department to be told that without the driver there,theres nothing they could do

 

@dylanjessy- when my car got towed the driver hooked it in the rear, which is a plus. but he had it rasied so high that the whole front bumper was dragging the ground! i was honking, flashing my light and he didnt stop, when he got to my buddies with the car i ripped his *** and he said it wasnt his fault and the owner of the company did nothing about it...

 

In the early 2000s my Z28 was painted, taken to the tranny shop for a rebuild, and while the tranny was out of the car someone slashed a tire.

In 2009 my Z28 was a the body shop getting a dent removed (a Pontiac dealer that my insurance company made me go to) from my door that a neighbor kid caused because he didn't know how to back out of his driveway. I have a nice radio that I listening too super loud when driving around the dealer lot. When I jumped in my car and prepared to crank up the radio I heard silence. I checked and the fuse was blown. I had a couple of extras onhand, popped them in and they immediately blew before my hand left the fuse block.

I went back inside and refused to take possession of my car. They argued with me, and humored me to check out the cause, because a door repair doesn't touch the electrical. They found a short in my dome light. Tried to charge me $450 to cut the wire so I didn't have a dome light anymore, and didn't fix the short, just made it where my radio worked, but then my dome light didn't work.

I left a voice mail for the dealership owner. A couple hours later I was told to get my car, the bill was paid, and my dome light still doesn't work.

I hate going to dealerships for repairs because of cost, but now I fear their body shops too. That's the reason my tool collection and Helms library has grown over the past 10 years.

 

I hate getting anything outsourced. Without fail I end up paying top dollar for sub-par work. Tires, alignments, exhaust and paint are about the only things I have to pay someone to do and more often then not that gets messed up. I've paid through the nose for a exhaust system that I am going to have to pay someone else to redo right next year.

 

I've only been a tech since 2005 and only been licenced for about 6 months but I can tell you a lot of this is the product of the industry. Many shops are constantly rushing their techs to finnish the job faster and faster while paying them less and less. The last shop I was at, in one year, lowered the time they paid their techs (flat rate) for most services by 40% while the cost to the customer remained the same or increased as much as 25%. And warrenty is much worse to the techs. As such there are more and more butchers out there knoingly doing half assed work to get an extra buck out of the day. I've always spent whatever time it took to do the job i'm working on properly. In the few years I could count my comebacks on one hand and had a number of customers comment positivly on the quality of my work, yet I've gotten **** on by my boss while he praises the butcher who has at least 1 comeback a week but procceses a lot of cars. The last place I left fired 4 of my replacements because they were carless and each damaged a vehicle in some way.

FYI better run shops will inspect the car for damage with the customer befor they start any work so there are no arguments about what was caused by the techs.

Sorry for the rant

 

not a thirdgen but back in the 80's my dad had a 76 grand prix and it was mint. well one day he hit a speed bump and knocked the exhaust off, so he took it to the exhaust shop, and they put it on the lift as told him it would be done in a few hours. well he went home and got a call from them about a half hour later telling him they dropped the car on accident because the hydraulic arm failed. he was rather pissed/scared/and in shock. they ended up fixing it for free, because the fame wasnt tweaked or anything

 

Meh. I don't ever do shops...

Southern Tire, trustworthy guys here in Batesville, does all of my grandfather's fleet vehicles (Meaning over 100+) and does my vehicles at a considerable discount. I always talk with them and shoot the breeze. You get friendly with anyone they'll take better care of you. I always am there when it happens and help out.

Transmission, I pull it you rebuilt it I pop it back in is how I run that type deal. I had a real good guy but don't have anyone now. Hopefully I won't need one... If it blows I'll likely order a WC and go from there.