Questions and Answers

Honda Civic Got Screwed Over Good Q. Last August I bought my 1994 Honda Civic and I took it to the automotive shop that my parents use. The owner is our neighbor who has been taking care of my parents cars for the past five years. Well come to find out almost a year later when my boyfriend, who builds cars in his spare time, flushed my cooling system and found stop leak in it.

Most of the parts my mechanic said he changed and charged me outrageous amounts for, he never actually changed any of those things. For instance he said the car was fine all it needed was a new timing belt. He charged me $77.00 for a new water pump, a thermostat he charged me $28.00 a whole bunch of other stuff that came to $385.00 for the parts and $289.00 for the labor.

Now here's the real kicker, he never changed the thermostat or the camshaft seal, or the valve cover gasket, and he charged me $38.00 for a coolant flush kit which was obviously never done, cause he would have found the stop leak. I have a huge list here of parts that are supposed to have been new.

A. If you know all of this for a fact, then you need to find a new mechanic. There's not a whole lot you can do now except confront him with what you found and see what he has to say. Who knows? There is a small chance he may do something for you.

At any rate, I would find a new mechanic. For every dishonest mechanic there is 10,000 good. honest mechanics.