Complaint Review: Jerry's Muffler - - Jerry Smith

Took my car to this man for a waterpump, sparkplugs and new thermostat. When I picked the car up, it ran terribly. Very rough idle that was not there before.

Returned the car to him and told him the problem, stated that car did not do this before waterpump replacement. He stated the motor was faulty design, and spark plugs not aligning correctly, should settle in over time.

Few days later took car back again, still running badly. New sparkplug insulators added to car and new fuel filter trying fix the problem. Picked up car couple of days later, did not make it up the street from shop before car stalled. Made U turn right back to shop. I told him what happened and said once again car did not run this way before waterpump installed. Left car there again, he did a check on the coils and hooked it up to his machine. He reported back to me that machine check out was fine and he could not find problem.

Took car to Nissan dealership, they could barely get it into service bay, it ran so poorly. They had no diagnoses for me, but suggested the timing was off by one tooth. Gave a copy of this report to Jerry, and a written note That I wanted to see the timing chain on the car. Saw the chain with the cover off, it looked okay from what I could see. Put car back together, still ran badly.

Told Jerry once again that car did NOT run like this before waterpump installation. Jerry asked if there was white smoke coming from my exhaust, I said, "Yeah, NOW there is". I also made it clear that THIS also did not exist before. He said with confidence, "well, your headgaskets are blown,that's your problem". Like an idiot, I believed him, so went back home , saved my money and waited.

After new headgaskets installed and head re-surfaced, new timing chain put on, car ran worse than ever. Took car to another small shop for diagnostics. No answer. Finally went to GM dealership and found a whole host of crap that Jerry did to my car. Here is what was found by GM service bay:

Timing chain cover bent and warped. Holes bored out to "make it fit back on". Timing was off. Brake booster hose busted off and replaced with a piece of cut off scrap hose that was probably just laying around Jerry's shop, which could have resulted in brake failure and serious injury to me. Engine head incorrectly reground, resulting in an improperly seating valve. Coolant bypass hose plugged up with silicone which could have been the cause of the blown headgaskets. This was all done by Jerry, as nobody else has ever had that engine apart!

This cost just over $1500 for GM to fix what Jerry did. When Jerry was confronted, he staunchly denied that he did ANY of that and flatly refused any wrongdoing and would NOT pay the repair bill. I told him to either pay the repairs or we will see him in court. When I was in his office the last time, I happened to see a work order on his desk showing that he was about to replace headgaskets and a timing chain on another car. Apparently this is one of his favorite games with people.

He even went to GM when they had my car and looked at the head himself when it was pulled off the car, and stated "I've seen all that I need to see". He offered to pay for parts replacement, but I would have to eat the labor charges. I told him "No Way, you did this, you are going to pay the bill".

When I left him the last time, he was still denying any wrong doing, and challenging me to "prove it". Just wait 'til he gets a letter of demand from my attorney! I paid Jerry just over $2600.00 all together, then another $1500 to GM to fix Jerry's mess. By the way, GM did fix the car, and now it runs great!!

Sherri
Columbia, Missouri