I am from Canada, my car overheated on the drive to Chico, CA. I took it to Boradori Automotive and was told it required a head gasket job. This job would cost $800.00 US to $1000.00 US.
I called my mechanic in Canada and explained the overheating problem etc. He said his charge for a head gasket would be $700.00 CDN but I should be careful about driving it that far.
I chose to do the job in Chico with Boradori just in case I had trouble driving back to Canada
The job took a week. The cost was $950.00 US.
When I got the car back the engine was not running smoothly, I called Boradori but they did not seem particularily interested in my problem. I decided to drive the car home and have my mechanic look at it.
During the two day drive up the I5 the car did not perform well. It was throwing oil all over the engine and pooling on the exhaust manifold. The temperature gauge kept dropping to "C" suddenly and then slowly creeping back up to mid point.
Back in Canada I took the car to my mechanic. He told me the value cover gasket was leaking, the valves needed adjusting, the distributor "O" ring had not been replaced. The coolant was low and dirty and the thermostat was faulty.
I called Boradori Automotive and explained this to them. The response from them was to go ahead and get it fixed and they would pay. My mechanic fixed the car - cleaned the oil of the engine, adjusted the valves, changed the coolant, put in the Distributor "O" ring. He replaced the thermostat. Boradori had also replaced the thermostat. My mechanics charge for this job was $202.00 Canadian.
Not long after taking the car back the temperature guage started dropping suddenly again. I called my mechanic and he said that he felt the problem was the thermostat, it needed a Toyota part.
As he was not able to fit me in I went to Toyota to get the part installed. This termostat cost me $168.00 Canadian.
The problems with the car were now fixed. I drove it back down to Chico CA and took the bills to Boradori as previously planned.
I took out the cost of the first thermosat put in by my mechanic and charged them for the Toyota one.
Even though I was told that they would pay to get the car fixed they would not pay me more than $200.00 US. The US amount that I had paid out in Canada was $320.18 US. This includes the first thermostat.
Boradori could not pay me the whole amount because they could not figure out the hourly wage of my mechanic, and they could not fiqure out the exchange rate. I told them it was 1.14 US to 1.00 canadian but they did not seem to be able to do that math. I was also told that I wanted the job done on the cheap and this is why it was done the way it was. This surprised me as their labor was $660.00 US and did not include ALL the gaskets needed being installed, or a value adjustment, new hoses or flushing the coolant. Plus the job was a bad one as the oil spewing all over the engine would suggest.
At $85.00 per hour I do not feel that the value is there with this Automotive shop. The work is sloppy and the warranty means nothing.
Did they think I was a Canadian therefore never coming back?
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