In September I took my car to Aamco because I had a terrible oil leak and could not get my manual transmission vehicle to go into fifth gear and if I did somehow manage my car would pop back into neutral if I reduced my speed by 5 miles or so. My primary concern however was the oil leak. I spoke with Tim, we discussed the oil leak and transmission problem and he agreed to give me a free estimate.
Once he looked into my engine bay he asked me who had worked on my car last and what they had done. I told him that my car had overheated when my water pump went out and that a mechanic was recommended to me but that I was now concerned with the work quality of said mechanic and that my friend, who was a mechanic was out of town but that I needed my car to get to and from work and school and to my 1 year old's daycare (I am a single mom). He told me that my engine was missing several pieces and that in it's current condition that they could not honor their free estimate and that it had to be reassembled before they could do anything, this alone would cost $750.
I grudgingly agreed and let them get to work. They informed me that my oil pump had gone out and that they needed to take a part a bunch of my engine to fix it and it would cost about $2100 total out the door, parts, labor, estimate. I agreed and went about my daily life. A while later they called me back again and said that they didn't have the part I needed so it had to be ordered and that it was more than they anticipated and raised the price to about $2700. I pulled some strings to make this work for my already tight budget and agreed. Total it took them about 4 business days to get my car back to me.
When I got it back I was elated! They told me that I was having problems with 5th because my clutch needed to be adjusted so they did that, water pump, timing belt (which was weird because these had just been done), oil pump etcetera for approximately $2750. I started driving my car again and found everything to be well except now when I was idling my car had almost a trot, it wasn't the smooth fluid rotations I was used to but I ignored it and my 5th gear still didn't work, I went about life anyway happy to have my car back.
During this time my mechanic friend came back (luckily) because about 2 weeks after I got my car back I went to the local gas station, shifted from Reverse to 1st and my gear shift did a weird jerking movement and would only go forward and backward in a straight line and side to side in a straight line, I could tell something was wrong. I called my mechanic friend (as this was like 10pm) frantic and he agreed to come look at it. He told me that my shifter had become disconnected from my transmission and that it was a simple $3 clip from Auto Zone and he fixed that for me in the parking lot.
After further driving my car the trot during idle became worse until one day my car shook violently at a red light, made a strange clunking sound and started making this noise like something moving was hitting something that didn't (like when you put a baseball card in your bicycle spokes). I ignored it for a bit after being told by my step-dad that he didn't know what I was talking about after a test drive. I asked my mechanic friend to look at it one day and he said "oh, yeah, here's your problem" my transmission mount had not been attached correctly so there was a lot of pressure on an engine mount that wasn't used to the pressure and it broke. The broken engine mount ruined the transmission mount as well.
We took it back to Aamco, I had my mechanic friend explain to the guys in the office what was wrong with my car and they agreed to look at it because it was still under warranty. When my friend took it in they told him that they had a hard time believing that the problems were their fault because their shop head had done all the work himself but agreed to fix it (only because it was under warranty). When my friend went to pick my car up he asked Tim if they had replaced everything, the 2 mounts and the timing belt, nut and bolt.
Tim gave him an attitude saying things like "he (the mechanic) didn't see the hole in the timing belt" and "well we did all this work for free based on what you said, our shop head did the work and I inspected it myself, so on and so on." I was so mad about the issues and the way the manager handled it that I will NEVER take my car to them again. I hope others wouold be weary as well as these were serious issues that could have resulted in injuries to not only my child and myself but also others, I don't want to know what could have happened had I not had my friend on speed dial!
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