I took my car in for a simple inspection. The guy doing the inspection called me into the bay area and as standing there by my car holding his finger up so I could see it with a white rubber glove on. There was some type of gunk on his finger (more dramatic because of the white rubber glove). The air cleaner housing was off, exposing the throttle body.
He said the inside the throttle body needed to be cleaned and wiped another finger onto the inside and got some more gunk on another finger and showed it to me. He said this gunk was robbing my engine of power and if I had them clean it (for $70), it would give my engine more power and would increase my gas mileage.
I was sold by what he said and told him to go ahead and do it. After several weeks of driving, I did not notice any increase power, my gas mileage was the same as it had always been, and I realized I had been scammed.
I spoke to a friend of mine that is very car knowledgeable he said this was one of the most popular scams with mechanics. He said that a small layer of gunk naturally accumulates in the throttle body and it does not harm anything or rob you of gas mileage.in fact after several months after being cleaned, my throttle body was probably already back to the way it looked before it was cleaned.
What the Kwik Kar mechanic did was simply spray some kind of solvent into the throttle body to dissolve this small layer of gunk and ripped me off of $70 for this two minute cleaning.
I took my car in only to have it inspected and ended up getting scammed for $70. I would advise anyone against taking their car to any Kwik Kar as I would imagine this scam goes on at other locations. I will never go back again.
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