I recommended my best friend's son take his 1995 Chevy Lumina I sold him to Joe's Garage to get a repair on a spark plug that had blown out of the backside of the engine on the middle cylinder. The process is known as helicoiling, the addition of a new thread arrangement to hold the plug 'cause the original cylinder head threads were not enough to hold the plug.
The original repair cost was estimated to be $700 plus if he had to remove the cylinder manifold on the backside if his helicoil operation wasn't successful, otherwise it would be less expensive, around $300. The first bill was $270, which included replacing all of the plugs in the engine which he claimed were the wrong type. 32 days later, the same cylinder blew the plug out again.
I surely thought there would be a longer warranty on such a repair, but Joe didn't think so. He went so far as to say it was a different plug he replaced - he may have replaced the plug but it was the same cylinder, the middle on the backside of the engine. He would not return my call, further telling my friend's son he cut him as much slack as he could. He charged another $170 for the same procedure.
I've had many successful repairs performed by Joe over several years - I'm fortunate they were good. But I don't know if they weren't if he would've stood by them. He's high priced ($345 estimate for a turn signal switch replacement). I gave my friend's son $100 for my mistake in recommending Joe's Garage. Sorry Joe, I wish you had called me to explain.
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