D Swartz Diesel

[redacted], owner of [redacted] Diesel, overcharged for the cost of parts, performed poor mechanic workmanship, and billed for work that was not performed

On January 6, 2013, I took my 1985 Ford F250, 6.9L diesel truck to [redacted] Diesel for repair. The symptom was that the engine was producing excessive white exhaust smoke. On January 10, I used my Chase VISA card and paid [redacted] Diesel $898.60 for the repair work: $666.00 (6 hrs.) labor and $232.60 parts. The truck was not properly diagnosed or repaired. After going back to him 3 times with no satisfaction, I ultimately had to take the truck to another diesel mechanic where it was properly diagnosed and fixed. [redacted] Diesel overcharged me for parts $ 113.06; for an injector, fuel filter and fuel line kit.

[redacted] Diesel installed a new fuel line kit and an injector that didn't function properly. Three fuel line joints that were found to be leaking by a second party mechanic. [redacted] Diesel was negligent for not insuring that their new injector was functioning properly.

On their invoice, [redacted] Diesel claimed to "Repair and Diagnose" the problem, with the symptom of "White Smoke", and charged me 5 hours ($555.00) for that service. Their diagnosis was negligently performed.

While they actually performed a full compression test, they only dealt with the #5 cylinder (250 lbs), which had low compression and received the "new" injector.

I was told by [redacted] that a bad injector will throw raw fuel into a cylinder, washing the lubricating oil off of the walls, causing wear and damage.

It turned out that there were other bad injectors damaging their respective cylinders. This problem was not addressed by [redacted] Diesel. This negligence would have caused further damage to my engine as it was driven. The installed defective new injector, and the other injectors that weren't tested, caused the truck to continue producing excessive white exhaust smoke after [redacted] Diesel's work had been performed and paid for.

A second party diesel mechanic bench tested the injectors and found that all 8 were bad. An injector builds pressure up to 1800 pounds. When the valve opens it injects an atomized spray into the cylinder. All of the old injectors opened at around 1250 pounds and their spray was liquid, not atomized, causing potential damage to the engine.

When I picked up my vehicle on 1/10/13 and drove it half way home, white smoke was still billowing from the exhaust. I could tell it wasn't fixed. I immediately took it back and spoke to [redacted]. He told me that these bad cylinders will regain some of their compression once soot builds up from driving. I drove it for a month and the white exhaust smoke didn't improve. I took it back to him in February and he said there was nothing he could do. I said I should probably continue to drive it and let the soot build up. He agreed.

The fact was that there was no way that the soot would build up because the new injector he installed was defective and still injecting liquid fuel into the bad cylinder. According to Mr. [redacted], this would further damage my engine. In addition, the other injectors were also causing white exhaust smoke from all of the cylinders.

[redacted] Diesel did not satisfactorily perform the work invoiced. I had to go to another mechanic to get the diesel engine properly fixed.

I confronted Mr. [redacted] on 4/1/2013 and asked for a refund. He got very abusive with his language and refused to entertain my claim.

Claim: $333.00 labor; $113.06 parts as a refund for negligence, poor workmanship and overcharges. Total $446.06.