Alright guys, I choose to do about 90% of the work on my car but I have friends and soemtiems time is a factor.

I jsut got back dealing with Action Gator Tire, Goodyear on colonial near dean(next to Car fashion)

I got my current tires there awhile back great service guy was nice and helped me pick a set of tires I wanted on my car. Later took a friends mom there and they did a great job on her car no problems or seemingly scams....

now...

I take my girlfriend's car, its leaking coolant, too busy to check and we want the car for a road trip on friday night, plus her dad will pay for it . WE take car in ask them to see what the problem is with the cooling system, and to do an oil change and rotate and balance the tires.

Get a call and they say her fornt struts are shot and leaking gas, causing her front tires to wear horribly on the inside that the steel belts are showing and fraying, waterpump is out, she needs a new thermostat(was replaced last summer by me) new upper and lower radiator hoses.

Total cost quote without tires $1476....

So naturally over the phone I am like wtf? I go can you break that down for me. Water pump $80 in parts $200 in labor, not too far off from what I expected. Upper and lower radiator hoses, $252 for parts and labor , struts for the front only $247, same for rear so $484 front and rear PARTS ONLY! I forgot the labor he wanted. Thermostat $15, seems right. and oil change and wheel balancing...

I ask him whats wrong with the radiotor hoses, he says that when the water pump went bad it destroyed them and is causing they started tearing and cracking with the car costantly over heateing, I inform the guy the car overheated once, the low coolant sensor would go off and I would add coolant, it never went above nbormal opperating temps, more then once and only for a few seconds, not long enough to even blow the hose off.

I nix the sturts and tires, whatever I am going somewhere else for better quoote because thats the price for fecking revalved bilsteins on my Maro, not generic struts on a 96 Cavalier.

I nix the radiator hoses, for $250, I'll go to autozone and spend maybe $70 for the parts, they are kinda funky and there are 3 of them.

Guy calls back 5 min. later and gives me a new quote of $100 for radioator hoses, he says he got a better deal and will be nice ande charge no labor. I am still not buying more then $70 for the hoses, but hey the labor doesn't seem bad. I agree, even though they might be fine, girlfriend is a little freaked her car is a deathtrap, so the $100 of her dad's and piece of mind of new radiotor hoses is worth it.

Got the quote down ot $600-650, for waterpump, oil change, rotate and balance, thermostat, upper and lower radiator hoses.


Go and get the car and the new paperwork comes to $722(I assumed disposal, taxes but still kinda high), they warn me of an imminient blowout on the tires, that I should buy some form them today. I say no, we check the work on the fornt page, everything we asked to have done, then notice, they added on a second page, $90 worth brake system flushing nd rear braek adjsutments, never brought up or by us or them, and NEVER authorized, her brakes are fine. I bitch about thta but its been charged they said come back because it was the owner that worked on the car nad see what he can do, maybe we are screwed on the money, if we are that guy is gonnahave a big pain in his *** of a board college student telling everyone that comes in the door waht he did, and let them decide if they still want work done.

I checked the tires, worn unevenly commoen on FWD cars that do nto rotate tires enough, NO WHERE NEAR the belts, not even worn through the tread yet, I even think the tread is still above the wear bar on the outside, of the tires and the insides seem fine. I think the struts are fine, normal push down test seem fine, and the suspension on my girl's car feels tighter then a 00 Cavalier I rented. When I get home form class I am going to check the hoses and see if they even changed them.

From my previous expereince I think I should jsut go talk to some free lawyers right now, they did work on my g/f's car without authorization, might be screwed becauser it was noticed after the card went through, but maybe put a little pressure on him.

 

btw my good and bad experiences at other places...

Speedway transmission off of Colonial

Good
-decent price toe rebuild my tranny, and clutch replacement,
-were willing to install aftermarket parts and clutches
-installed a poly torque bushing for free(I borught it in)
-rebuilt my transmission after trashing it at the track under hard use, damage was obviously track or hard driving related, they know I race the car hard.

Bad
-they put a scuff mark on my bumper during first rebuild, I buffed it off, not worth complainging about.
-they scratched my hatch in 3 spots under the wing, would ahve really pissed me off but my car is no show car, and they were fixing my tranny under warranty when damage was "not in the spirit of the warranty" as I like to say so I let it slide.

Don Olson tire on University

Fixed a freinds radiotro, it leaked, would not take a check form her, car had to be taken back maybe 5-6 times to fix the overheating problems, on a 96 Ford Escort.

Firestone on Colonial, next to bowling ally

Asked them to look and see if anything was obviosuly wrong with my rear suspension after I did my swap, was goign to have them do a full brake job, and new tires, but they lied, charged me $20 for a balance and rotate of tires that were not balanced or rotated(I was under the car for 6 horus doining disc brake conversion, and one of the wheels was a donut, and I had 1 mismatched tire, so obvious they didn't do it) Also claimed they could not notice any brake sqeul(it was obvious), or exhaust rattle I asked them to look at(agian obvious) because I needed new tires I should buy form them, my current tires were old and made too much road noise

Irish Mikes the towing guy...

A friend of mine said he was highnly reccomended I went with her they were very nice and charged decent rates, she was convinved her CV boots were bad, and told them that, but they actually called up and said they were fine do not worry instead of the usual replace becuase they know they can get away with it. They later did both timing belts on her car too(prevenitive maintenance on our part) and charged her a fair amount, no complaints or runarounds, Jsut good work. Only problem I know alot of my friends are afraid of not brand name palces to take a car.

 

Take the car to the Action Gator Tire on Alafaya.

I shopped around for days looking for tires like 2 months ago. This place not only had them for $129/each instead of $149, but they closed off a work bay for my car until I got there. That's what I call service.

Personally, I'd stay away from these chain shops, private ones have more knowledgeable staff.

Here's a GREAT transmission shop.

It's called Harrell & Beverly and it's in Sanford. The two guys who own this place must have PhDs in trannys, they are VERY knowledgeable, honest, great to deal with, are thorough, and I highly recommend them if you're in need of tranny work. They're about 20 min. from UCF. I will not take my car anywhere else if I'm in need of tranny work. They've been in business for like 50 yrs. and they're a kick *** shop, they know you car great.

I'd wouldn't bring my car to Irish Mike's if they gave me free service. When I had my old car, I improperly changed the coolant and it overheated on me. I left it at the Walgreens at Univ. and Dean until I was done with class. I called AAA and was referred to Irish Mike's. The dude on the phone there said they had the GM part in stock and to bring it on over, so I said alright and had my car towed there. I got there and it turned out the "genuine GM part" was a damn screw from who knows where. So I asked where the part was and they're like, "oh, that screw is fine". I had to wait there for like 4 hrs. before I could get towed out of there. The guy on the phone straight up lied to me and I was like thanks a lot jackass. I had it towed to a GM dealership where it was fixed. I'm sure people like Irish Mike's, but the service that guy gave me really pissed me off.

 

two if my roommates have been to irish mikes and both had different experiences. one of them has a pos explorer that has been there 2 times w/out knowing what is wrong at all and they were nice and seemed like they didn't screw him over.

my other roommate has a 98 grand prix that died on him a couple weeks ago. we assumed it just needed a new alternator, but we had it towed there anyway to see what they said. they call him an hour later saying it need new alternator, belt, plugs, wires,oil change, and flush radiator....cost over $600. we're like wtf! i don't remember the prices broken down, but they were rediculous.

we have them do the oil change and radiator flush and have the car towed back to the house. went to discount auto parts and bought an alternator and belt for $90 and put it on ourselves. car runs fine now. my roommate checks some paperwork in his car that says he got new plugs/wires put in about a year ago, so those can't be bad already.

i think places will try to tell you that you need new parts if the slightest hint of wear is shown on it. i've got places back home i take my car to b/c they are family friends, but if something major happens to my car here i'm not sure what i'll do.

 

the tire place at the corner of Tuscawilla Road and Red Bug Lake Road is CRAP... i think its called tire kingdom, they're next to discount auto parts on the k-mart side of the road.

when i was there so they could turn my rotors one of the greese monkeys was peeling out, or attempting to peel out in customer cars. with me standing right there watching he did a burnout in a family's van, drove 10 feet forward to the customer area and then walked inside and handed the lady the keys. she had no clue.

whatever you do, avoid that place like the plague... i could only imagine what they'd do to a rear wheel drive high HP car...

 

Struts and shocks are the biggest scam these places have. They buy $50 shocks and sel them to you for $129 on sale, then charge you for installation. Anyplace that tells you that you need them because they are making your tires fall apart are crooks. If your shocks are bad enough the car will ride so crappy that you'd know it way before the tires were affected. And even then it would be cupping gradually. An alignment will cause uneven wear like you described.

Big 10 Tire in Oviedo is top notch. But they will point out stuff that needs to be fixed too. Sometimes things that are marginal, I think. But they won't rip you off and do quality work. I've been going there for years and years. No complaints. And that's amazing for me!

Bottom line with any shop, know your car. Know what they're selling. Check the bill before you pay. Check the car to make sure they did everything they said they did. Always check the boxes saying that you have to have a written estimate signed by yourself before the work is done and that you want all the old parts back. If they accidently dispose of the old parts, sorry, their loss. Don't pay.

 

My house. For non-camaro/vette/firebird stuff, I don't trust anybody but myself. I only have 2 problems. I live in Deltona and work full time. Other than that........feel free to email me.

Do your research if you use any of the local shops. Go to tire stores for tires, and pretty much nothing else....

 

Discount Tire (Apopka): I've been going to this place for 7 years, with the exception of two visits to their Sanford location. The last time they put two serious scuffs in one of my front wheels, but didn't notice it until the next weekend when I washed the car. They seem to have put the least experienced guy fresh out of grade school on the car. I bitched as he was pounding and suffering through trying to get the tires swapped. I told them at the counter to roadforce test the tires and the guy rolls his eyes at me and re-mounts the wheel. He finds the wheel is bent, and also finds the the other wheel on the same axle bent. I don't know if grade-school boy with the shoulder length blonde hair ("who knows what he's doing because he owns a Camaro and races it!") could've caused them to be out of balance from his frustration. I don't know where else I can do road-force balancing besides Discount Tire, but I'm p!ssed off enough to stop going there just from this one instance in the past 7 years. Sayonara.

Meineke (Longwood): The owner, Rod, has a severely bad attitude. Everything you bring in to install is worthless. He used a impact gun to tighten my wheels after a brake flush. Claimed it wouldn't be any problem. As I drove out and down 17/92 it felt like my frickin' wheel was going to fall off. He claimed there was something in the car which caused it to sometimes come lose. I encouraged him to use a torque wrench. No further problems. Sayonara.

Salerno Tire (Fern Park): Took a little longer than expected to mount Nittos, but would go there again.

Irish Mikes: Only experience with tow-truck driver by the name of Johnny. He used to be a neighbor of mine. Last time I dropped a valve he said that their shop could get me ported LS1 heads for $400 after talking to the owner. I'll still use his towing services on the side, but wouldn't trust that their shop knew what they were doing simply because nobody sells (good) ported LS1 heads at that price.

I don't remember the name, but there's a transmission shop just west of the Colonial/Semoran intersection, north side of the road. I believe they have a yellow sign. Did good work on the 4L60e tranny, but a little frustrated that they wouldn't do what Art Carr asked (i.e., drill a hole in the case for their vacuum modulation modification). But, the repeated slippage of the 3-4 clutch packs is what drove me to trade the car in.

I don't recall the name, but there is/was a muffler shop just east of the SR434/SR436 intersection, south side of the road up a steep hill. The guy did a great job of installing the Borla on my previous car and lining of the tips, etc. Only thing I didn't are for was scraping the nose on the driveway (not their fault).

TredAlign (Orlando): If you can put up with his dry humor, great place to go. I don't think he has a torque wrench though, he's partial to air tools. Only place I'll go for an alignment...wish he had a Roadforce balancer (That's a hint if you read this Robert!)

Lamotta Performance (Longwood): Jake doesn't seem to smile much, but still gets my tranny business. Going in next Monday for a syncro rebuild. Trip number two, but finally getting rid of the stock shifter this time.

I'd still take the car to the dealership for work if I could get certain people to work on it. However, one runs Norris Motorsports now, and the other switched from Pontiac to Cadillac (Kelly Daniels). Haven't encountered anyone else at the dealership who actually treats the car like their own. Of the service writers in the area, I'm partial to Andy Taylor @ Mealey Chevrolet (I think that's it, the one on Colonial just west of John Young).

 

Irish Mikes doesnt even know what an LS1 is..the owner towed me from the track the night of the nitrous mishap..and he was like what you got in that a 302?..WHAT?! I was like uh no it's a 346 LS1..and he's like oh oh...thats a camaro?...enough said!The guy doesnt know what an LS1 is nor an LT1...he said he replaced an HEI distruibutor on an LT1 a while back lol...im assuming he meant the 1970's LT1...oh well. I know I wouldnt let him touch my car with a 10 foot pole..but I do my own work anyways Later,

carter

 

I think he was being sarcastic when he said, "That's a Camaro?", because I would hope a mechanic would stay up-to-date as cars change with the times.

Did he tow you home with his F-550 with the bed on it?

 

Yeah i think it was an F-550..but dont really remember...but there was no sarcasum envolved bro..he was seriously shocked when I said it was a camaro...he knew nothing about the coil on plug ignition and he didnt have a clue as to what the relucter on the crank did for the crank trigger ignition..I was suprised because he said he owns a shop and he can work on all cars...but if he didnt know how the crank trigger ignition worked than I would be semi cautious about him working on any lt1 or ls1...we did discuss older cars too..he was very knowledgeable on old cars wich was good..but i think he needs to update his brain in the new car section!Oh and lol..he would not beleive me that the 4L60-E was an electronic 700R4 basicly..he's like "the new cars use some weak transmission..the 700R4 was bulletproof"...WHAT?! If the 700R4 was bulletproof than the motors you where putting behind them where making a max of about 175 or 200 lb. ft lol..oh well the new generation continues!

Carter

 

yes i have a torque wrench. but i do use what is called torque sticks for impact guns. each colored stick is made for a certain amount of torque. been used for years. but if the customer requests hand torquing them, i'll always accomodate.

 

We use those where I work. We only use the Torque wrench if a customer request it, or if its custom wheels where a thin wall socket must be used. Other than that, its back to the Torque sticks. I do hate it when we get "experienced" guys that use just the impact gun becasue they "know" the gun, and they "know" when to stop . I just about chew their asses off cus it pisses me off so much. These same guys argue that the Torque sticks are not accurate cus htey are not spring loaded . I guess they dotn understand how much the thinkness and lenght of a bar has to do with how much torque they can put out. And the entire time they say that, they assume they get itcloser to specs by "knowing the gun" OK I'm done ranting.


Back to topic.

I have heard nothing but good thigns about that placed called Nicks and Blacks on OBT (Forget exactly where).

 

That's weird. If you check his website, he offers a service to those who want a racecar built.

Maybe he's still using 302s in his racecars.

http://www.irishmikes.com/irish%20mikes%20racing.htm

 

LOL dude maybe this wasnt the guy...he said he owns the shop..he's kinda skinny and wears glasses?