ComplaintsforBeany's Auto Service Center

• Initial Complaint

  02/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had work done at Beany's in late September 26th, 2022, that totaled $1334.00. My car ran well for a month and a half, partly because I work from home. On November 20 while driving 3 lights came on. It was like the car lost power. I barely made it home and after checking under the hood the coolant was bone dry. My brother put coolant in it and I drove maybe 2-3 miles got on the freeway and it did the same thing. I called AAA and had it towed to my house. Got ahold of my mechanic and had it towed to his house in Lancaster. After looking under the hood he told me the water pump drive belt and the serpentine belt had not been installed correctly, it was just laying on my engine. AT that time I called Beany's and spoke with **** who said if i brought in the defective belts i would be reimbursed. He replaced the belts, put coolant in it, drove it around his neighborhood and it was fine. Got it home and the next day I drove it maybe 5 miles and it did the same thing. Had it towed again to my mechanic and after thoroughly checking under the hood he found out the coolant had gone everywhere. It was in my engine, he took 12-1/2 quarts of this mixture out of my engine. It ruined it. Checked the oil and it was in there mixed with the oil, he said it was like a vanilla milkshake. I emailed Beany's everything, a timeline of what all had happened and all of the receipts for everything that had to be replaced. I took the belts to Beanys on 01/30/23 and they informed me there was nothing they could do, that I should have called them. I did not know at first it was their error and after I found out i did not want to take my car there, i do not trust them. They gave me a credit for the 2 belts at $149.79. The parts cost me $1014.30 and the labor an additional $1050.00. I believe they should be responsible, i spent over $2000.00 on my car when I should not have had to.

  Business response

  02/27/2023

  The customer had possession of the car for SIX WEEKS with no indication that there were ANY issues.  The customer called me at the end of 2022, after her other "mechanic" had looked at her car  (so after November) wanting a refund on the job we'd done for her.  Because we hadn't seen the car since September, and there is no telling how many miles had been driven, or what state the parts were in, I told her we couldn't just give her money back without seeing  the car.  She told me she'd since had extensive work done on her engine.  The best I could do for her was if she brought me the part, refund her for them, which I did.  The belt looked damaged, but was NOT BROKEN.  
  
  A bad belt will most likely present by squealing and/or a pulley will make quite a bit of noise if the belt is not 'seated' properly.  Even if it didn't make noise, a broken belt ALWAYS has indicators that something has happened.  If the belt we installed broke (which it didn't, see above), the water pump would have stopped working, which could lead to overheating.   The driver will often experience loss of power assist (steering).  Most significantly it will show lights on the dash to STOP DRIVING.  It sounds like this car did just that.  
  
  The customer admits in her statement that the car had THREE LIGHTS come on while driving, and "it was like the car lost power," which are indicators that something is terribly wrong.  They added coolant and KEPT DRIVING THE CAR!!!  She doesn't indicate which three lights came on, but it sounds like they suspected an overheat issue since they added coolant..... sounds like OVERHEAT was one of them, or perhaps the temp gauge was in the 'red."  She was given warning (by the car), and chose to add coolant, instead of calling us to have it towed in, or taking it to any mechanic.

  
  Her other "mechanic" said we'd installed the belts improperly, but the customer told our service manager that "they" (the customer and her brother) saw they had come undone and tried to re-install them themselves, which is what their "mechanic" saw.  We would have liked to have an opportunity to see it.  Perhaps the part was bad?  Maybe the pulley was bad?   Either way, if your car loses power and your dash lights up, you stop driving the car.  Period.  
  
  The bottom line is that the customer drove the car far past a "red line overheat" as indicated by oil and antifreeze mixing.  That is NOT our fault.  She returned the old belts to us, and it looks DAMAGED (not broken).  Because we weren't able to see it before the customer tried to reinstall AND another mechanic did, we have no idea what it looked like.  Perhaps it was damaged when they worked with it?  Again, the car was FINE FOR SIX WEEKS.  We can't be responsible for the damage a driver does to a car while ignoring the signs the car gives them.  
  
  We have stood behind our work for more than FOURTY YEARS.  There's no way we wouldn't have addressed any belt issue that had been brought up to us.   The indicators she mention are of a CATASTROPHIC OVERHEAT, and her 2013 Mazda has many ways to tell the operator to stop driving (bells, lights, gauges) that they must have ignored.  The fault isn't ours. 
  
  

  I've refunded the customer the cost of the belts.  
  The catastrophic damage done to the engine was done outside of the work we did.  

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