These Are Your Worst Mechanic Rip-Off Stories

No one loves taking their car to the shop. It means something's broken, and it means you're likely to spend a whole bunch of money getting it fixed. If you're lucky, you may only be out a couple hundred bucks by the time a shop puts your keys back into your hand. Choose the wrong mechanic, however, and you could be looking at a whole lot more.

Yesterday, we asked for your worst stories of being ripped off by mechanics. Today, we're taking a look through your top answers. Let's see what you said.

I bought a 1970 Buick Wildcat convertible from the gentleman who had owned it for 40 years. It was an all-original, number-matching survivor.

After a few years, I realized the rear main seal was leaking badly, as were the valve cover gaskets the oil pan gasket (it was, at this point a 45 year old car.)

I decided to have the engine rebuilt so I took the car to a reputable mechanic a few miles from home. Almost immediately after this, the mechanic i hired (Dave) had some health issues and sold the business to another mechanic (who I will call Eric) who ran a smaller shop a few counties away.

Eric's shop pulled my engine and sent it to his other shop to be rebuilt.That shop in turn sent my heads to another shop 'down the road a piece' to be machined; that machine shop farmed out my heads them yet another machine shop IN ANOTHER STATE because there was some issue with their equipment.

So my number-matching 455 V-8 is now spread out over four different shops in two states.

Long story short, it took 3-4 months, dozens of phone calls on my part and the threat of legal action against all four shops and their owners to get my engine reassembled.

A few years later, I am forced to sell the Wildcat after being unemployed for eight months. I finally find a buyer who is going to finish the resto i started. We negotiate a price pending an inspection of the car by the buyer's mechanic.

Car gets up on the lift, i point out the new suspension components, tie rod end bushings, etc. The mechanic and buyer look to be pleased with the car when the mechanic says "This isn't the correct transmission for this car."

"Wait, what?"

The 1970 Wildcat came with a Turbo Hyrdomatic 400. The transmission in my car was a TH 350.

I call the original owner of the car, he confirms he never touched the transmission.

I call Eric's cell, the number is disconnected, as is the main number for the shop.

I go to Eric's shop, steam coming out of my ears, to find it shut down.

i called Dave, the original owner of the shop who told me the financing for the sale never went through and Eric stripped the shop down to the bare walls before skipping town, which was almost a quarter-million dollars worth of equipment and tools.

So, I wound up selling the Wildcat to the buyer for $2500 less than our original agreement because of the incorrect transmission.

I go to file a police report and the detective says he has several other cases pending against Eric and there's a warrant for his arrest, and BTW good luck ever seeing a dime 'cause Eric is apparently vanished from the face of the earth because even his mother hadn't heard from him.

Five years later I'm still pissed about it. And Eric is apparently still in the wind because as of September this year the detective has no updates in the case.

I like the fiction that every scam on this list was perpetrated by Eric. He went to ground, changed his name and address, and showed up somewhere else to pull a different wool over someone else's eyes.

Submitted by: Earthbound Misfit I

This is the tale of the Cadillac boomerang thanks to a shoddy dealer.

I took our XT4 in to have a stuck timing chain tensioner replaced. Initially the dealer claimed it was just a VVT solenoid until I pointed out there was an obvious timing chain rattle on start and a bulletin detailing this very problem. To their credit they agreed with this assessment and got to work without any push-back.

However once I received the car back I noticed it left a very large oil puddle. Large enough that the dealer should have noticed it if they didn't just take the car off the lift and immediately toss it in the lot. This turned into a return trip due to a very badly leaking front main seal that they damaged. We at least got a loaner car this time around, but it was so poorly maintained I really wasn't getting warm feelings from this dealer. Bridges were burnt and I went on my way.

Two months later the car stalls on the highway; no spark. Turns out dealer #1 left a bolt loose on the ground for all of the ignition coils. Dealer #2 finds this in short order and all is well. Except on the drive home the car now throws a check engine light for catalytic converter performance. All that time spent cranking with no ignition loaded the converter up with fuel and once the car did run managed to melt the ceramic. Oops! Return trip #3 for a new catalytic converter. Thankfully that was the end of that saga.

Four dealership visits for just one repair. Good times.

It's interesting to watch how repairs compound, each "fix" breaking something else in turn. The ever-slipping standards of success.

Submitted by: Maxzillian

I'll give you a twofor but the same vehicle and two different scenarios. The car was my 81 Audi Coupe. It's 1987 ish and this car was a car I used ALOT. Did like 80K miles in less than 3yrs of commuting to school, work and ski trips.

1. Need new front struts. I don't have time/tools to do this so I bring it to Sears Auto repair since they could take me in the evening and get it done fast/cheap. Pulled the car out after a couple hours of them completing the work inclusive of front end alignment. Notice immediately car is darting all over the place. Bring it back in, they put it on the lift and after 1/2hr, they say all good, everything addressed. Take it away, they close their doors and close for the evening. Again, the car felt squirrely but with them closed I just drove carefully home. I got under the car the next day and found one of my 2 bolts holding lower control arm stripped and the other not tight. Lesson learned never ever go to Sears. Few months later, some TV station does story on them saying same.

2. Car is having weird intermittent electrical issues that would shut the car down. Bring it to the local Audi dealer for DIAGNOSIS only. Call at end of the day saying car fixed, installed new fuse box at a cost of nearly $900! I'm fuming, told them I didn't authorize anything beyond diagnosis. Manager is like "but we fixed it"... after some back and forth I pay for it. Once I got the care home, I went to the trunk to get something out and found they had left their very nice (expensive) diagnostic tool in my trunk. They called me a day later asking if I found it in the car and I said I'd have to check. Got back to them at the end of the day and said I'll bring it back at my convenience. Took me a week for it to be "convenient" with my hopes that I cost them time/money and aggravation from other customers who needed work done to the car. And I later found out this Audi dealer was notorious for doing unauthorized work and then holding the cars hostage. Never went there again.

When discussing car repair, "hostage" is generally not a word you want to come up. Aim for words like "reliable" or "trustworthy" instead. "Hostage" is one to avoid.

Submitted by: Monsterajr

In the winter of 2004 I mis-navigated a corner in a residential neighbourhood. I slid through a T-intersection and hit the opposing curb with my right front tire. I was able to drive away but something was wrong.

I went to the local Ford dealer and had them put the car on hoist. The service guy came back with a laundry list of issues: ball joints, control arms, wheel bearing, struts... on both sides. Plus an alignment. Plus a new rim. Total estimate $3700; for a 1995 Ford Escort.

That seemed ridiculously steep so I said thanks and got the car back. I took it to a local independent. I deliberately didn't give him the estimate from Ford. He came back with $400. He said the ball joint was fried and that the wheel bearing should be replaced. I laughed and showed him the Ford estimate.

He got really angry and said that the local dealer is known to be preying on people who don't have a solid grasp on the technical aspects of how cars and trucks work. He took me into the bay, showed me all the suspension parts that were just fine, and the fried ball joint & wheel bearing. The $400 included an alignment.

I didn't get hosed that day. But, I could have been if I'd let a shady dealership go to town.

If a mechanic brings me out into their shop bay, to physically point out what they're talking about, they automatically earn respect from me. First off, they're willing to ignore the obvious insurance implications of having Some Guy stand under a car they lifted up. Second, they want to make sure I know what's going on. I like that.

Submitted by: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

My POS Dodge Shadow decided to overheat due to a crack in the thermostat. Me, being the complete idiot 18-year-old I was at the time, was stuck in a Piggly Wiggly parking lot and needed to get home. So, I went inside, bought two jugs of distilled water, and did what I thought I was supposed to do – and dumped all of that water straight into the radiator. I then wondered why the car was making all that racket when I started it back up.

I had a friend drive me home, and had it towed to my usual mechanic the next day, where I learned what exactly a "warped head" is, how it happened, and how it was beyond that particular shop's scope of work. They referred some trusted local mechanics to me, but hearing the estimates from each nearly caused me to have a panic attack. Then my uncle, upon hearing of my plight from my grandparents (who I lived with at the time), had a solution! He knew a guy. Of course he did. And this guy worked on cars and was cheap. Not only that, he had a whole engine that he'd swap into the car for $600.

And look, I may have been an idiot back then, but I wasn't a complete moron. I knew this was probably a shady deal. I assumed (and was correct) that this guy probably owed my uncle money or drugs or whatever. But I was desperate, I needed to get to work and to classes. So I dropped my car off at, at least on the outside, looked like a legit mechanic business, he had a sign and everything! ("Earl's Easy Auto Repair", I shit you not.) And, sure, he was a lanky, toothless good-ol'-boy, but most wrenchers around these here parts look that way. A week later, he called and said it was ready.

I barely got a mile before I turned around and brought it back. The throttle and brake pedals were all jacked up, it idled horribly, and just all-around drove like crap. He hemmed and hawed, saying how it was a used engine and it "wasn't gonna drive like new". I said look, the car had nearly 200K miles on it, of course I didn't expect that, but I at least needed it to be driveable. He took it back and a few days later he said it was sorted out. I picked it up, and while it was better, it still wasn't driving all that great.

I took it to my usual mechanic to have them give it a once over. He called me into the lift bay to have me look at something. "See that dent on the oil pan?" he said. "That was on your old engine. I remember it. This is the same engine. Looks like maybe the head is different, but that's it." I was mad but, well, at least the head was different, so it was fixed, right?

A month later, it shot a rod through the block.

I'm not sure if it was damage from the initial overheating event, or something that Earl did, but now the engine was toast.

A friend of my mom's suggested some well-known locals that dealt in Mopar stuff, and I visited one of their yards. They didn't have a 2.5L like my vehicle, but they did have a 2.2 that they'd let go dirt cheap, $300. Also, he had a nephew, who was my age and was just starting to do his own engine work. I called him up and he said he'd do the swap for another $300. So, I spent another $600 to have another engine swap – hopefully this time for real. Again, the car didn't run great – there were a lot of idle issues that, to his credit, the kid tried to chase down, but it was probably ECU or vacuum related and he neither had the time, nor did I have the extra money to keep going. I resigned to just drive the car as-is and look for something else.

Two months later, I totaled the car. Thank God.

That whole experience solidified my resolve to learn as much as I could about vehicle repair, to do as much as I could myself. I've had more positive experiences than bad, and the bad ones have mostly been general ineptitude rather than feeling like I was getting ripped off.

If you remove an engine from a car, then put it back in, is it legally a swap? How much of the engine has to be changed for it to count? The Dodge of Theseus, here.

Submitted by: dbeach84

Firestone – the last time I ever went and will never go again.

My grandfather worked for Firestone all his life and my parents swore by them, I use to be loyal as well, until several bad experiences in a row, ending with this one.

I wish I could remember the exact words the very loud and pushing lady at the counter said, but she heavily implied that if I didn't get my brakes fixed right now and also upgrade to whatever the better caliper was she was pushing, that my new born (who was with me at the time) would die in a terrible, tragic and avoidable car accident, which would be my fault for not buying what she was selling.

Thing was, I was there for a flat tire. Not for brakes. I had my brakes changed fairly recently, so was 99% sure there was nothing wrong. I had another shop check my brakes a few days later just to be sure, yep, they were fine.

Sadly, if she didn't imply my baby was going to die if I didn't buy brakes from her, I might have fallen for it, because I can be pretty gullible/trusting sometimes.

Now, I'm no marketing professional here — I'm a former marketing professional, and in my formerly professional opinion I think telling people to picture the death of their children is not going to help your sales. That's free advice right there, you can have that one.

Submitted by: SlickS30r

My wife had an '02 Jaguar X-Type that needed a new oil pan gasket. Not a major repair, but it required the removal of the transmission, so we took it to a supposedly reputable shop. They gave a quote for the work that was reasonable and a time frame of about a week.

A week goes by with no updates, so we call them and they indicate that they're waiting on the new gasket, and the work is actually going to cost double what they initially quoted. We were notably taken aback and questioned them on the increase, and they wound up coming down a bit, but the total was still significantly more than the initial quote.

Fast forward another three weeks and several phone calls later, they "finished" the job. We go to pick the car up and as soon as I pulled out of their driveway, it was immediately apparent something was very wrong. The car was shuttering and shaking, and immediately started overheating. I pulled into the next available driveway and shut off the car. I popped the hood to check coolant levels and fans, but everything seemed fine. I decided I'd check the oil, but thought there's no way it's that low. Lo and behold, the engine is BONE DRY. Not a drop of oil in there. They completely forgot to replace the oil.

We immediately called them and told them what was going on. They asked us to bring the car back so they could take a look.

This is where we really screwed up. We took the car back rather than having it towed to a different shop. They took the car in and claimed they distinctly remembered putting oil in the car the issue must be the result of something else failing. We left the car with them to diagnose. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

They called the next day and again claimed there was oil in the car, but there was scoring on the cylinder walls, the water pump had failed, and several other gaskets had failed.

They were "kind" enough to cover the labor but we'd be out of pocket for $3500 in parts. That's almost as much as my wife paid for the car, so we decided we'd tow the car and look for other options.

We decided to bring the car to a Jag dealer to get a second opinion and they confirmed our suspicious. They found clear evidence that the car was run without oil and it was effectively totaled.

We thought about taking legal action, but we were already out $1,300 for the "repair", and being college students at the time, we didn't exactly have funds to hire an attorney. They refused to give us the keys until we paid, and they did technically perform the work, but they also totalled the car in the process.

Our only recourse was to leave a bad review and tell everyone we possibly could to avoid that shop. They're still in business, but it's apparently been a revolving door of managers since then.

TLDR

Took my wife's car to a shop for a fairly basic repair. Shop forgot to put oil in the car but denied doing so and demanded payment in full ($1300) before returning the keys to our now totalled car. The car needed an entirely new cooling system and motor by the time we got it back.

I mean, look, the industry has been selling us on this "oil" stuff for decades. Has anyone checked if we really need it? Maybe the shop was just running an experiment to verify assumptions. You can't hate science.

Submitted by: dudebro789

Just an attempted ripoff. Took one of my Volvo 740s to Sears for a state inspection. The tech failed it for "bad tie rod ends" – except they were about a month old, and genuine Volvo parts, installed by me. Quoted me $600 – which would have been a total ripoff if I had paid it. A buddy of mine is a state cop – in Maine they oversee the state inspection regime. Called him, he met me at the shop, had a look at my car and pulled the mechanic's inspection license on the spot and ultimately fined Sears a decent chunk of change. Never saw the mechanic again so I assume he also got fired. I had a LOT of cars of inspection age at that point, so was in there a lot for inspections.

Completely baffling that he chose literally the newest, shiniest parts on the car to try to scam me. If he had said ball joints, it would have at least been plausible, if also a scam. I maintain my cars VERY well.

You'd think a scammer would at least find the dirtiest, oldest parts to base their scam around. Who knows, maybe they'll find an actual issue to fix while they're looking for scam material?

Submitted by: krhodes1

AC was acting up and showing some error codes, dealer suggested replacing the whole controller unit to the tune of $1,500...

Found on forums how to reset it and it worked fine for many years after that.

Always check the forums first, no matter what. Hell, check Reddit too, it can't hurt. But the forums are always your surest bet, the best way to diagnose any issue with your car.

Submitted by: GBond

I had a 2000 4Runner and one day the clutch pedal went straight to the floor. I was near our local shop that I used for oil changes, so I just drove straight over to him – no stop lights on the way.

I told him my master cylinder had failed, and he gave me a raised eyebrow. "Yeah. Well, we'll see. Ya can't diagnose it behind the wheel."

He called to say it was done. "Replaced your clutch fluid lines. They were bad." That was $350, and me saying, "I swear that felt like a master cylinder." I drove away, and less than a mile down the road the clutch went to the floor so I managed a U turn and a return.

I dropped it off and said, "replace the master cylinder."

A couple of days later I went to pick it up. He told me it was a craaaazy coincidence, that the lines were bad, and then the cylinder just happened to fail immediately after I picked it up. We argued, but he would not give me the keys until I paid. We eventually struck a very bad deal for me, but I got my keys back.

I just made sure it cost him in PR. I had too much time on my hands then and stapled flyers on telephone poles all over our neighb saying he was a crooked mechanic; contacted BBB; posted on the local internet bulletin board (with many people responding with similar stories); and did one other thing that attracted seagulls to his parking lot by the hundreds every weekend. Man those gulls sure do make a mess.

Plenty of issues can be diagnosed from the driver's seat. Some can be best diagnosed from the driver's seat, in fact. How else are you gonna know if the driver's seat is broken?

Submitted by: glasairIII

I've only really ever been super pissed at a dealer once over charges.

I was moving across the country, PA to CA, in 2010 using a loaded up Saturn Vue and a U-Haul. Somewhere in Ohio I flip the blinker on, smoke comes out of the steering column, accompanied by the smell of burnt electronics and the blinkers stop working.

Pulled off on the nearest exit ramp, called AAA, dropped the trailer in a parking lot, and had the Vue towed to the local GM dealership. Several hours later, they came out and told me the BCM was bad and didn't have one on hand.

Being in a rush to get back on the road, I didn't questions the result. I paid the $400 "diagnostic" fee, got back in the car, and found out that the ham-fisted tech had broken the clips in the dash that hold the 4-way blinker button in. I then ripped the fuse out of the blinker stalk circuit, picked up the trailer, and drove to SoCal using hand signals...

A few weeks after getting settled in, I pulled up the wiring diagram for the Vue, something I should have demanded the dealership provide me (being an avionics tech and all) after they came to their "result." Turns out the BCM is located somewhere under the dashboard, not on top of the steering column ,you know, where the smoke came out of, and X's out the mileage when it goes bad. Something that had not happened.

The only other thing in the circuit was the turn signal module, again where the smoke came out of. Ordered a new turn signal stalk and module for 13 bucks, replaced it in under an hour, popped the fuse back in, and viola, working blinkers. Needless to say I was a mite unhappy that not only had they diagnosed the problem incorrectly and charged me for it, they had actually broke the damn thing even worse.

A $400 diagnostic fee should be legally actionable. That, alone, should constitute a violation of some sort of law. I don't know which law, pick one. One of the bad ones.

Submitted by: Theoretics

Dealership wants how much for a battery?

So after drives sporty coupes in my 20s & 30s and doing most of my own maintenance, I finally decided to get a sensible daily driver and keep the sports car for weekends and occasional track days. Running joke is that my mid-life crisis was going out and buying a hybrid sedan. Picked up a used Avalon hybrid last year that had extensively documented maintenance history. It gets great gas mileage, is a comfortable dad ride, and consumables are reasonable priced. Sweet!

Dropped the car off for scheduled maintenance last month at the local Toyota dealership and the service advisor leaves a message that they "found something" while doing a courtesy inspection. Call back and he lets me know the 12V battery tested bad. Now, I know that the 12V batteries in hybrids last a really long time since they don't actually start the car, but the car is 9 years old and still has the original battery. So I ask for a quote and let him know it'll probably be fine to go ahead and swap it out. This dude comes back on the line and says "yeah, that one's expensive, it'll be $750 to change it for you." $750, for a car battery, that the person at the counter at your local auto parts store will offer to swap for free in the parking lot. That was the first time I laughed at service advisor, and told him that was insane. No thanks, just finish up my car.

So the Toyota hybrids do in fact take an odd sized battery that's typically only available from the dealership. I go online and check that dealership's parts website and look up the battery. Find it listed for... $280. Same dealership, parts department sells for $280, service department wants $750. The Lexus dealership up the road sells the same battery for $275.

Gave them a 1 star review in that survey they send after service. Got a call from the service manager, and I pointed out that his own dealership's part department has the same battery for less than half they wanted to charge me and wondered how many people he had ripped off. Shockingly, he doubles down on ridiculousness, saying service doesn't charge what the parts department lists and they don't even use MSRP for part pricing! They just make up numbers apparently. I let him know that I won't be returning for any future service needs.

It seems like everyone in this story is just making up numbers, both on the shop side and the parts side. It's all the same battery, why can't it cost the same amount from every seller?

Submitted by: Louie

A friend of mine has a '71 VW Bug, of which he is the first owner. It was his and his wife's first new car when they bought after they got married (way) back in the day. Well, his wife had a battle with ALS, and he took to restoring the Dub to keep his mind off of things. Her health deteriorated further, and he was so busy caring for her that he couldn't finish the bug. So he found a shop in NH that was apparently "The" veedub shop. He left his bug and a bunch of cash.

Around this time, his wife passed. Sweet lady.

Repairs progressed and everything seemed on the up-and-up, until it didn't. The shop ghosted. No returned calls, no returned emails. Finally, he gets fed up and decides to take the drive North and make an unannounced visit. When he pulls up, he sees two LEOs and a lady in her fourties out front. She had a car in there too and was likewise ghosted. The Police came along to get her property returned to her because, as it turns out, this guy was a degenerate gambler and had blown all the cash, and even sold bits off of client's cars, to fund his habit. He had since been locked up, but he kept such garbage records that the cops had a hard time sorting out who owned what.

My friend's bug was probably about 90% before old dude got thrown in the clink so he fared way better than most. It now resides in his garage and is driveable, save for a few electrical gremlins, and it is gorgeous, bone stock. Well, maybe a few repro parts, but at least it looks stock.

At least the bug came home, that's a happier ending than many of these car hostage stories get. Plus, the car seems to have actually gotten better since it was dropped off. Your friend was lucky.

Submitted by: Scotty J

I had an IS300, needed a front wheel bearing. I replaced the bearing with an Autozone one and 3 months later it was bad again. What I learned time and again was that it was just worth it to get genuine Toyota/Lexus parts for that car, aftermarket never held up. So anyway, I take the knuckles off, bring them in to the local Lexus dealership, knowing the bearings were about $80 each. I just wanted them to grab the parts from their parts department, press them in, hand them back. The service advisor even said "yeah, we'll figure it out on labor, I'm not sure exactly how long it will take". I get it, I used to be an advisor and this is a different situation. Anyway 45 minutes later he comes back and says $499, $460+ tax. I was floored. I was expecting about $300, this was a whole 60% more. Turns out the tech flagged the full 1.6 hours per side for each bearing...when they were already off the car. Literally pop a dust shield off, press out the hub, press out the bearing, press it together. I did it myself first with the autozone one in about 15 minutes.

Needless to say I called the service manager after I left, received a call back the next day. He wanted to refund me back down to 0.5 hours of labor instead of 3.2. I said I used to work in the industry, know theyre flat rate and wanted to make sure I wasnt ripping them off. I said I honestly expected a flat 0.5 hours of labor for each knuckle and thought that was quite fair. He was happy to oblige. It still sucked having to go through that though.

It's nice when shops admit their mistakes, and even better when they try to under-charge you as repayment. That's a shop worth visiting again.

Submitted by: -Tom-

I once went to Canadian Tire for service.

(The canucks here will get it...for everyone else, just take the worst use case in here and 3x it's badness then consider it's a national chain.)

For those of you in the Great White North, I hope this rings true. Can one of you get RyanF9 to explain it to me using a chalkboard?

Submitted by: dolsh