Jackson's Auto & Truck Service Inc

On February 24, 2017 we received a call from someone speaking on the behalf of [redacted], on the phone he specifically asked us for an estimate over the phone for a starter replacement, we made the estimate and gave it to him, he seemed happy with the quote we gave him and said he would bring the...

vehicle down soon. On February 24, 2017 we received the vehicle from [redacted] and one of her friends. They pushed the vehicle from the location where it had broken down to our location. We informed her to push the vehicle to the back of our building and she could leave it there and we could get to it on Monday. When she and her friend came inside they informed us of what was going on with the vehicle and told us that they believe it is the starter and would like the starter to be replaced. We informed her that would not be a problem but we would prefer to verify that the starter is the issue before we just replace it. They agreed and went about their business. When we had some free time we went out to the vehicle and did some testing on the starter, during our testing we found the relay broken in the box indicating that someone had tried messing with it before. We purchased a new relay to replace the broken one so we could continue our testing. Our testing did indicate that the starter was faulty and needed to be replaced. On Monday (February 27, 2017) we towed the vehicle into the shop due to the fact it was not able to be started and driven in. After we got the vehicle in to the shop we called [redacted] to inform her of two different options on the starter and that the starter replacement did involve us removing the intake manifold so there would be some gaskets that had to be replaced during the repair (all of which were included in the quote) and she said that she understood and decided to go with the cheaper starter. After this we preformed the repair and replaced the starter, after finishing the repair the vehicle started without any issues. After starting the vehicle we did notice that the engine had a knocking noise from the low end. We brought the vehicle outside and parked it, and started the vehicle multiple times over the next couple hours to verify the repair. We later called [redacted] and informed her that the vehicle was fixed and ready to be picked up. She understood and said she would get a ride and be down soon. When she arrived we had a conversation about the truck and informed her that the vehicle did have more issues such as the engine knocking and it may be viable to get rid of the vehicle before the engine gets worse instead of putting more money into the vehicle to limp it along. She asked us how much we thought the vehicle was worth in its current condition and we said in our opinion it would be worth a couple hundred dollars due to the damage to the body and the noise coming from the engine and that we did not believe the vehicle was in good enough shape to put any more money for repairs into. We also informed her that if she found the right buyer she could probably get a good bit more. She understood and seemed to agree. She paid her bill and we gave her the keys and she was on her way. On the Monday when [redacted] came down with the vehicle we found that her battery terminals were pretty worn out and were no longer able to hold to the battery posts tightly. We tightened them as much as possible and informed her that they would have to be replaced if it gives her any more issues. She seemed to understand and the vehicle started up and she was on her way. We haven't heard anything from [redacted] since this interaction. During our initial testing we verified that the battery terminals were not causing the no crank issue. We knew the terminals were in bad shape but since the vehicle started just fine for us after the starter replacement we decided that the battery terminals were working well enough and there was no need for the additional cost in replacing the terminals.