Oh, geez....

[koopstaknicca]

I was driving on my work today and I noticed the temp gauge for the car engine is going up. It kept on goin up and up till it hit the red mark, then I noticed the "water low" light was on, so turned the heater on and drove to a 7-11.

I bought 2 gallons of water and I poured it all in the coolant tank. It was all good and dandy, but the "water low" light was still on. Then the temp gauge started rising again. It went high, then smoke was comin out of the car, so I stopped at a car shop and had it checked. The guy said they can't fix it cause they don't have the parts and taht I should go to the Pontiac dealership cause they have em.

So I drove to the dealership, stopping often when too much smoke is comin out. I let the engine cool off a bit (temperature outside is about 112 degrees, by the way, with no humidity).

The guy at the repair shop I'd been said that "heater hose" or gauge or some shiznit like that was messed up and leaking the coolant and water and said it'd cost me a LOT of money to get fixed since it's hard to get to.

I went to the Pontiac service center and the guy was rude as hell. It cost me $75 just for them to tell me what was wrong with the car, and that they'll call me tomorrow at noon to let me know what they found out.

They called the next day and told me the radiator or something was leaking, and gaskets blah blah something like that, and that I'm lucky that the motor didn't break. Anyway, the total came up to $1600. Damn, I can buy a used car with that. Is this too much to pay for? Are Pontiac service centers expensive places to get your car fixed?

[TheLamonizer]

damn thats a lot of money..

i just got my F-150 out of the shop and it cost me 1150 bucks just to get all the fluids changed (oil change, radiator flushed, etc..), a tune up, and a throttle censor

lol but the truck runs like new so im good

:D

i guess it just depends on how much you like your car lol

[birdhouse]

it sounds like your water pump might be bad... or even just that your hose is disconnected from the pump itself... did you see any fluid on the ground?? was there any water spilling out on the engine when you popped the hood?? and... you really REALLY shouldn't of drove it after the temp got that high in the first place... bad idea

[LargeFish]

Dealerships do tend to be pricey. We don't know what the year or engine in your car is.

$1,600 is a hella lot. I'm getting an engine swap done for a lot less than that.

[nadir]

dude, you got ripped off so bad.

What was on the invoice?? It was probably a hose that came loose at the bottom of the radiator!

You could have bought a new radiator and installed it yourself for a fraction of the cost. sorry man, but try to avoid taking it to stealerships unless u absolutely have to... in your case, i guess you were in a hurry.

[koopstaknicca]

I have a 97 grand am GT. I haven't paid em yet. I told em to not work on it, cause I might get somebody else to fix it. yea, most people have been tellin me that Im paying too much.

[1mean99grandam]

another term comes to mind besides "paying too much". If you can, get it to a mom and pop shop. Ask friends and relatives who they use. Always try to stay away from the dealership. I worked at one......

[LargeFish]

Get it out ASAP and take it to someone who is a trusted mechanic for someone you know.

[koopstaknicca]

Geez, I called another auto place, and they said they could do it cheaper. I tried calling the Pontiac service center to stop working on my car, and they said the guy that was in charge wasn't in and will be back on Monday and that he'll call me back. He just called and told me that he received a message to stop working on the car. He told me that the car is opened up and is a wreck and disassembled, and that i'd have to pay $400 dollars to come and pick it up. Wow. I asked him to explain to me what was wrong with it again and he said he's busy and he'll call me back in an hour.

[KALVIN97GAGT]

TELL HIM TO **** OFF tell him that you will get your lawyer involved.. you didnt authorize work to be done on your car


its most liekly your lower intake manifold gaskets, they go out ALL THE TIME ... take it to a local small time shop, they'll probly charge you couple hundred bux + gaskets (50-60 bux)

[mikem220153]

$1600.00 does seem high, but you haven't told us what they found to be the problem, so the jury is pretty much out on the price. Dealerships in general are a lot more expensive than the average garage.

If you didn't authorize the dealership to proceed with the work, then it was thier mistake and they shouldn't charge you anything except the initial $75.00 diagnostic.