It really does seem like it because I can clearly see it.
I'll take a picture of it when I get it back

oh its for sure the serpentine belt if you can just see it. timing belt hides behind a cover.

get your car out of there tomorrow first thing and have it towed to a reputable shop. fuck this shady guy, he's trying to milk you.

Sounds like all the proper advice has been given.

As most have mentioned, first and foremost get your car back into your possession and properly assess the actual damage/cost AFTER.

Once you have the car back, let us know who this clown is so he can be avoided at all costs.

Yes, as suggested, get your car out of his place. He's just jerking you around.

VIP Auto Service?

Says you need to replace all those parts.....


for his car is more like it.

I wouldn't trust my car at some random guy's garage anymore than I would trust leaving my girlfriend at some random guy's house. Worst still is that he towed your car to his house without consent.

http://www.dennisservice.com/wp-cont...iming-Belt.png

If it's not spinning cam gears it's not a timing belt like the one pictured above.

Finally got back my car now.
Those mofos tried to charge me 300$ for diagnosis fee.
That's so unreasonable.
After a long talk, I ended up paying 200$ to get it back from these guys.

I felt like my car got kidnapped and I needed to pay ransom.

He took out a lot of parts and didn't put it back in together.
I have no battery and power and they left my freaking window open.
These guys are robbers. I warn everyone not to go to this car shop at all.

:suspicious: uhmm... thats theft

For all you know, he could've took out your engine and put a seized one with a legit broken timing belt.

That is totally what i'm thinking.
These guys are vicious.
Stay away at all cost.

One of you who replied got the place right.

Time to take some pics for you guys.

:devil:



When did you find out parts weren't put back in?? You should have brought this up...
If your battery is still good, now you're gonna have to buy another one. wtf

You should've just called the cops right then, they did shit without your consent and wanted you to pay for it? If you paid with a credit card I'd call them up and have them do a chargeback. Is the battery missing or just disconnected?

Holy shit, that's outright robbery. :ahwow:

Seriously fuck these guys. They made this problem more difficult than it is.


I paid with cash.. Honestly it was very uncomfortable to negotiate with these people. I kept telling them how it is so unreasonable to charge 300+tax for a diagnosis like this. He said he spent 4 hours working on my car and he earns 100$ an hour. "I'm already cutting you a deal" he claims.

Can anyone tell me how much would a mechanic normally charge for a diagnosis?

There was an asian(vietnamese guy) and a caucasian guy there today. The asian guy is the one who towed my car to his home and wanted charge me that much.
I kept arguing with him and the caucasian guy ended backing the asian guy up. I was like how would I know you spent 4 hours working on my car? Is there any proof that you spent that many hours on it?
The caucasian guy assured me that this is the system and it is how it works. He said "My family has been in this business for 50 years and this is how it works" but to me, he was just bragging how proud he is about his business.
But I can tell, he agrees with me. I stress on that there is no proof that he spent that much time on my car. He replied "that's just how the system works" and I tell him "well the system isn't working, there has to have a way to let your customer know how much time you spent working on a car" I ended up with that comment.

Oh yeah. Right before I went he was telling me on the phone that I had to pay for the part that he ordered and couldn't return. The camshaft sensor. He didn't charge me for that luckily. I showed up with my family friend. I'm guessing they didn't become so vicious if I were alone.

Hmm I can't seem to upload pictures here.

I think it's too big of a file size and I have to resize it.

I have been to the Big O'Tires on Kingsway for simple tire changes in the past.

The owner is a very reasonable guy, but unfortunately, he isn't always there to see the day to day operation of the shop. The Asian guy you are referring to is who I believe is the manager.

I have to question his integrity by pulling cash deals like this because essentially, he is either stealing from the owner of the shop or the operate this way for financial reasons. I used to recommend friends/family to go there for a simple tire change as the service/price was reasonable, but after seeing this go down, absolutely not.

call the cops

I'm guessing they could be good for small tire rotations and oil changes.

For my experience, definitely not big repairs.

The reviews on this place is pretty good on yelp/ google. (Actually one of the reviewers on google is one of the guy who works there so I question this validity)

I thought I was in good hands the first day.

But one of the review on yelp claims
"I brought my tire in for repair, the service advisor showed me the price off the list, upon inspection of my tire, he said the hole was larger than normal and the price was almost double from the list price and almost half the cost of a new tire. He said it needed some kind of 'different system' to repair the tire. When the tire was ready I was presented with a handwritten invoice and was asked to pay cash?!? If I paid cash would he try to evade the taxes?"

It actually could be the timing belt that broke?

Yeah that's kind of bizzare.
In my experience, I've never seen GOOD shops actively solicit cash work...
Usually they'll do it only if the customers ask (If at all), and if they're good customers.

Edit: Based on the above pic, yeah your timing belt is pretty munched. Looks like it was rubbing on something.

To be fair, he did say I can pay the diagnosis fee by credit card.
That's only when I tell him I don't have much money on me.
After I paid him the 200$, I didn't even get a receipt.

Honestly, I'm not even sure if those guys read this forum.
So, I think my rant should be over soon.
And I really just want to put this behind me for now.

4 hours to take the valve cover, coils and upper timing cover off. That's literally 30 minutes of work, that can be done in a parking lot with a socket set and a few hand tools. An hour of shop time would be acceptable. Maybe add another 30mins if he spun the crank/cam to get an idea of which valves are bent.

Another thing to note is, the SHOP rate is $100/hr, the mechanic doesn't make anywhere near that. If he took it home, he has zero overhead and if you're paying cash, he's not paying tax on it.

He was using that "if you go to a restaurant, you order a meal and you don't pay" analogy.

I told him I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount and there was no proof on how much time he spent on it. I said you could say you spent 10 hours on it and I would have to pay 1000$.

I also noted that I became very worried when I was told my car was towed to another place.
I was asked to see my car yesterday but he told me it isn't there anymore.

If I go to a restaurant, I don't expect the cook to go home and cook the meal in his kitchen.

^^^ Agreed.

Fucking 4 hours of work to do THAT? Fucking scam artist. It took him all of a span of 15 minutes to pick out his deep socket, spanner, and possibly a philips screw driver. Like, 2 minutes per spark plug, 7 minutes to undo the timing belt cover. and 15 minutes is being generous for a guy who's supposedly a professional mechanic by occupation. The plug wires were just under a plastic cover.

Ignition wires are like, right there when you open the hood and remove the cover. No top mount IC in the way or anything. I'd hate to be the shop to hire him if it took 4 hours to do that and take off a cover hiding the timing belt. Took me half an hour to change my spark plugs on my old GT-four, only because a fucking ATW intercooler was sitting on top of everything getting in the fucking way. No fucking way is that a complex job when the valve cover is wide open with hardware openly exposes and easy to get at.

No one told him to take it to his place. This shop makes me ANGREEEEEH.