Whitty'z Diesel and Auto Repair

When Robert called and explained that the timing belt had broken he insisted on getting an estimate for the total repair. He then said someone had already tried to work on it for him. I explainded that because this was an interference engine that we could not give him an exact estimate until we had taken the head off to see the extent of the damage to the head; the valves; the pistons. He insisted on an estimate that was impossible to give him. He also tried to pin me to a cost of $1000. to $1100.00. I quoted him $1150.00 if there was no damage to the head and the valves and if there was no machine work required. However when we got the head off there were 8 bent valves and it was necessary to replace those valves and do a valve job.  In addition the timing belt had failed because the water pump failed, the timing belt tensioner failed. So in addition to the head work he had to buy a timing belt, a new water pump, a new timing belt tensioner, 8 new valves and valve seals.The machine shops bill to me was $470.00 and I just passed that cost on to Robert with out any mark up. I also tried to source used heads for him, but every used head I had pulled off of a used engine had bent valves. In terms of his car smelling like oil; this car came to us after someone else had worked on it and pulled the front timing belt cover; the belt, and a pulley and left the oily parts in the trunk which permeated the cabin of the vehicle. This customer had some very unreal expectations and did not want to hear what the actual cost of repairs was going to be. I would have been better off not accepting this job. The total cost of repairs ended up being $1540.00 . I spoke with Robert every step of the way and he understood why there were delays. He wanted us to source a possible used head which took additional time; that put the machine work on hold so it took longer than it originally would have.