Service Department
Quality Imports
Dear Sir;
One month
ago, February 22, 2003, I brought my 1992 Miata to you for service. I had noted oil drops in my driveway and had
taken it to Tuffy in Destin. There they
told me that either my head gasket or cam shaft seals were leaking. They said they did not have the expertise to
do the work and recommended your business.
After trying to find someone closer to fix the car, I decided to follow
their advice, since you are the only authorized Mazda dealer nearby.
Your
service manager told me his mechanic would figure out where the leak came from
and then let me know if it could be fixed that day. A half hour to forty-five minutes later I was
told that the head gasket was intact, but the cam shaft seals had a bad
leak. This was a surprise, because I had
seen only scattered drops of oil on the driveway. Still, it was better than paying for a head
gasket replacement.
A little
over two hours later, I was told my car was fixed. I paid my bill and drove away. As soon as I pushed on the accelerator, I
heard a horrendous valve clatter. I
turned around at the next intersection and returned to your dealership. The mechanic sat in the car and pushed on the
accelerator; he heard no valve clatter.
He shrugged his shoulders, as if I were crazy. I told him to accelerate under load and
listen. Twenty minutes later, another
service manger told me that the problem was carbon on my valves, as if he
expected me to believe that between the time I delivered it to his care and
when I picked it up, carbon suddenly appeared.
I told him
the car had made that noise only once in the past. The noise had been from the valves because
someone changed oil and had not put in the proper oil filter and all the oil
drained from the valves. I also told him
it sounded like the timing was off, and since they had taken off the timing
chain, maybe that had caused the problem.
It couldn’t be fixed that day, so I was given a rental car. My wife returned your rental and picked it up
on the 25th. It was making a
high pitched squeal that I assumed was a new fan belt.
It also
still leaked oil.
After a
month of squealing and oil leaking, I took it to another mechanic. Here’s the diagnosis: The head gasket leaks. The timing belt is too tight. The wiring harnesses have not been returned
to their original positions. I can plan
on paying $800-1000 to repair all that.
In short,
your mechanics failed to find my oil leak.
They disrupted the timing. They
put the timing belt on too tightly. And
they charged me $298.04 to keep me from driving my car for three days.
I think
that’s absurd. I will inform Master Card
that I do not want this bill paid. I
look forward to hearing an explanation.
I don’t think I want your amateur mechanics working on my car in the
future.
Follow-up: They fixed it for free.
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