Not HAPPY!!

Let me tell you a little story . . .

My truck has been having some problems lately and they got so bad that I was getting poisoned from my truck (again). It wasn't as bad as the first time. I take good care of my car. I change the oil every 3,000 miles. I make sure transmission fluid is always at a high level. My tires stay at the recommended PSI and I rotate them every few months (depends on my driving). It has had it's 60,000 and 90,000 tune-ups and checks and will soon be getting it's 120,000 check.

A few weeks ago was the time for my truck to have an oil change (this will come back into play later on in the story). I went to a place that I didn't really have a good experience with the last time I needed a change, but I was on a time crunch and it needed to happen. So I'm waiting from them to finish the oil change and they come over and say that I needed_____ and ______ and ______ to make sure my car was running okay. I didn't want them to change it because I know how to change all those specific things and I knew I could get it cheaper. So I did. When I was driving away, I noticed that my hood was popped up on one side. When I got home I popped the hood and saw that the transmission cap was off and resting on the side. Yep, they had slammed the lid closed over the cap, denting my hood.
"Great," I thought and took a look at the hood. "Not happy," I grumbled as I wiped the grease off my hands and closed the lid.




Fast forward 1 week.




I have to commute to work about every day and I started noticing that there was a really strong odor of exhaust and gas in the cabin of the truck. I had this problem before and it was because of the exhaust line being cracked and split. "Not again," I thought and the first opportunity I had, I scooted under the truck to take a look. No, no cracks or holes I could see. Didn't mean they weren't there where I couldn't see. So I put it in the back of my mind and continued on. I would drive with the windows down as often as I could to ventilate. Finally it started being a bit too much and my headaches were getting worse and worse every time I would start the engine.




Fast forward to this morning.




I get a text from my mom saying that she is coming to get the car while I'm at work and take it to my trusted undercarriage mechanic. According to the information relayed from my mom, my mechanic took one look at the undercarriage of the car and saw exactly what was going on under there, but he wasn't going to be doing any welding until we got the problem fixed with the gas line and he didn't specialize in it. Luckily enough he knew and trusted someone. My mom took the car to him and he opened up the hood and it about blew him away with all that was going on in the engine. 3 of the hoses had been ruptured. The gas line had a couple of holes and tears in it on the underside. A few of the engine points were out of whack and there was barely any oil in the tank.

'No oil?' you are probably thinking to yourself. Because if you remember earlier in the story the truck had gone through an oil change. Well, apparently they took the oil out but didn't put any back in.




None!

Meaning that I had been driving around for a week with no oil in the car. I could have lost the engine.

Needless to say I will NEVER be using their services again. I will be going back to my old guy and have him do it because at least he is friendly and tries his hardest. He isn't chain. He personally runs the business and is always around. Even when he has someone very unhappy with him he tries to keep a smile on his face and doesn't carry it with him. Also, when going in for a simple oil change, they'll take a look at the rest of the car and show you what is going on and what the possibilities are to fix it.

At least we caught it with enough time to salvage the engine and I'm out on a few hundred dollars instead of a few thousand to buy a new truck/engine.