Man why are you still using this guy as your mechanic....simply ridicolous service if you ask me

 

So in defense of the mechanic(although, there really isn't any), he could have literally been way too busy and knew he bit off more than he could chew. I have had to put off customers before when they wanted their cars fixed. I hate to turn away business, but sometimes you just have to tell the customer that if they want it done in a timely manner, they need to take it elsewhere. But as for the bs story he keeps giving and the fact that he has testbook and never used the darn thing on the rover only shows he is shady. If you spend that kind of money on a tool, you have to use it to justify the expense. Sounds like alot of the mechanics around here, that's the main reason I hate to turn business away.

 

That's just it. He didn't actually spend any money on the Test Book. He got it when the other rover place when out of business here and is buying it from them... Knowing that if he would have just plugged the damn truck in in the first place I could have had this truck up and running months ago, would not have re- swapped out the ford 19's I had put in etc (which he blamed for the over fueling until I put the original injectors back in and showed him it made no difference) He was even talking about redoing my valley pan gasket, (the one I just put in) cause I might have done something wrong and "maybe" it was the issue... of course, the truck shows no other signs of an issue IE no coolant leaks, no fluids getting anywhere they should not be etc...

On top of this, what I consider a outright lie about checking and swapping the ECM in the first go around...

Ya, I'm pretty hot about it all at this point.

I thought I was bad about tossing parts at a problem until it was fix... maybe I should just open my own shop cause I couldn't do any worse...

 

You would probably doo a better job from what I've read so far.

I once got in trouble by my sup for telling a customer "I don't know. Let me find out." Sup said to never tell a cust that 'you don't know' or they will go to a different shop. Funny thing is, that customer came back WITH his friends vehicles and would only allow me to work on their vehicles. Pissed off the sup, but business started picking up for me(which is great when you are flat rate)

Moral of the story, there is nothing wrong with honesty. As long as you are willing to go and find the answer. Best mechanics in the world have lots of crap in their heads, but what makes them truly great is their ability to keep it simple(kiss) and their ability to look up info and troubleshoot.

The owner of the first indipendent shop I ever worked at(while I was working on my AAS) told me 'it's not the tool box, but the tools that make a mechanic.'

 

I'm cutting my losses with this guy today. I've tried to call already this morning and no answer (It's 10). I'll be over there this afternoon around 2 in person and if he has not hooked up that new ECM (Which I gave him on Thursday) and gotten the testbook on the truck I'm taking the damn thing over to the rover dealer and let them run the test.

 

Swapping an ECM .. you should do that on your own and stop wasting money...by the time you'll be done waisting money on this (dealers will waste your money as well) you could have bought another discovery

 

I know swapping the ECM is simple, but there is the risk of it messing up (wrong security code) and not starting. So it should be cleared and reset by the testbook. I would want to do this anyways cause the old readings might also get confused by all the new and possible different readings coming into it.

I need the truck hooked up to the testbook and scanned, I've done every single other thing I can at this point to solve this rich running issue, if the test book can't tell me anything, your absolutely correct, I'm wasting my time and money to go any further with it and will offer it for sale or part it out.

 

How much have you paid this clown so far?

 

I really hope it does not come to that.

I am hoping for something un-ECM related, just to keep my faith in humanity...maybe like the Fuel Pressure regulator going south, but not fully, therefore allowing too much fuel into the cylinders.

 

I've paid him 260 for the work he "said" he had done the first time he had it. Which is very little to none that I can tell. With this supposed ECM issue, that should have been the FIRST thing discovered upon plugging the truck into the test book. I'm questioning the other tests he said he had done, like the compression test, the flue test etc... I honestly think he just plugged in some hand held scanner, saw the same code I see taking it to advanced, p1316, saw the ford injectors and said "well, there's the problem!"...

I don't know what he used to read the truck the first time, it was not the testbook.

Of course, you also have to add the fact that so far I have had to drive the truck back and forth to his shop twice, an hour each way, dumping fuel the whole way, to the tune of almost 120 bucks in fuel, I have had to run a part over to him (the ECM) so another 2 hours, and the trip yesterday (another 2 hours) and the fact that I have to go again today... The time and work involved swapping out the ford injectors back to the original injectors cause he swore that's what the issue was...

I went over yesterday to get the truck and tell him to GFHS and of course a major storm hit, so there was no way I was going to be doing anything to get the truck. When I stopped in, all the power was out. I asked him how the (new) ECM worked. He was like, Um,well I was going to do that today but got behind, and will do it tomorrow... he would not even look at me. I was thinking really? and the truck your working on right now was here before mine or something? (sarcastically)...

I told him I would be by today to get the truck. I would like to be there when they open, take my tools with me and a new set of plugs, so I can swap them out and just drive it over to the rover dealer and get it on the test book.

I'm about 1 second away from issuing a BBB complaint against his shop. And doing a series of reviews on google etc letting others know whats up with him. I'll make it a point to let others on the forums also know who to avoid in the chattanooga area if he does not somehow make this right by me today. (And by make it right I expect a refund of some or all of what I paid him the first time) Since he obviously didn't do sh*t.

6 weeks... That's the total time he has had my truck in his care... Absolutely retarded. 6 weeks, and it no better off than the day I took it over to him in the first place. Mind you, he was actually recommended by the only other rover shop in Chattanooga (Outback Offroad's) main mechanic after they closed shop. And, it's outbacks old test book that he has.

Another BIG red flag was the other day when I was over there to drop off the ECM. He had a 97 discovery in the shop, looked just like mine, seriously, I actually opened the door to see how it was coming along then saw the cup holders (mine doesn't have those) and thats when I realized it was not my truck LOL. Anyways, the passenger door had the standard broken spring issue. He has his lackey go and start working on it while I watched... The guy removed the door panel and started to fish around the main control arm, I asked what he was doing and he was like, "Oh, the locks control arm must be bent because it doesn't unlock without holding up the lock...."

I said, Um, that means the spring is broken, the only way to fix that is to either by a new mechanism, swap a working one out of another truck (which they had) or buy a new spring for 5 bucks from the guy on Ebay that sells them. He just kind of looked at me with that deer in the headlight look... and started to look at the door again. I said, "would you like to know how to get the mechanism out?" So, I told him to close the window all the way, tape it up to hold it, then pointed out the bolts he would have to remove, how to lift the channel out of the door to gain access etc... he was like , wow thats a lot of work, I said yup and if you know what your doing it will take you about 40 minutes, if you don't about 3 hours...

I even took his helper over to one of the parts trucks sitting there and showed him that the mechanism was working in it, so they could do a quick swap out... about that time the owner yelled out for him to put the door back together and leave it, the helper said, but this guy (me) knows the problem and can fix it, and the owner was like, "I don't care, just get it back together cause the customer was coming over to get it"....

I left myself then, but 100 bucks says they never even told the customer what the issue with the door was.