Quote:
Originally Posted by happy1970GMC
They wanted $150 up front for diagnosing the problem. I agreed to that. They didn't say the carb was the only problem, they said it was the first problem. Then, they said "you can't find anyone to work on a Quadrajet carb. You have to go to fuel injection for $2500, or an Edelbrock or Holly for $600." I found 3 places to buy re-built Quadrajets in 10 minutes, starting at $275.
I understand they were trying to "upsell" me. But I don't believe they don't know re-built Quadrajets are widely available. Summit, Jegs, National Carburetors, Guaranteed Carburetors, just to name a few all stock re-built Quadrajets. There are also many places that work on them.
"You can't find anyone to work on a Quadrajet carb. You have to go with fuel injection or an edelbrock or Holly for $600." They weren't recommending a different carb or system, they were denying that Quadrajets are available.
While waiting for the tow truck, I looked under the hood. When I tried to close it, it wouldn't close. There was a deep well socket and an extension on the drip edge. Of course I considered keeping it, but didn't want to be like them. When I took it to the counter, Nick said, "it must be Eric's". John, another mechanic, took it and said "it's mine now".
I don't expect them to work for free, I expect them to be honest. I agreed to pay them for their time, but they flat out lied to me. I'm sure there are honest mechanics around, I'm also sure there are dishonest mechanics who will try to rip off their customers as much as possible.
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About the quadrajets. I hear about that alot. The reasoning behind that is you could spend 300 bucks and buy a new edelbrock, slap it on, and be driving reliably right away. I have steered customers towards carbs like that in the past. Some guys wont even mess with quads for some reason. Did you mention that you found a quadrajet for 275 and asked if they would install it? Some shops will not install customer supplied parts. I do it, but rarely.
All those places that you named about the quadrajets are online companies. I dont order parts online. None of the shops around me do unless its a special part, but i try my hardest to not do that. Many reasons to that. If the part is wrong or does not work you have to pay to reship it, it takes time, and time is money. They tried to sell you what they had. You really cant blame them to badly for that.
They might be denying quadrajets because they cant get them locally. I had a subaru in here recently with a very similar issue. It was a 1 barrel carb, super rare. I had to order it online. The part was absolute ****. I had to eat the shipping and the time to remove and replace it. The second one i got was actually decent and it fixed the issue.
I have left tools in a car before.. Happens once a month maybe. I still dont see how they lied though. You should of contacted us on here, or spoke with them more. Talk to them about what you found, work with them. Id like to know what they did for $150 dollars. Do you have a work order for what they did. I know if i have a car and i diagnose it and the cust. cant afford to fix it i try to help with diagnostic time. $150 dollars is about 1.5 hours of diag, maybe 2 in some places. Really curious what they checked for that.