Questions about a possible shifty mechanic

[Wes]

I have a friend who has a 98 Honda Accord and as the title says, uses a mechanic I’m starting to think is ripping her off. She’s used this guy for years though so I don’t want to tell her until I have more information. Two instances of repairs stand out to me.

The first was a bit over a year ago when her IACV went bad. It had the code for it and the symptoms matched perfectly but when she took the car in they also told her that the head gasket was bad and replaced it. My first thought was why are they checking the head gasket when the IACV is bad? Also the car had no obvious symptoms of a failed head gasket, no burning oil or coolant, no oil in the coolant, and other than the IACV issue the engine ran perfectly. I dismissed these concerns because they are a well rated shop and probably just wanted to be thorough and a failed head gasket might not be bad enough to show obvious symptoms.

The next instance was a few days ago. Her car overheated and puked coolant out all over the place. there was steam coming out of the radiator cap and when i pulled it off to check the fluid level I found that the bottom half of the cap had broken off and lodged itself inside the radiator. She took it to her shop the next day and they replaced the radiator, the fan assembly, and told her that the cylinder head was warped but not bad enough to replace it. At the time the only thing that was odd to me was that the fans were replaced since they were working, albeit the drivers side spun much slower than the passengers side so it may have been going out. The warped head sounded alright at the time since it had overheated badly. However I’m 80% sure that they did not pull the head off and as far as I know there is no way of checking if the head is warped while still on the car. If there is I’d love to know how it’s done. Also I don’t know the tolerance or just how warped the head was, but saying that it’s warped but not bad enough to need replacing seems wrong to me. Again I’m not sure about how much warpage is allowed before the head fails. I’m as sure about them not removing the head as I am because she was not charged either for the labor of removing the head or for the new gasket they should have installed if they had, and I don’t think a job like that would be one they wouldn’t charge for.

I wish I could get more information about what exactly the mechanics did and said, but she and her dad jointly own the car and tend to just go with the mechanics recommendations without asking questions. I also only hear about these things after the fact.

so if anyone has any thoughts or advice please leave it.
Thanks

Topic

[Richard Kirshy]

Tough to say absolutely…

But to play devil advocate …

On your first concern:
[color=orange][i]The first was a bit over a year ago when her IACV went bad. It had the code for it and the symptoms matched perfectly but when she took the car in they also told her that the head gasket was bad and replaced it. My first thought was why are they checking the head gasket when the IACV is bad? Also the car had no obvious symptoms of a failed head gasket, no burning oil or coolant, no oil in the coolant, and other than the IACV issue the engine ran perfectly. I dismissed these concerns because they are a well rated shop and probably just wanted to be thorough and a failed head gasket might not be bad enough to show obvious symptoms.
[/i][/color]
There may have been external oil or coolant leaking to warrant the head gasket work.
With out inspecting the vehicle prior to the repair, this would be impossible to say for certain.

On the second matter:
The next instance was a few days ago. Her car overheated and puked coolant out all over the place. there was steam coming out of the radiator cap and when i pulled it off to check the fluid level I found that the bottom half of the cap had broken off and lodged itself inside the radiator. She took it to her shop the next day and they replaced the radiator, the fan assembly, and told her that the cylinder head was warped but not bad enough to replace it. At the time the only thing that was odd to me was that the fans were replaced since they were working, albeit the drivers side spun much slower than the passengers side so it may have been going out. The warped head sounded alright at the time since it had overheated badly. However I’m 80% sure that they did not pull the head off and as far as I know there is no way of checking if the head is warped while still on the car. If there is I’d love to know how it’s done. Also I don’t know the tolerance or just how warped the head was, but saying that it’s warped but not bad enough to need replacing seems wrong to me. Again I’m not sure about how much warpage is allowed before the head fails. I’m as sure about them not removing the head as I am because she was not charged either for the labor of removing the head or for the new gasket they should have installed if they had, and I don’t think a job like that would be one they wouldn’t charge for.

Breaking this down..
The radiator replacement was most likely justified due to ” half of the cap had broken off and lodged itself inside the radiator ”
If it could be removed is another story, I’ll assume that it couldn’t because if it could the fix would be simple.
As to the fan assembly being replaced.
You stated: ” they were working, albeit the drivers side spun much slower than the passengers side ”
This could well be the cause of the overheating issue.
Further..
“ told her that the cylinder head was warped but not bad enough to replace it. ”
One of two things come to mind here..
One, the mechanic is relying on past experience with over heated engines on this model vehicle, but saw no visible signs of concern and wanted to note the possible issue.
The other, the mechanic is assuming the warp occurred.
In either case your friend was not charged.

One other item to note:
“ I dismissed these concerns because they are a well rated shop and probably just wanted to be thorough ”
Keep in mind in today’s age, it is quite easy to discredit a business or its practices via a bad review…
If this shop has a good business rating, I would think that most of his customers feel they were treated fairly.

Again, playing devil advocate, you need a larger sample size to determine if this shop is doing underhanded.

[Author]

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