Here’s my ‘in for a little work, tried to upsell more’ story, from the other side of the wrench. I was a tech at a Jeep/Eagle (I’m OLD!) dealer. I was the technician and sort of the service advisor in this story because the service advisor that wrote up this car couldn’t sell a free glass of water in the Sahara. Anyway, I had a customer with an Eagle Talon come in with a rough-running condition. Upon inspection I told her that her cam cover gasket needs to be replaced because the spark plug wells had oil in them. The cam cover and spark plugs would be covered under her powertrain warranty. She was happy. I also told her that she should consider getting the timing belt done as it is a regular maintenance item and she was within a few thousand miles of that recommendation. If we did it now she would save some of the labor and parts costs because the cam cover was already coming off.
Good lord did she rain down on me with every insult; racial, gender, and otherwise. She said she was going to call the Fox 2 Problem Solvers on my cracker-a$$ because I was trying to rob her. I tried to tell her that I’m not saying her belt IS broken, but it’s a maintenance item and it will break. That maintenance in spelled out in her owner’s manual. Broken timing belts were a regular thing for us because people like to defer maintenance. Anyway, she finally stopped cussing at my honkey a$$ long enough for me to slip away and fix her car.
Fast forward a few months. I get yet another work order for a DOHC Talon that says ‘crank, no start’. Sure enough, the engine spins over, no compression happening, and some odd noises. I check the service history and by golly, it’s her car. I pull the timing cover back and see that the belt is broken.
I take great pleasure in informing her that her timing belt broke due to lack of maintenance and that she would need a long block. Instead of about $300 or less for the timing belt before, she had a roughly $4,000 tab. These are on my desk to remind me that sometimes, justice is served.
