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"The Philly Magician" (long,sad story, happy ending)
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Posted by jpNH (more from jpNH) on Mon, 3 Jan 2005 04:09:43 Share Post by Email
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So, my girlfriend left NH for Christmas in Philadelphia with her parents in the Red Dragon, her trusty '86 900t. After a few hundred miles, the car started losing power under heavy-ish accelleration, and then she came to the dreaded Garden State Parkway (aptly named because the toll booths every few miles make the highway more like one big parking lot). When she stopped at the first toll booth, the car died and would not start again. She pushed the car off to the side, and soon got a tow to the first exit. At this point, my phone rings, and she tells me what happened. AAA is on its way, and she's having the car brouth to her dad's mechanic in Philly. "He'll take care of it. He's a real magician!" her dad said. The next day, I call Tony. I tell him that the same thing happened a year ago, and it was a bad ignition coil, which was replaced roadside with a used coil I had, so that one could have gone. Or it could be a bad seal at the intake manifold, which would cause similar problems. But, it was also raining, so please check the distributor cap as well. "o.k. I'll look into it." The next day my girlfriend gets the call that the car is done. She pays Tony, the magician $250. At that point, the magician has replaced the fuel filter (probably not a bad thing) and the battery (with a DEKA battery (which better be a really good battery for $90)). The coil arced when he threw water on it, so he didn't replace it. he then told kim, "Your car is a piece of sh.., all Saabs are pieces of sh...The f---ing engine is backwards for Christ's sake." Now, her car may not be the best looking car on the road, and the interior is shot, but this is the first time in 180,000 miles that the car has failed on the road. I wouldn't call that a piece.... Needless to say, when I hear about the $90 battery and the subsequent comments, I'm not happy with Tony, though I must concede that he is a magician for turning a $10 filter and a $20 battery into 3 hours of labor and $125 in parts. Kim decided that since her brakes were "noisy" she would try a different mechanic, who had actually worked on a saab before. The next day I was on a plane for philly, which was planned before any of this happened. We went to mechanic 2 and learned that (1) the pads on the left rear brake had disappeared and he couldn't replace them until next week, (2) that during the test drive, the car died when the driver came to a stop, (3) THEY BROKE THE KEY IN THE IGNITION, but had it fixed by their locksmith, and (4) they broke the hood release cable and the hood wouldn't stay closed. Being the end of the month, they didn't have time to look into the stalling problem. but he only charged $50 for the hour of labor/test drive/lock/breaking the hood latch&cable. Now I'm really not happy with Tony because he never fixed the problem in the first place. So, I fixed the hood in the parking lot, the car fired right up and we drove the mile back to Kim's sister's house. Of course, in that mile there were 10 stop-signs, and the car stalled at every one, but started again each time, too. I removed the grill so I could open the hood again, and looked at the engine compartment. and to my non-suprise, I noticed that at the bottom of the rubber fitting at the opening of the intake manifold there was a gap of about 1/8". when I grabbed the pipe from the intercooler to the manifold, I noticed that the intercooler was no longer mounted, and as it moved, the gap at the manifold either closed or opened wider. Hmmm, I thought, didn't I tell Tony to look at this? Yes I did. and no, he didn't. So I got a trusty screwdriver, loosened the hose clamp on the rubber fitting, and reattached the fitting to the manifold. the "repair" took about 5 minutes if you include the research, searching through the basement for a screwdriver, and stopping at the fridge for a tasty Yuengling on my way back to the car. Total spent with tow+beer= $430. The next day, we hopped in Kim's trusty '86 900t, and drove home with no troubles, and no thanks to the philly magician, whatsoever. Happy New Year Everyone! Jon


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