Need A Mechanic – Call A Lawyer
by Ted Hlokoff
I started my trip to
Bummer, only 18,000kms on my $430 each Toyo Proxies and they’re worn out. After switching the rear tires and rims for a set off my other Stealth I headed towards
Up early I continued my drive and got to
He said, “No problem.”
5 min. later he was at my window telling me that the threads were coming out of the trans with the fill plug and if removed, it would not go back in the hole. I told him that I had filled the trans last night and there was nothing wrong with the threads.
He said, “I’m sorry, but we can’t help you.”
I asked if he could show me this hole and cross-threaded plug, but he said that insurance wouldn’t allow me to get out of the car – liability issues, you know?
Stunned, I asked, “That’s it? You can’t do anything to help me?”
He just repeated, “I’m sorry, we can’t help you.”
I drove over to Canadian Tire and parked. I walked up to the counterman and explained the problem to him, as well as what had happened at Great Canadian Oil Change. It only took him a minute to decide that he couldn’t help me either.
“I’m sorry, but if the epoxy doesn’t seal the leak, the trans. may fail, you might sue us and we may be held responsible.”
I replied, “Since I live over 800kms away from here and GCOC said that I have a large hole in my tranny case obviously my tranny needs to have the fluid checked and make sure that there is no new hole in the case, like he said there is. If you can’t do it, I’ll have to do it in your parking lot myself.”
Again, “I’m sorry, we can’t help you.”
Amazed that two mechanics couldn’t help me with a minor maintenance job on my car, I wandered through the auto parts dept at Canadian Tire. Since I’d brought no tools I bought a liter of Gear Lube, a funnel with a hose and a pair of vise grips.
At my car in the parking lot I drove to the front door of the Canadian Tire store and drove my right tires onto the curb so that I could slide under the car. Opening the hood and sliding under the car in my dress clothes I found that GCOC had done a nice job cleaning my tranny case. The crack was still there and no ‘hole’ visible. The leak had slowed down and was difficult to see. I epoxied the crack and the leak stopped. I used my new vise grips to remove the fill plug and no threads came with it. I found that the new funnel was too short and I had to hold the hose to the gear lube container and squirt the oil into the transmission from the bottom of the car. It took 2 oz. to fill the trans with oil. Unfortunately, I spilled more than that on myself. Any customers that would listen, got an explanation of why my car was being worked on in front of the Store’s front doors and not in the shop. A few customers turned away and went to a different store because they were so disgusted.
I don’t understand why these three Fraser Valley mechanics are worried about legalities, insurance, liabilities and don’t fix cars. If mechanics are so knowledgeable about law, do the lawyers fix cars in the
If this problem happened to a tourist in
I don’t get it …