Disappointed is the best word I can use to describe my experience. I brought my truck in for multiple complaints from a slow crank, to a noise complaint and also a slow coolant leak that I was presuming to be internal. While they did correctly diagnose one of the issues (tensioner causing noise), they spent more time worrying about my fluids and whatnot than actually troubleshooting the mechanical problems. They ran a quick pressure test and said it passed and that was that. I called and said no the fluid has to be going somewhere and was told they’d do a block to confirm it was fine. Yet again it “passed” and I was told to pick it up. I’m giving two stars because they were polite enough throughout the experience and offered to look into it more if I brought it back and was willing to pay to have them pull the plugs for another $200+, but I didn’t care to do that since they were clearly money hungry on my “recommendations”. (Like by claiming my brand new brake fluid was dirty when it was literally JUST changed at a different shop). On top of this, their prices are very high if you know anything about cars. Like my cabin air filter is 100$ less from autozone. Anyways, charging a diag fee for an issue they couldn’t even identify is wild. Likewise, telling me its fine when it had audible lifter clatter, was losing fluid and telling me the slow crank is because it had the wrong size battery is neat too. I brought it elsewhere and confirmed with 2 other locations the battery is correct (and guess what? The slow crank completely resolved once the engine was tore down and the heads machined… 5k later. It runs great now🤦♀️) Had I of listened to these guys and just did all the fluid changes they recommended I would have changed 2 week old differential fluid, 4 month old brake fluid, swapped batteries for funsies, and been out a motor completely. Thank god I followed my gut and spoke to a local machine shop about whose reputable as the full engine replacement would have run me significantly more than catching it now while it was salvageable. Anyways, if you just want your (often new) fluids changed, come here. If you need more complicated diag tests I would not recommend this place as they don’t seem comfortable with more in depth issues.
Hi Amber. Thank you for taking the time to review the service you recieved at B&B Automotive. We always welcome truth and honesty from our customers even if we don't seem to come out as the technicians in shining armor that we strive to be. All we can control is how truthful and honest we are with our customers every day. That's why we love using and providing our customers with a unique digital vehicle inspection (DVI) report on their vehicles, at no extra cost, on every visit. Our DVI lists the specific concerns the vehicle was brough in for, the findings for those concerns and also includes other recommendations based on what we have seen, supported by pictures and videos you can see so that you never have to take our word for it. The reports are stored on an off-site server and are still accessible even after your vehicle has left our facility by clicking on the report link that was texted or emailed to you after your vehicle was inspected. Your concerns on initial check-in were first, you were losing coolant and wanted to know where the coolant was being lost and secondly, you were hearing a rattling noise coming from the engine bay but that you were already aware that there was lifter noise coming from the engine. It's great to hear that you were able to address the clattering noise that we identified for you as the belt tensioner. As for the coolant loss concern, we did perform diagnostic testing, which included a cooling system pressure test, that unfortunately did not produce an external loss of coolant even after being left under extreme pressure for more than 2 hours. We also block tested the engine to see if that test would produce a positive result and give any evidence of a possible internal leak, such as a blown head gasket. That test, supported by a provided picture of the results, also came up negative. We did not have sufficient evidence to recommend such a costly repair as head gasket replacement so to be sure, we offered further testing by way of removing spark plugs to look into the cylinders for coolant. As you mentioned, you declined those additional steps. Had we moved forward, we may have seen coolant in the cylinder(s) and also made a recommendation to address the head gaskets. We do wish you would have given us that opportunity. We strongly beleive that making maintenance recommendations to our customers is also a very important part of what we do as automotive experts. We could have charged you thousands to address head gaskets and let you drive down the road without ever mentioning your transmission fluid or differential fluid only to have those critical parts of your vehicle fail and leave you needing to spend thousands more. We make recommendations addressing the entire vehicle to paint the full picture for each customer so that you can decide if any or all needed services make the bigger repair worth the investment. Being that it was your first time with us, we had no previous history with your vehicle and did not have access to your maintenance records so we only made fluid exchange suggestions based on the age and mileage point we recorded while your vehicle was with us. We did observe that the battery which is currently installed does not have the right amount of cold cranking amps required for your vehicle nor was it the right size for the battery tray. However, we're glad to hear that slow cranking is no longer an issue for you. We work very hard to give as much good info as possible to our customers about their vehicles and never take a pressured approach at up-selling anyone on other services. We trust you experienced that by the comment you made about the professionalism of our service team. It means the world to us that you gave us an opportunity to take care of you and your vehicle. Should you ever decide to give us another shot at earning those 3 other stars, please ask for someone from our management team and we will do our best to give you a better experience than you had on your first visit. We hope blessings to you this new year!
- B&B Automotive Services