Business ProfileforDan's Complete Automotive Care

I had my 1969 Mustang delivered to this shop on April 28, 2021. I got the car back on August 6, 2021. They kept the vehicle for three months. I was expecting a fully functional and repaired vehicle when it was brought back to my house. Instead I got a vehicle that runs worse than it did when they started working on the car. The owner of the shop and the shop manager both assured me that they knew how to diagnose and repair engines. I also wanted to have a differential gear replacement, installation of a fuel injection system, and a paint repair. About a month after they got the car, I was told that my engine was fine and some minor adjustments had solved the oil issue. I agreed to have them do the other work. I was called two months later by the manager, who stated that the work was all done and the car was ready. I had them bring the car back to the house. The car ran very rough and would not idle. The new fuel injection system struggled to keep the engine running. The car backfired and generally ran much worse than before. They had adjusted the timing on my engine, without my consent (hence the backfiring issue) and messed it all up. I had to take the car to a mechanic to have the timing reset. Also they replaced the engine oil with a synthetic which is not approved for my engine. I had given them the grade, type, and brand of oil that this engine requires. Additionally, the manager informed me that they had adjusted my power brakes. My brakes no longer work. I will have to have that system readjusted by a qualified mechanic. They charged me $600 to adjust the carburetor, knowing that they were replacing it with a fuel injection system. The entire bill was over $6400, most of that wasted on unnecessary and/or poorly done work. Do not take your vehicle to this shop. The owner of this shop is a member of the same Mustang car club I belong to. If he does this kind of work on a fellow Mustang club owner's car, imagine what he will do to your car!

This is the response I sent to:*************************** ******************* S ***********, ** ***** February 7, 2022 Dear **************** received your letter near or just after Christmas. I do apologize for the delay in responding as we have had a lot going on with our third round of Covid going through our staff, the element of the holidays, a family members death due to Covid, but most of all I needed to retrieve the phone and work order records for the past year in order to review communications on both party's parts. With that said I have read your letter and find it necessary to identify and respond to each item.First communication you and I had as it related to my observation was to explain in details the cause and effects of excessive ignition timing as related to cylinder pressure and detonation and how these specs will cause engine damage and poor drivability. I also made the relationship as to why others may have set the ignition timing so aggressively in order to attempt to create cylinder pressure in an attempt to create intake signal to achieve any idle quality. And this may very well contribute to oil usage with the incorrect vac routing, and massive vacuum leak. Also, the conversation ended with my recommendation for the proper break in oil and the addition of zinc in the oil, this was followed with your statement that if I were to drain the oil, to install as I would recommend, therefore I did not use the oil supplied but did use the filter supplied as it did not affect this equation. Also of note, synthetic oil was not installed it is a blend to give the modern technology (bearings and rings) what they need as well as the traditional cast components what they need. I did not explain the science as our conversation was past that by that time.The clutch RO item was on the work order as a line item so I interviewed the responsible tech for advice on this and he stated that the system needed final bleeding as it would relate to the final bleeding as it would relate to final installation and adjusted the linkage to allow release of the clutch in an appropriate portion of the travel. No other changes were made.The installation of the *** fuel injection system required some computer tuning in order to achieve closed loop operation. It was at this time **** called you at my request to explain that your car had a brake issue, and we suspected the brake booster to possibly have an internal vacuum leak therefore not allowing the *** to calculate the proper alga rhythm for air fuel ratio. You quickly stated the breaks are supposed to be like that. **** went on to state the possibility of an internal leak will make it difficult if not impossible to fine tune the system. It was at this point arrangements were made for delivery as we preformed no service to the brake system as installed and I further advised staff to limit any testing on the public roads if we had concern for brake operation.To address your concern about said scratch, I find it difficult to imagine that while you are hiring my firm to fix a scratch and I caused another said scratch, that I would not just fix them both. A bit insulting do you not think,especially when you consider the caliber of cars cared for in the facility.The final item I would like to address concerns everybody, all of us, even me. We have all needed something that we have had to wait for longer than we thought was necessary for whatever it was that we desired. In short, the current pandemic has no boundaries,and the automotive aftermarket has been one of the hardest hit industries as so much of what we order comes from overseas. I more than once ******************* explain this to you over the phone.Inclosing I will say that your *** Fuel injected system will work properly when all the other systems come together with their equal contribution related to performance and efficiency. And, to address your negative comment to the qualifications to the entire project. I find it to be the exception to the rule and not the rule.Sincerely Yours .*********************

The owner responded that they did their best and that the issues they could not fix were due to issues with the car. He is incorrect and does not not know very much about cars or engines, based on the mess my car was in when it was returned to me. It could not be driven. I have since had the timing put back to where it belongs and the fuel injection system they installed is also working but needs a few more adjustments. The power brakes on the car are still not functional, due to whatever they did to my brake system, but I have found a qualified mechanic that will sort that out. This shop is so poorly operated that they did not even provide me any of the documentation for the parts they installed including the fuel injection system. Whoever messed up my car over there is clearly not a qualified mechanic, and should not be working on cars. And the owner does not care one bit about his customers or their cars. Mine came back with a dent that was not there when I brought it over there. That's what happens when your vehicle sits at their shop for three months, when the work they did should have taken a week at most. Very poor service!