The Black Forest

Review: False repair report, they wanted to make unnecessary expensive repairs. Returned car and withheld parts.

My V W TDI Gulf died while traveling from the bay area to Nevada City for a conference. To make a long story short my car ended up in their shop.

they told me I needed a new turbo charger even though it had been changed out 5 years prior. A $3000.00 repair! Wanting a second opinion and needing that kind of extended work done by a shop closer to home I towed my car back to the bay area.

My shop in town checked it out very thoroughly with computer and test driving and found no problem(?) Afterwards talked with Black Forest because they forgot to return my car in proper order and left the internal engine cover in their shop. Claimed they had the correct diagnoses and declared I would have problems on any long trip. A week after I went from the bay area to LA (Round trip) with no problems.

After 3 calls asking them to return the engine cover it arrived with out the bolt (special order). WARNING This shop is out to take you BE CARE FULL these are professional rip off artists and will make up any story to charge you money for unnecessary repairs with very SLOPPY work .Desired Settlement: Please refund diagnosis estimate and return bolts necessary to secure engine cover.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

Contact Name and Title: [redacted] / Owner

Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX

Contact Email: [redacted]@blk4est.net

First let me say that this person never came into our shop. Let's go ahead and make a long story long. I find that a long story short usually does not tell the whole story. This vehicle was originally towed to another shop. The problem stated to them was that while driving and changing gears a big black puff of smoke came from exhaust and engine died. Engine would crank but would not start. Their tech found oil pressure light on and the oil 2 1/2 quarts low and topped off engine oil. Tech then cranked vehicle for a long period, finally resulting in the starting but running on only 2-3 cylinders. After revving engine to bleeding of air from system the car ran smoothly.

While test driving, the car went to full throttle with no pedal input and noted black smoke cloud from exhaust and engine stalled again. That shop diagnosed a failed fuel injection pump. (This would have been approximately a $1,450. Job) The customer declined repairs and had the car towed to our shop.

We talked to the tech at the other shop and he explained that when he test drove the car that it not only had excessive smoke but it also accelerated on its own and he did not feel safe test driving it any

further.

We talked to customer and she reported that even though she is running bio diesel. She had not had any smoking problems up to this point and that she had just checked the oil before making trip and it was at full mark. She also noted that it had plenty of power until it died, and was hard to start like it was flooded, also noted that the check engine light had been on.

We ran the engine and found it was very hard to start and at first it ran very rough until it cleared out and then ran fine but still had excessive smoking. After pulling faults we found only faults for EGR and Glow Plugs, neither explain the problem at hand. We checked the injection pump timing values and found to be within range.

We consulted with a technical support group. The conclusion, after discussing and inspecting the charged air and intake system for oil contamination, was that we have a similar case that has been experienced by several others.

They have seen intermittent failing of turbo seals will cause the intake system to pull oil through using it for a secondary fuel source, i.e.: accelerates on its own and using excessive amounts of oil from the crank case, exhibited by 2 1/2 quarts low on oil in less than 200 miles with no sign of leakage.

We recommended replacement of the turbo with a new unit; customer said that it had been replaced 50,000 miles ago with a used unit. She could not afford to replace with new unit. She stated that she would like to find an aftermarket part. We told her that if she found a quality rebuilt part we would install it for her at a cost of $1,300, which included cleaning the intake system replacing the EGR valve and installing her turbo. We left the car apart while waiting for her decision. While the customer was searching for her own parts she asked us to disassemble some of the components around the area related to the turbo in order to access numbers that were stamped on the turbo even though we gave her a factory part number for the turbo. After a couple of weeks she let us know that she was having it towed out. We immediately began putting it back together and got it done as the tow truck arrived a few hours later.

The original cost of this job was 2,600. Not 3,000. The nature of this issue, as advised, is intermittent and symptoms may return, usually without warning. We will of course never know if or when that happens, nor will the complaint systems to which she is reporting. We stand behind our diagnosis and after spending no less than 5 hours on her vehicle cannot justify retuning her 1 hour labor charge that she originally authorized. We have apologized for not replacing the engine cover in our haste to get car back together before pick up. We did send it to her and certainly did not "withhold her parts".

We have sent her the 3 "special order" ($1.00ea.) bolts (2 of which were missing when car arrived) needed to reinstall the cover.