Have I been riped off?
About a month and a half ago I took my 2003 Toyota Tacoma with about 50,000 miles on it in for an oil change and radiator flush at a local repair station. Until then I have always done my own oil changes. The price and convenience of the repair shop convinced me to give it a try.
While they were testing the radiator after the flush they came across a problem. It seems that the fan was not working correctly and they replaced the Fan Clutch Water Pump Fan Coupling, Shimahide part number is 1604-66709. According to them the thermostat was also defective. They said the fan was not spinning fast enough to cool, and I did not notice this because of the defective thermostat.
I am not a mechanic but I question this. I drive my truck about 60 miles a day commuting to work and the temp has always been fine. The week before I drove 300 miles up to NY with out any temperature issues. I check my gages often when I drive. If is my understanding that if the thermostat is not working than the truck will either run hot and overheat or it will take a long time to get up to operating temperature. Neither of these were symptoms I noticed. The truck was running fine.
After the repairs my truck seems to be running fine except that it is much louder now. There is a roar that sounds like the engine is over-reving. It diminishes when I shift, the truck is a standard. The noise comes about 5 mph before the recommended gear change speed. It is recommended that I shift to 3rd gear at 25 mph and this sound becomes very noticable at 20 mph. When I shift it quiets down and then build up as my speed increases. Driving along at 55-60 mph in 5th gear the noise inside the cab is much louder than it used to be. On top of this my gas mileage seems to have dropped by 10% since this repair.
I had the old part returned to me. It does not look like it but I would like to know if there is any way to bench test this part and to see if this mechanic took advantage of me?
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Monday, February 14th, 2011 AT 4:17 PM
