In this case it'd be more like you showing up at a restaurant, and the cook starts making you a meal before you even order it.

All you asked him to do was to give you a diagnosis (which you reasonably paid for) and quote for the actual repair.

Yeah, don't forget he'd be holding your bag hostage for looking at the fucking menu.

That is just fucked up. Hopefully they didn't make your car any worse OP

I was so anxious in the morning I called him at 7:30.
He called me with his personal number yesterday because I know it's not the same as the one on the business card.
No answer at 7:30, but he called me back at 8.
Saying he can directly tow the car to my house.

I didn't feel good about that because I know I should just pick it up from where I left off.
Also, I don't want him to know where I live.

At this point, he told me it will be towed back to the shop before noon because it's still at his house

He said he will call me back, and he did at a little past 11. The feeling of whether if he is going to call me back surfaced again during this 3 hour.
When he did, this is the time when he said "he was going to charge me for the camshaft sensor part because it cannot be returned" "Be prepared" he said
I said I will come now and let's talk about it.

Where's your battery?

Man.. I think they made it worst.

The parts are all out. There's no power to the car. The window is fuckin open.

How will I close the window without power?

Any suggestion?

The battery is there.
But I think it is out of power now.

Pm me a contact number. I'm going for family dinner by nanaimo/Broadway. Can hook up your batt and close your windows if you're close to my route.

Thank you for your offer.
I just checked now though there was a bit of juice left to close the window which I wasn't able to earlier.
I can see it's dangerously low now though.
The digits on the dashboards are flickering.

Disconnect the neg(-) batt terminal for now.

Still trying to figure out if this shop ripped OP off since $200 for diagnoses and towing seems kinda reasonable. No shop is going to help you for free
:suspicious:

Aside from towing car to mechanic's house, everything else seems ok from the dealings I've had in the LML with shops.

They were asking for 300$+tax = 336.
On top of that, the guy said he could charge me for the towing fee.
I told him "I never asked him to do that"

I also have to pay for it my own to get it towed back to my house, which of course is my problem.

I spent the whole day there on Saturday. I could've dealt with the problem on that day if he gave me the quote on that day. I would have towed my car home already.

Instead I felt like I was preyed on because I may look like a youngster and didn't care about anything.
They kept saying "I have 50 years experience in this business" and the other "20 years experience as a mechanic"

I do think I made mistakes with this experience.

I should have stayed calm and not go in to a place which I have no idea of.
But I just happened to break down in front of it.

It's kind of like going to a movie theater and they charge you hell for pop corn.

I may also have dragged this out for too long.

I agree. It was just unfortunate that your timing belt failed the way it did, despite already being replaced before

did you make sure that they didn't swap your engine when they towed your car to the guys house? did your engine have writing on it before? it says Aug 2014 on it

Yes it did. That was the time when the timing belt was replaced.
The numbers were the mileage.

I'm just posting here now to share this experience in case of anyone's car breaking down to remain calm.

Don't act so hastily and think of a proper plan that wouldn't cost you a fortune.

What did the shop that changed the timing belt say?

I typically charge 0.5 to 1 hour depending on what it is. If I need more time, I give the customer a call and get their OK before continuing.
If the customer doesn't want the work done by me, they get their car back the way it came in.

Looks like something is rubbing on the timing belt.

I don't think that's from rubbing. Looks like it separated when it failed.

figure it was that fucking place.

would never take a car to a tire place to do anything other than tire replacement

Drive by Big-o-Tire quiet often and they have a big sign on the side of the shop that says they patch side walls.... last time I checked, its NEVER a good idea to patch side wall. Seems like there is some major conflict of interest occurring with the manager

I still wouldn't be convinced they didn't swap the motor and just swap the valve covers over, looking at the pictures there's a bunch of bolts missing and the vent hose is disconnected.

Most shops don't do sketchy cash jobs at some dudes house with no receipt, or start doing work with no consent from the owner.

The previous car shop isn't there anymore. I drove by there recently. They either moved or out of business. I'm gonna have to look this up and call them.


There was another thing. Today he told me there's a good chance I didn't damage anything in the header.
He was asking if my family friend was a mechanic at first..Strange question..

So, I highly believe that I don't need to pay that much he quoted. I know it's wishful thinking, but I honestly wasn't going that fast with low rev..

I really hope he didn't switch any parts or left anything out because I have no idea.

That's really messed up. From my past experience (got tires mounted, balanced and installed), they were pretty hospitable guys. I even bought some spare parts on the side that their employee had specific to my car. Nonetheless, what happened to OP is super shady and it looks like I won't go back anytime soon.