[The Maverick]

I recently had a 70's V8 vehicle in for service that had been off the road for 15 years and I wanted A-Z taken care of all at once to make it roadworthy again. I just got the car home the other day after months in the shop and noted a couple of issues that I was going to check in with the shop about when they open on Monday (for instance, the puddle of power steering fluid under the wet and grimy "we see no leaks" power steering valve and hoses).

But I just noticed one issue that kind of put me over the edge. Let me know if I am overreacting or not.

When I towed the non-running car in, it had an Edelbrock Pro-Flo air cleaner on it (the triangular foam element style). The foam was disintegrating so the shop replaced that with a traditional round open-element air cleaner.

What the shop did not do is reconnect the "breather" side of the PCV system from the passenger-side valve cover to the new air cleaner.

I just noticed tonight that the plastic elbow coming out of the valve cover was open with no hose attached to it, and the "plug" for the breather hose is not popped out of the air cleaner they installed. It looks like they threw out my breather hose and elbow/grommet that were in the Pro-Flo air cleaner.

So the car has been sucking unfiltered air into the passenger side valve cover for up to 41 miles (20 miles they put on it while it was in the shop and the 21 I drove it home) and who knows how much additional diagnostic/repair running time (the tank was on E when I picked up the car, but they had cleaned the fuel tank and lines and charged me $65 for gas, so they must have run the engine for some time while working on it).

Thoughts? What would you do in this situation?

Thanks for your input!

[h422694]

Just my 2 cents since you asked. I started driving in the late '60s and am familiar with motors from that period. We did a lot of stupid stuff to make the cars, in our opinion, run faster and sound cool. One of the easiest "mods" was to take the air cleaner and filter off. We'd run them at the strip that way, street race them and just generally drive around town without them. You said your self it hadn't been on the road for 15 yrs. I'd be more worried about other stuff that may have gone bad while it was sitting. A little dust thru the carb?? You might casually mention it to the shop but I wouldn't make an issue out of it. Life's too short to worry about little things like that that.

[el ess A]

I'd try to find another shop. Those clowns are dangerous to your car. GOOD mechanics know their limitations, and most can't work on carb cars anymore. They don't have a clue if they can't plug in their box so it can tell them what's wrong.

I mean, I'd leave parts off your car for free. They likely overcharged you for fuel if they only put 20 miles on it.

Welcome to classic car ownership. Looks like you're going to have to learn to take the bull by the horns and do or learn to do the rest of the repairs yourself. Especially if you care about the car, because it seems those clowns don't.

IMO, based solely on your story, they're the JACK of all OFFS!!

[bsn]

"would mention it for sure, but not get to bent out of shape. Unless it was being driven through a dust storm I doubt it did any harm"

+1

[Trickskier]

I agree with everyone else. I doubt any damage was done to your engine.

[Steakmaker1]

Originally Posted by h422694

Just my 2 cents since you asked. I started driving in the late '60s and am familiar with motors from that period. We did a lot of stupid stuff to make the cars, in our opinion, run faster and sound cool. One of the easiest "mods" was to take the air cleaner and filter off. We'd run them at the strip that way, street race them and just generally drive around town without them. You said your self it hadn't been on the road for 15 yrs. I'd be more worried about other stuff that may have gone bad while it was sitting. A little dust thru the carb?? You might casually mention it to the shop but I wouldn't make an issue out of it. Life's too short to worry about little things like that that.

You should have had a check list and go thru it when you picked it up.Was this a "friend" or a business that you've had work done before with them.You should have been right there at least every other day.I know it's easy to say,that's what I did when I had a house built & the foreman didn't like seeing me come around the corner. Hey,you should make a list of what you actually want,or they could be throwing parts in there fpr a long time!! GOOD LUCK!!

[bsn]

If you had a bad experience with that shop, why in the world would you bring it back for them to touch it again. You could go over your grievances with them and see if they could give you a partial refund but since you already took possession of the car it makes it tougher to prove. You may want to consider it lesson learned.

[The Chief (tm)]

WOW -- this story got a LOT worse between post #1 and #9...and way beyond the remote, but non-zero, possible negative impact associated with a "Ford newb" getting his hands on your car.

Although BSN makes a good point, I imagine that you have also paid for a lot of service that you not only didn't get, but also had a lot of stuff done that really reads as 110% amateur hour-screw-up worthy.

Is there any way for you to paraphrase what you wrote here in post #9, print it out and bring to them, and in a completely non-adversarial manner explain that you feel that the car, as returned, is not to your satisfaction, for those reasons?

Because, written out and spelled out like that, the shop would have to either:

(a) somehow justify giving you back the car in that condition; or
(b) see what is there -- in plain, objective words on paper, not you screaming and yelling -- and agree that it CANNOT be considered "satisfactory".

Then the ball is in their court to propose resolution.

If they decide to re-repair *anything* you've pointed out, then at least whatever of that they do, is therefore finally done to your satisfaction. Even if it's not ALL of it, it's more than NONE of it, the "none" of which you would get by NOT going back.

Maybe they even do some, *and* give a partial refund for the rest. Unlikely, but better than nothing at all.

Good luck -- man, did they drop the ball.