Complaint Review: Somerset Auto Salvage

I’m informing the public of a problem I have with a business. Before bringing my Ford Escort 2001 16 Valve Zx2 Coup to Somerset Auto Salvage, I had finished book signings in August 2015 in Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay. I had replaced the water pump before the signings and the timing belt and was going to get the head gasket fixed after the signings in November of 2015. I was very impressed that the car completed the task despite the engine consuming a lot of anti-freeze.

After the book signings were finished I brought the car to Somerset Auto around November because I didn’t want to have BP work on it because they wanted to charge me $1,500.00 The manager , mechanic and part owner of Somerset Auto said he could do it for about $640.00. The head needed to be re-tooled and re-drilled with new plugs and everything. The owner of the company also said I would get new spark plugs as well as an oil change and thought I found the right company to fix my car. Instead of buying vehicles and have no idea how dependable they are I decided to spend the money and time to fix my 2001 Ford Escort  and only have one mechanic shop work on it so I could keep track of what was fixed and who fixed what.

When I got the car back in November I was upset that my spark plugs weren’t replaced. The manager told me he didn’t remember talking about including that as part of the deal. I decided to let it go and was looking forward to driving my car. I learned after driving to Mendota Heights MN on business that my car was having problems. Steam was coming up from the hood and I parked it on the side of the road after I got off hwy 494 in Minnesota. I quickly opened up the hood to see anti-freeze being pushed up through the reserve where you pour it in. Steam was all over motor where I assumed was from the anti-freeze that sprayed from the radiator. It was pushing anti-freeze back into the reserve and when I checked the oil from my dipstick I was shocked to learn I didn’t have any oil. When I talked to him I was told that it was normal for it to push the anti-freeze into the reserve tank and that it will go back to normal because it had air bubbles. When I asked about the oil he said that it should be full and to return the car so it can be examined. After returning the car, I found out that the car had the wrong dipstick. The original dipstick broke and they replaced it with one from another Escort from their yard. In my opinion it didn’t make any sense because if you put oil in the car , wouldn’t you want to make sure it was at the right level? You don’t want to over fill it. Instead of them replacing the dipstick I had to order a new one and would have to pay for the new one. After a couple of weeks went by and the new dipstick never came in and they never called me I decided to forget about it.

After a few days  I had gotten my car back from Somerset Auto and everything seemed fine. I noticed a few problems with leaking anti-freeze and the temperature going up to “H”. I brought it back to the shop to have them work on it. It seemed like I was bringing the car every week or so from January to February. Close to the end of February I had a broken vehicle yet again.

I was driving through Hudson when suddenly the car started making loud noises. I pulled into a street and opened up the hood to see the timing belt was really loose. My first thought was the belt snapped and immediately called Somerset Auto to have them tow it. I was told they didn’t have a tow truck and couldn’t pick it up. My brother in law and his brother looked at my car and unscrewed it to see that something was broke. We had a conversation about the process of changing the head gasket which involved the timing belt off. I didn’t want to accept that my mechanic was lying to me about the work on my car.

I got a phone call, after bringing the car to the shop with the car dolly, that the cam shaft was broken and that they needed to screw out the remainder of the bolt and weld the broken head. The Cam Shaft is what goes into the head and cranks the engine. They didn’t ask me if I wanted them to weld the head, they just went ahead and did it.  When the weld failed,  Somerset Auto charged me for the labor and put a used head in the car. I was extremely upset with how they performed their work practice. I drove over to the shop with another vehicle to see my car and was unhappy to see that they moved my vehicle outside the shop with the junk cars. The shop inside was almost empty, but they parked my car outside with their junk cars. Why didn’t they leave my car inside the shop? I mean, I’m going to need my car to run. There’s got to be some kind of subliminal message of what they thought of me. I was introduced to a younger mechanic who would be working on my car. What I don’t understand is why didn’t they replace the cam shaft when they replaced parts off of the head gasket. The owner made it clear that they were going to replace parts on the head , re-tool it and shave down the screw holes and parts so that it would run like new. For some reason the owner and mechanic didn’t know if the cam shaft was already replaced and I couldn’t tell the difference if it was. I decided to call the mechanic from BP to see if he had replaced it. When I talked to him he said that he didn’t replace it because it wasn’t part of the timing belt kit and that the tennsioner was replaced because it was broken when they were putting the timing belt in the car. The Mechanic of BP said that you have to take the timing belt off to replace the head gasket. The owner and mechanic of Somerset Auto lied to me by telling me that you don’t take the timing belt off to get to the head gasket which confirmed my first conversation with my brother in law’s brother who was a professional mechanic. The manager of BP was extremely upset with me on the phone to prove his credibility, but his credibility wasn’t in question. The owner was standing in front of me when I made the call to BP and I was upset and I was upset about the situation. After wards I thought that the mechanic and owner should have known that when replacing the water pump and the timing belt that the cam shaft wouldn’t be getting replaced.

I decided to have Somerset Selvage fix my car and hoped that that would be the end of my problems. I told the owner that I needed the car to continue the signings and that this was important. I made sure he knew that I was getting tired of the car leaking fluids, making funny noises and the temperature gage going up and down.  I also told him that I would be coming back to get some more work done such as replacing body parts; head lights, fenders and rims as well as bringing other vehicles that I was going to buy to fix up. Some of them would be restored. The car wasn’t in bad shape, but it seemed that when I brought it to the shop it continued to have more problems. When I brought the Escort to BP to have the water pump and timing belt replaced I drove the car to Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay I had no problems, the car ran fine. It was only when I had to make stops in town or stop at stop lights where I would risk over heating the engine because of the head gasket problem, via suck more anti-freeze than it should.  Then when I had Somerset Auto Selvage I’ve been having problems left and right. So I knew something was going on.

I ended up waiting almost a month before I got my car back. I called periodically to find out that they were still working on my car. It was around the end of March when I got the call from the owner mechanic of Somerset Selvage that my car was finished and I hoped it was over and that my car would run like a dream. My thoughts were that the company wanted to make sure the car ran good with no leaks no funny noises and the head gasket was holding up  The younger mechanic took it for a drive and tested everything out, so he claimed. When I showed up to pick it up the owner said it runs really good and the bill ended up costing my almost $600.00 because I had to pay for the labor of when they welded the old head and failed. I also paid about $150.00 for the used head and the labor. He also claimed he changed the oil from the first time and my spark plugs, which he failed to install when he said he would from my earlier visit.

The car drove great and I decided to put it behind me. I learned there were problems with the car that I wasn’t aware of. My front breaks were almost gone, all four of my tires were balled and my front shocks were making creaky noises that weren’t apparent before. The younger mechanic was working on the vehicle for a month and I felt like my parts were switched out so they would have me come back to get the parts replaced. I never looked closely at my brake pads, but when I did, I know I had at least a quarter inch of pad left. My tires were not bald when I brought it to them, they had just under a quarter of an inch of tread. I decided to move on and see another mechanic. I was thinking to myself; I told him I needed the car to do my book signings, I need everything replaced, do a good job, I’m bringing more vehicles to have him work on and now I felt like I was getting the big f**k you. Nobody called to tell me that I might want to get new tires or get some brakes put in. So what I got was a fixed cam shaft with tires that needed to be replaced as well a front breaks and really bad front shocks that weren’t bad before. I mean where did they test drive my car? The only way you could use up these resources is if they drove all over the country side and put their foot on the brakes while driving it. I don’t press on the brakes that hard and I installed Premium so they last a long time.

 Before this incident I was stopping by every week  at Somerset Selvage because something was broke or I was leaking fluids because they didn’t replace the clamps. The owner said that the anti-freeze was leaking from the radiator because of how it was sprayed on the hood. It felt like it was a visit every week for stupid things and I was being nickel and dimed.  Now the mechanic wanted me to spend $100.00 to replace the radiator because if I didn’t the hot weather in July would cause the part to fail and I would risk damaging the head. I didn’t need to replace the radiator and the leaking mysteriously stopped by June. I don’t know if the mechanic replaced the radiator cap or the pressure decreased.  My gut feeling told me to not go back to Somerset Selvage for work on my car unless it was problems with the head or the timing belt which they had been double handling. If I had any more problems in those areas of the car then the company and mechanic would be liable to fix it and quite possibly fix it for free because it wasn’t fix in the first place. 

If they say that they’re going to do something for your car and you pay for it they should do it. If they know that you’re going to need that vehicle in the future and you need ALL the nuts and bolts replaced, then they should do it. If  the mechanic isn’t sure then he should be making the phone calls instead of me getting the car back and then a few months later something else is broken  and needs to be replaced. They should be asking questions, anticipating your needs. For instances, the mechanic knew that after the cam shaft failed he should have replaced all the bolts that weren’t part of the kit from the earlier work of the BP mechanic as well as the Cam Sensor including new spark plugs new screws for the head and not put junk parts back in my car.

Most people who own a car has experienced the misfortune of the care breaking down on the side of the road. That’s why they bring it to a reputable, honest mechanic who can get the work done and anticipate other problems that will need to be replaced and inform the customer. The customer makes the decision and proceeds,  hopefully to get the car back on the road and not falling apart every other week. Sometime after I had everything in order and replaced my tires and my brakes from another mechanic in Hudson WI, my car stalled as it made a rattling noise. I was thinking what the f**k is going on?

I ended up calling the old mechanic because they worked on both the head gasket, re-installed another head and the timing belt and told the secretary that they screwed up and should fix it. They had been double handling the area of my car and put the good parts from the old head onto the used head, but for all I know they could have put a bunch of junk screws and bolts from an Escort that was lying in the yard. At this point I kind of felt like a junk car in their yard.

 I didn’t have access to a car dolly and ended up calling a tow truck , which I had to pay to get the car brought to them because they didn’t have a tow truck. When I called them I was irritated with the phone system because I could never get a hold of anyone unless I dialed for parts and get put on hold for twenty minutes. Sometimes it would be five or ten minutes, but the service still sucked. When I did get through I made it clear that I wanted them to pay for the towing because they screwed up. The secretary’s response was, we’ll have the determination when we find out what is wrong with the car.

The break down occurred in June or July and the result was a sensor failure from the Cam Shaft. It was about $100.00 to replace. There was a mess on the seals and timing belt from the discharge of oil, but I didn’t think anything of it because I felt the mechanic would do their job to take care of my car. It was extremely frustrating that the Cam Shaft Sensor wasn’t replaced with everything else.

When I got the car back I was told that the car was different and it was because of a new sensor on an older vehicle. I was thinking to myself that it shouldn’t make any difference if a new sensor is on an older vehicle. The mechanic was nice, but inexperienced and I was upset that the owner wasn’t working on my car and I was charged for the towing and the labor to install a little device in my car that should have been replaced immediately with the cam shaft. People have places to go and people to see and don’t have time for incompetence.

I drove the car and knew right away something wasn’t right because the motor sounded really low and barely had enough power in first and second gear. I called the shop to complain that my car wasn’t running well and was told by the younger mechanic that it takes a couple weeks for the sensor to get used to the car. I was thinking; get used to the car? It’s not like the mechanic performed an organ transplant to my car and it needs a month to recover. After being concerned I opened up the spark plugs to see if there was any oil from a cracked head and came across a spark plug that wasn’t even plugged in. I took the car out for a test drive and the car ran fine. I replaced the spark plugs to see they were bad and weren’t replaced at all.

I have never had an experience where a mechanic would only replace some of the parts of my car and wait for me to come back to pay him for another part that should have been replaced. The phone service is a sign that the company is having problems with their communication and should probably look for another mechanic. The whole experience was like having a migraine that wouldn’t go away.

Almost every time I called to get service I would get a voice mail or talk to the secretary that didn’t know anything about cars and I would have to wait for the owner to call me back or the young mechanic. It was exhausting to call this business and be put on hold for twenty minutes.

For about six months I didn’t have any problems with my car until the weekend of Christmas 2016. My car did the same thing it did the last two time that involved the timing belt, but this time I took it to another mechanic and the diagnosis wasn’t good. One of the bolts in the pulley system that put tension on the belt busted off , leaving the rest of the bolt inside the head and oil had discharged all over the timing belt and damaged the seals. It was a mess and the bill was almost $1,100.00. I was extremely angry because it was the same problem with the timing belt that involved the cam shaft sensor that was neglected to be replaced when replacing the cam shaft that was broken.

I decided to call the mechanic and after being placed on hold and given the run around, I eventually got a hold of the young mechanic, I told him what happened and that I wanted him to fix my car free of charge because it wasn’t fixed right. I was told that he needed to talk to the owner and I was put on hold for thirty minutes. I finally hung up and called to talk to the secretary who told me she would have the owner call me back. After two hours I called and still couldn’t get through because nobody would answer the phone or I would have to dial parts and still get put on hold. Then when I did get through I could hear the owner talking to someone and nobody would answer the phone. After waiting for about twenty minutes I hung up and kept calling until I got through.

When I got through I chewed out the owner and complained about the phone service and the young mechanic and their service. The owner apologized and said it wasn’t the mechanics problem. Then he changed the way he said it replaced it that it wasn’t the mechanic’s fault.  It is his fault and it’s your fault when the secretary tells you that I need a return phone call and you refuse to call me back.

I moved on and told him that my car broke down and I wanted him to fix it free of charge, which caused some concerns on his part because it was about six months out of warranty. My response was; so my car is supposed to last only six months? He responded in conflict of interest that was implying that it wasn’t his problem and that’s when I lost my temper.

Somerset Auto is not a business to have work on your car. You can only give a person so many chances before they abuse it and take your money. I told the owner that if he didn’t fix my car that I wouldn’t be coming back and I would take him to small claims court and his response was; I’ll have to talk to my lawyer. A real mechanic who is sympathetic to a person would have taken the opportunity to correct the wrong. I talked to a lawyer and was told that it’s negligence on the mechanics part to work on a car for so long that continues to have problems and continue to get paid for work that should have been replaced. The lawyer said that he was in the wrong and should pay to have it fixed.