ComplaintsforTodd's Complete Auto Care

• Initial Complaint

  04/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had my high pressure fuel pump replaced at Todds complete auto care on 3/28/23. Paid them to do a diagnostic after telling them what I knew needed fixed. I was quoted over 1k to replace the pump and sensor. I chose to leave the sensor out because Im not made of money. On 4/13/23 not even three weeks of having the car back it broke down agin, so I took it back to Todds. Except this time, there was a whole array of issues with the fuel system and I was quoted 2.6k to replace. All these issues that they somehow missed on the diagnostic that I paid them to do. But what Im now realizing looking through several reviews is a lot of people seem to be having the same issue of going to Todds and then having to make several return trips because the car is worse after leaving the repair shop. I have just received the car back from Todds after having it towed home. And now its making a lot of sputtering and blowing smoke out of the exhaust, wont turn over. That was not doing before. I believe they may be tampering with the vehicles to get more money. Because this should not be happening to so many people. So I would like an explanation on how this has happened to me and so many others. Maybe its just because Im a young female and they think Im stupid and can get more money out of me. I see this happen a lot in the automotive industry.

  Business response

  04/17/2023

  On 3/28/23, *************************** brought her 2013 Impala to our shop.  Her complaint was that there were several lights flashing on the dash.  She had had it at a previous shop **** Boys) and they said there was a fuel pressure issue.  The first thing we did was scan for codes in the engine computer. We found 1 code in the system.  It was P228C (Fuel Pressure Regulator Solenoid Control Performance Low Pressure).  In order to set this code, the computer has to see an actual fuel rail pressure of 425 psi less than the desired fuel pressure commanded by the computer. Typically when we diagnose fuel pressure issues, we use a mechanical fuel pressure gauge.  Due to the design of this fuel system, we are not able to. A manual fuel pressure gauge is designed for lower pressure fuel systems.  This vehicle has a direct injection fuel system, where the fuel rail pressure can be between 290-2176 psi.  Per the ** service manual, we use a scanner to monitor the actual fuel rail pressure.  We observed that were seeing less than 200 psi at the fuel rail pressure sensor when the desired pressure was 580 psi.  This lead us to diagnose the vehicle as having a weak high pressure fuel pump.  We typically replace the fuel rail pressure sensor when we replace the high pressure fuel pump.  We called ******************* on 3/28 and advised her of what we found.  At that time, we recommended replacing the high pressure fuel pump as well as the fuel rail pressure sensor.  ******************* approved the high pressure fuel pump but declined the fuel rail pressure sensor.  We replaced the high pressure fuel pump and the vehicle drove normally afterwards. We did note that when we did the repair, she was running e85 fuel.  The fuel showed that it had a 75% ethanol level.  We advised customer that, even though this is a flex fuel vehicle that can run on ethanol free to e85 fuel,************** standard fuel in vehicle. 
  
  On 4/13/23, ******************* brought her vehicle back to our shop.  She was complaining that the check engine light was on, the engine was down on power, and that she was hearing a rattling noise from the engine that changed with engine speed.  She drove the vehicle to our shop.  When we drove the vehicle in our parking lot we were able to verify her concerns.  The vehicle was down on power, it ran rough, the check engine light was flashing,and we heard a rattling.  Upon inspection, we found 5 engine codes present. They were P00C6 (fuel rail pressure low during crank), P0172 & P0175 (Bank 1 & Bank 2 Rich), P0191 (Fuel Rail Pressure Sensor Performance), and P0300 (Random Mulitple Cylinder Misfire). We also found 2 transmission codes. They were P0877 (Transmission Fluid Pressure Switch 4 Circuit Low Voltage) and P0989 (Transmission Fluid Pressure Switch 5 Circuit Low Voltage).  We also found several airbag, abs, hvac, and communication codes that are not relevant to the drivability issues (C0242,C0561, U0073, B1019, U0184, B0223, B0408). We found the transmission fluid was 1 qt low causing the transmission codes.  We checked the fuel rail pressure with the scanner, and the actual pressure matched the desired fuel pressure.  We watched misfire data on the scanner and saw that cylinder #5 was having several misfires.  We pulled the spark plug on #5 cylinder and found it was soaked in fuel.  We could smell fuel coming from that cylinder.  We were able to watch pressure on the fuel rail and found that the pressure would build to desired pressure and then leak down when the engine was not running.  This indicated a leak somewhere in the high pressure fuel system.  This combined with the fuel soaked spark plug on cylinder 5 helped us to determine that the #5 fuel injector was leaking.  This would allow fuel to flow into cylinder 5 anytime there was enough pressure in the fuel rails causing a misfire.  This would also cause the engine to emit black smoke from the exhaust.  It could also cause the vehicle to be hard to crank over, due to the fact that liquid fuel will not compress in the combustion chamber.  This can also damage the catalytic converters.  We called ******************* and she wanted us to call her mother, *************  We called ****** and explained to her what we found.  We recommended replacing all 6 fuel injectors as well as the fuel rail pressure sensor.  We quoted the customer around $2600 dollars.  We also gave her the option of just replacing the #5 injector and fuel rail pressure sensor.  The customer declined all of the repairs.  ******************* had her vehicle towed from our shop.  We did not charge ********************  All of our repairs carry a minimum of 12 month/12,000 mile warranty on parts that we have replaced.
  
  We believe that due to the weak high pressure fuel pump, the #5 injector had gotten weak.  After replacing it with a good pump, that the higher pressures finally showed that there was a faulty injector.  We explained this to ************************  

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