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Here's the situation. My Saab 900 turbo needed a new cooling fan. I was charged $687.oo parts and labor. The part is $365 vie eEuroparts. This an hours worth of work, tops. Ok. Fine.
I get the car home and all the power steering has dumped out all over the belts. I clean up the engine and take it back to the shop. Knowing that some power steering hoses were moved to replace the fan, I figure it's just a loose hose clamp, cracked hose or something.
The car is looked at and I'm told that the power steering motor has gone out and it is a $994.00 part and that no aftermarket part exists. I give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't cause the damage, and having just dumped $750 into the fan, I asked about the possibility of simply driving the car without the power steering functional for awhile until I could gather some funds. I was told that was an acceptable solution and sent on my way.
What I didn't know was that they had re-filled the power steering fluid to detect the leak, and rather than draining it and cleaning up the mess, left it full to drain all over the serpentine belt and splatter all over the engine again on my way home. Of course, the belt was ruined, slipped off and the car overheated, leaving me stranded. Had I been on the highway, this could have really been bad.
The first shop I call tells me that "you cannot drive that car without the power steering motor working". He assured me that doing so would soon ruin the rack and other engine components, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage and that a knowledgeable mechanic should have advised me against driving the car as it was.
I called the shop that did the work and told them about the belt getting ruined and asking them why they let me drive away from their shop with the fluid leaking. Suddenly the guy is full of warnings about how that can cause lots of engine damage, blah, blah, blah...
He knew the danger of driving the car as it was, but still let me drive away thinking everything would be fine and I could get the steering motor replaced at my leisure. Why?
I found the power steering motor for $200 (Europarts) with a one hour labor estimate from another mechanic. I read about this guy on this site, and he sounded reliable and honest, offering dealer quality service, without the mark-ups.
Any thoughts?
posted by 74.167.123...
, Sun, 3 Aug 2008 18:56:35
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