I've been a mechanic on and off since I was 15, so a little more than half my life. Since I'm getting a bit older i'm in an off phase since my body can't handle this kind of work anymore. The only tools I keep are for basic maintenance. I didn't have the tools or the time to fix it so I took it in.
Back a couple years ago I cracked a ring and my truck started burning oil badly. So instead of looking around for places to get the block re-sleeved I just took it back to the place that did the work, Connecting Rods Northwest. This turned into a nightmare.
Granted, I drive a rare vehicle. A 1981 Toyota 2.2l 1L Diesel pickup. Parts availability isn't all that great. It's tough to find parts for a vehicle that Toyota only sold 4000 of and even tougher due to the age. I am taking everything into consideration before writing this down.
On the phone the owner, Jerry, was cordial enough. I brought my truck in and we agreed on a price of $2400 after it was looked at. And since this place specialized in VW engines, I informed him that I possessed a set of dealer manuals (the holy grail literally) for the vehicle if he ran into problems. This covers engine, body, electronics, Toyota part numbers, specifications, the works. A valuable set of books to have in anyone's bookshelf. I also left the books on the front seat of the truck when I left with a timing belt.
Well, I left and days turned into weeks turned into months. It was always this issue or that issue that kept the truck from leaving the shop. The last two months it was there was due to the radiator. Had a leak in it around the filler cap. Easy enough to braze however they informed me that the radiator had other damage to it and couldn't be repaired. They did throw in a thermostatic switch for the electric fan I modded onto it, but it shouldn't take two months to find a radiator, fabricate a housing for the switch, and mount the radiator. Finally, I needed the truck desperately and got on the phone and pleaded to have my truck back. Jerry said to come the next day.
Well I arrived, found out the bill was $2000 more than agreed to. I know that SOME extra work was done on the vehicle. But $2000 worth of work? He showed me the radiator, looked like someone attempted to braze the leak. Also looked like someone took a ball peen hammer to it. Had it not been for my desperate situation I would have called him on it.
The truck was running and that was fine. The injector pump that had started to seep when I brought it in wasn't working according to Jerry. So he rigged a cheap siphon pump up to it and called it good despite my misgivings. I drove it home and it seemed sluggish. I re-tuned it, drove it to school. When I left school I found out that the voltage regulator on the alternator was wired wrong. Drove it home minus tail lights and dash lights.
The next day my brother and I went through the wiring and found out that the alternator wasn't the only thing wrong. Found out that the voltage wire for the fuel cut solenoid wasn't connected, which would explain why he had to rig the pump. He had to force fuel past the piston into the pump to get it to work. Consulting the wire schematics and five min of tracing wires would have resolved this. So, in short, my injector pump was blown now with the alternator. Then there was the issue of the glow plugs. They didn't work anymore. Jerry said that one of his mechanics noticed that they were on all the time. Guess it could have been because someone wired it wrong. But they were toast as well. I just spent over $4000 dollars, which is way more than I was willing to spend to begin with, on a truck that would sit for the two weeks while I tracked down and had the parts delivered to rebuild my alternator. I found out that when the alternator went out the last time I had bought the last one in stock in North America.in the mean time I had finally gotten around to fixing one of my roommates cars so I wasn't totally hung out to dry on vehicles.
So despite the problems I could see, I ran the vehicle since I needed to get back and forth to work and school. I needed the truck. The timing belt light was still on so I figured they forgot to reset the mechanical counter when they replaced the timing belt. After all, I had one sitting on the front seat when I dropped it off. They had the motor completely torn down. They would have replaced it upon reassembly right?
Just to be safe I pulled the timing cover to check the timing belt only to find an extremely worn belt had been placed back on. Diesels are non-interference engines. Meaning that if that if that timing belt snaps the valves are going into the head of the piston just ruining my day. Replaced the timing belt that was STILL sitting in my truck. They stuck it behind the seat. Then I reset the counter.
The blown pump quit working, ended up pulling that one and having it rebuilt at a reputable shop. I know I should have done it much sooner since I was a rolling fire hazard with as bad as the fuel was spraying from the pump but I had no choice. Money was tight. Another $800 down the drain but well spent.
About 24k miles later the head gasket blew between the number 2-3 cylinders. I thought it could have been from a burned intake valve (which almost never happens). Nope. Pulled the head and found out they coated the old head gasket in copper RTV and threw it back on. Was cleaning that crap off of the head and block for a while. Nice to know that something got done though. Block was re-sleeved and had new pistons. Got the head back on and found out one of my injectors blew at probably the same time since I didn't notice it before. The injectors that he supposedly had tested before he through the engine back together...
It's been two years now. The truck has been running about 7 months of that. I'm tired of shelling out more and more to fix issues that were caused or should have been resolved by CNW. WHAT IN THE H*L DID I SPEND $4400 ON!!!
I will never go back to this place. They are supposedly great with VW's. But even if I had one I wouldn't take it to Connecting Rods Northwest. I was overcharged and they did absolutely shitty work if they did work at all.
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