Our 2001 Mitsubishi Galant just had the front brakes and rotors, a passenger side front brake caliper, and 2 serpentine belts replaced on Monday. On Wednesday morning the antifreeze reservoir is partially melted and on the ground under the car. The repair shop says it’s not related to their repair, and charged full price to fix. Should I stop using that shop?
Did they offer a reason that it was partially melted? The reservoir is under the fender and away from most obvious heat sources. If it melted the mounting screws. the reservoir will drop inside the fender liner, possibly onto the ground. Why it had heat damage is an important factor. What’s to stop it from happening again, and it is a harbinger of doom warning you of serious trouble, like an impending car fire?
Our 2001 Mitsubishi Galant just had the front brakes and rotors, a passenger side front brake caliper, and 2 serpentine belts replaced on Monday.
I think (it depends on the car layout) that the bolded part makes it likely the repair and the reservoir problem could be related.
I’d get a used Galant reservoir at a “auto salvage” and ask the repair shop to put it on, gratis. (Please note that the “labor” here usually consists of (at most) 2 sheet metal scrwes.) If they refused to comp the labor, I wouldn’t be back.
My husband is the one who found the reservoir. He says there is nothing near the reservoir that would get hot enough to melt it loose. He thinks it fell onto something and then melted. He doesn’t know if it broke loose or came loose. He was the one who spoke with the shop personnel and is not interested in figuring out what happened. The shop repaired the car already, quick but full price. The car has not been in an accident since we bought it 2 years ago, except for having a dented hood (in the center - where someone sat on it?) and that pushed back out easily enough. Supposedly it was in a minor fender bender sometime before we bought it. I hope there is nothing more serious brewing. I agree with not going back because they would not consider it something that they might have caused and given us at least a discount.
Whatever happened this shouldn’t be a big deal. This is basically a plastic jug with a hose at the top. A slavage yard may have a matching reservoir. A new one from Mitsubishi shouldn’t be too expensive. Hanging it in the car should take all of 5 min.
Coolent tank $45.88 (I don’t know where they got it, they didn’t have it in stock), Shop supplies $1.34 (I know, rags to wipe their hands on, etc.), labor $26.70, tax $3.53. Location- outside Springfield, MO. Not too expensive of an area. I hate to have to find a new favorite shop, but I will.
I tried to find out what the part sells for on line. It’s not easy to find. I’m glad the shop found one. $45.88 might not be unreasonable.
Not bad for a new reservoir I guess. The salvage yard would had been better, but time consuming and I am not sire how many Galants there are in your neck of the woods.
If I recall correctly, your engine has two drive belts and one timing belt. They should be on the side that the reservoir is, in that case I would guess that while working on it they loosened the reservoir and forgot to tighten it. It might have melted from the radiator heat. This is all guess work obviously.
On a different note make sure you change the timing belt by the book’s schedule otherwise it could ruin your engine.
Thank you. I appreciate everyone’s comments.