ONE WORD - SHADY I’ve honestly never really had a bad experience going to a mechanic until going to NOLA automotive repairs. Let’s break it down because there was just so many different shady pieces to this story. So first, I take my car in after I’ve been seeing white smoke coming from the tailpipe after reading some good reviews but somehow having neglected to read the bad reviews which are all pretty similar to my story in that they will try to scam you every chance they get. They told me I had to get my catalytic converters replaced and it was a $2100 repair. I was like DAMN that sucks obviously as I was not expecting to make a huge car repair but I said okay let’s go ahead and do it. However I had some hope in my heart, because luckily I have a base level knowledge of car parts ( i think they tried to put one over on me 100% because I am a young woman and they assumed I didn’t know anything. ) but anyways I know that you can sell the 3 CATS they told me I had to get replace for a good chunk of change. So I asked them what they would be doing with them. Stacy the woman I spoke to told me they had to return them to where they get their parts from and pay the core fee for new parts but if I wanted them I could pay the core fee. So I asked what the core fee was to see if it would still be worth it to sell them for scrap and pay it. And she was like … oh actually there isn’t one… SO what I got from that is that they were just gonna take them and scrap them, making an extra 1K on top of my $2100 repair assuming I knew nothing about cars. So I made them give me parts back. Got the repair done took my car home. Flash forward a few days, probably drove my car a total of 15 miles if that in this time. I had noticed the burning smell again which is why I took my car in to this place.Went to pep boys to get an oil change. They had my car up on the lift and the mechanic there was like did you recently get your catalytic converters replaced? And I said yes, he showed me my car while it was up on the lift and after paying this place $2100 THEY HAD FAILED TO PUT A WHOLE PART IN ( a gasket that seals the converters and stops them from leaking ) so I take my car back and ask them to please fix it because my check engine light was back on and I had found out that the repair was not done correctly. They redo the diagnoses and tell me it wasn’t because of that it was because my transmission is ALL OF A SUDDEN FAILING . I said how could that possibly be I’ve barely driven my car since u guys had it. And I will say it’s been about two weeks, the check engine light is now off still after they turned it off. So my conclusion is A ) they don’t have the proper tools to diagnose foreign cars and this repair could’ve possible been avoided all together or B) they did something to my transmission. So I’m conclusion. NEVER TAKE YOUR CAR HERE .
This customer came in to our shop stating that she has a 2006 Subaru Forester and thought that it had a blown head gasket. Her concerns were that her vehicle idles rough, white smoke was coming out of the tailpipe, had a burning smell and the Check Engine light was on. She agreed to let us diagnose her vehicle. The tech performed a block test and found that her head gasket was not blown. The tech found that both of her Subaru's catalytic converters were bad. The Check Engine light pulled up a code for a small evap leak, which was determined to be gas fumes escaping from the gas cap. When Stacie, the manager and service writer, told the customer this news, the customer asked Stacie about whether the car could have other issues in the future and if perhaps she should buy a new car instead. Stacie explained that we could not determine future issues, that we could only diagnose current issues and that maybe she should put her money towards a new car. Immediately the customer reconsidered, stating how expensive new cars are now and approved the catalytic converters being replaced. Later that day, the customer called and asked Stacie if we could save and return her old catalytic converters to her. Stacie replied yes, but she needed to check and see if O'Reilly's had any core charges on them. Stacie explained that if there are core charges, that the customer has to pay the core charges in order to keep them. Stacie looked up her account right then, and saw that their were no core charges, so she could have them returned to her at no charge. If there would have been core charges, the charges would have never amounted to anywhere near $1000 dollars. That is an amount fabricated by this customer. We replaced her converters, inspected the repair and it test drove fine. There was no more smoke, no more burning smell and had a smooth idle. The customer called us a few days later, stating she brought her vehicle to get an oil change elsewhere, and they told her that she had an exhaust leak. I told her to bring it back to us, and we would would check it out at no charge. She did, and the tech found that one of the exhaust pipe flange gaskets was defective, so we replaced it at no charge, since we do provide a 12 month or 12,000 mile warranty (whichever comes first) on most repairs when we provide the part. At no time did I tell this customer that any part was missing. I told her that we replaced the gasket. After the tech replaced the gasket, he inspected the exhaust and test drove the vehicle. The Check Engine light came on. He connected the diagnostic scan tool and it showed two error codes pertaining to internal transmission parts. The sensors inside the transmission send information to the vehicle's computer that is pulled up as codes on our diagnostic scan tool. These codes told us that sometime in the future, certain parts inside the transmission will fail. Other than those codes, the vehicle showed no signs of transmission issues. We cannot predict if and when the Check Engine light will come on, what codes will come up or what part will fail next and when. We can only diagnose and repair what we see at the present time. We replaced catalytic converters which is part of the exhaust system and has absolutely nothing to do with the transmission. There is no possible way that we or anyone can predict specifically what problems a vehicle may have in the future. This Subaru is a 2006 with 191,000 miles on it. If a person thinks that a vehicle of this age with this many miles will not ever need repairs again, even in the near future, then that is an unrealistic expectation.
- NOLA Automotive Repairs Inc