There is on Cartalk a place where people can recommend mechanics. It just saved my son a bundle.
His wife has an old Contour, which has been running very well, maybe 130,000 miles on it, late 90’s model.
Last week it wouldn’t start. They had it towed to a local ‘mechanic’ who told them it had three bad pistons and needed a good used or rebuilt motor, around $1200 or $1500.
I am not by any means a certified Master mechanic. But, I simply could not grasp a car which ran normally when she parked it, and when she tried to start it, three pistons had gone bad.
I went to the Cartalk page for recommending mechanics, and plugged in the Zip for Danville, VA. There were several recommended mechanics, but the weight seemed to fall with a place called Buxtons.
I told him he needed a second opinion, and referred him to the Buxton reviews.
He just sent me a mail saying he had it towed to Buxtons, and the real problem is a locked a/c compressor clutch and a bad compressor.
That recommended mechanics section works!!! Thanks to Cartalk and those who bothered to recommend good mechanics! Good job!
Now, I have to write a review for Buxtons!
Glad it worked. That is one of the more unusual reasons for a starter not being able to crank an engine. I wonder, what clued Buxton’s mechanic to look at the A/C compressor?
since this is second hand via long distance e-mail, I have no idea. It would be interesting to know, wouldn’t it? Still, that may be why they have so many fans willing to take the time to type in recommendations for them.
And, let me say I reported the good news BEFORE the car was fixed… Heh, heh. I will update if there are any changes in our happiness.
Three bad pistons? Where did Ford get the one good… Just kidding. Three bad pistons is a really good one. An answer like that is a great ticket to another shop. Midas in Santa Maria Ca. had a good one too. They said that their muffler guy is off until next Thursday. Midas had sold their muffler business and the shop had enough work. It was a lifetime warrantee deal. It costs the same anywhere else so I didn’t care. They could have given me five bucks off the usual fee and I would have let them do the work but I had another place to go anyway. The shop was so full of work that I thought L.A. had moved north. My car was a Tempo from 87. I call it the pre-curse to the Contour.