Scenario: 2003 Chevy TrailBlazer. Wife's truck. She's been taking it to this one repair shop ever since she had it. I was never overly impressed with the place (and have told her so), but, she liked it, and it's her truck, so...

Yesterday the "check engine" light comes on. She takes it in. Calls me, just now. "Bad news," she says, "so-and-so says the frame in the front is so rotted-out he can stick a screwdriver through it. It's not worth spending any money on. It's not safe to drive. We should sell it for parts."

Ok, it's a 14-year-old truck in Michigan. Motor vehicles here rust out. That's what caused me to finally get rid of my 13-year-old Honda Accord I so loved. No, what annoys the livin' bejesus out of me is: What? This just happened?!?! Like, overnight? You've been working on this thing since we had it and you just noticed the problem?!?!

I distinctly recall asking this guy, within the last couple years "What kind of shape is this thing in? Worth investing in continued maintenance?" And him telling us the thing had years and years and thousands of miles to go. That's why we just last fall put $700 worth of new rubber on it (It might've even been just before we did that.)

Never mind the fact that, if it's as bad as this guy is claiming, driving that thing has put my wife's life at risk.

So, tell me, SF friends: Am I being unreasonable in feeling the guy to whom we entrusted the maintenance of this vehicle should have noticed something like this before it got this bad?

No. I'd be pretty pissed.

I'd also take it (by flatbed if necessary) to another shop for a qualified second opinion.

-Rob

While I might be a bit pissed the question should be asked - was troubleshooting the CEL the first time a mech might be required to investigate the rusted out area?

did you ask where on the frame it's rusted? and did they tell her the CEL is from the rust??

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
While I might be a bit pissed the question should be asked - was troubleshooting the CEL the first time a mech might be required to investigate the rusted out area?

They've done all the oil changes and lube jobs, as well.

Besides: As I noted: We just w/in the last couple years asked them, specifically, what kind of overall condition the vehicle was in.

Rust never sleeps, but it sleeps where you can't see it most often.

So is it undercoated, that can hide bad frame damage from rust and corrosion, and who knows 6 or 8 months ago it was cold as shit and probably dirty as heck underneath, could be some coating just came off and exposed the rust or whatever problems it has.

I doubt the guy sold you $700 worth of tires if he knew it was in bad shape just to get the tire sale and then tell you your frame was rotting for fun.

Take it to another shop and get another opinion and if it's bad, then be glad he pointed it out and didn't let your wife go down the road with a bad chassis.

Sell it for a grand or trade it in at that age it's going to the auction anyway, get your $700 back and get the wife a new vehicle... Shit happens it's not the mechanics fault it's a 14 year old MI truck.

Not to be a dick but it is your truck.

Why is it entirely his responsibility? He's not your personal fleet manager. If he was I'd agree with you 100% but under the circumstances I'd say you should be glad he told you before something bad happened.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
[some editing done for brevity]
Rust never sleeps, but it sleeps where you can't see it most often.



I doubt the guy sold you $700 worth of tires if he knew it was in bad shape just to get the tire sale and then tell you your frame was rotting for fun.

Take it to another shop and get another opinion and if it's bad, then be glad he pointed it out and didn't let your wife go down the road with a bad chassis.

Agreed. Rust is tricky sometimes. It might not have been apparent that the frame was rusted completely through, until one day it did.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Rust never sleeps, but it sleeps where you can't see it most often.

I know. Michigan, remember?

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
So is it undercoated, that can hide bad frame damage from rust and corrosion, ...

Good point. TBH I haven't spent time under there, myself. That's why I have People.

I used to live under the hood of a car. Burned out on it long, long ago. Now I pay people to do everything other than wash, clean, put air in the tires, and top off fluids.

Though, after I retire, I think I'll go back to doing my own oil changes. Well, at least on the remaining truck.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
I doubt the guy sold you $700 worth of tires if he knew it was in bad shape just to get the tire sale and then tell you your frame was rotting for fun.

Tires were purchased & etc. elsewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Take it to another shop and get another opinion and if it's bad, then be glad he pointed it out and didn't let your wife go down the road with a bad chassis.

No need. They took pictures. I'll post 'em later. "It's dead, Jim."

Frame is actually cracked. And not just a little, either.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Sell it for a grand or trade it in at that age it's going to the auction anyway, ...

Called "my guy" at my dealership. He claimed no dealership would be interested in it. He suggested donate it and take the tax write-off.

quote:

Originally posted by P210:
Not to be a dick but it is your truck.

Why is it entirely his responsibility?

Perhaps you missed the part where we'd asked him to give it a good going-over w/in the last couple years and give us a report card on its general condition?

I suppose it's possible, as HRK suggested, that impending failure hid itself until it didn't.

By any chance did he offer to 'take it off your hands'? Maybe he needs some cheap '03 Chevy parts?

quote:

Originally posted by jbcummings:
By any chance did he offer to 'take it off your hands'? Maybe he needs some cheap '03 Chevy parts?

No

Yeah, I'd be disappointed in them, to say the least.

The promised pictures.

If they've been doing all of your work, that's MALPRACTICE!

That is bad and didn't happen over night. I would be looking at a different place in the future for all my vehicle work.

I might not be correct.....but I think when a shop
declares your vehicle unsafe to drive, your only choice is a tow truck.
Depending where you live, I have a local shop I can recommend.

nhracecraft, 41: That's been kind of my thinking, but, HRK made a good point, too.

ace73: It's already back in the driveway. We're going to see if we can't salvage at least part of what we invested in the new tires, as several neighbours have TrailBlazers, and find a boneyard to come get it.

We haven't decided what, if anything, we'll replace it with. I'm retiring in less than two weeks. We're not certain we'll need two vehicles, going forward.

An observation on determining the "remove from service!" point of a corroding steel item. The continuum of service begins when corrosion begins, and the end of life is when a blatant safety compromising defect is noticed. Somewhere during this span is a point which is the perfect time to give an alert and serious concern exists. The chance of this perfect point being exactly when someone who notices coinciding perfectly is slim.

Did you never think that the corrosion was becoming a problem yourself? If you didn't, you may not be as involved in your auto's condition as you should be.

If you totally rely on someone in the business to tell you when you have problems for something that isn't hidden, you might want to ask several shops instead of one. What would that take, a couple of hours?

By the pictures, it should be taken out of service. I don't know anyone who can look at an intact and not yet failed corroded part and tell you when it will fail. In a perfect world they might have said this issue should be balanced with expenditures because of compromise of structural integrity. This is an area where mechanics may give an opinion, but it really an engineering problem over their pay grade.

quote:

Originally posted by P210:
Not to be a dick but it is your truck.

Why is it entirely his responsibility? He's not your personal fleet manager. If he was I'd agree with you 100% but under the circumstances I'd say you should be glad he told you before something bad happened.

I agree.
I understand being upset that the car is in this situation but placing blame on the mechanic is the wrong approach.
Just be happy you know the situation.
Not much a mechanic can do to prevent rust.
I don't see this is the mechanics fault.

Back when I worked in a shop in high school and briefly after college, this would have been squawked to the owner long before it ever got that bad. On the other hand this was in SoCal, and a car coming in with rust like that would have been a huge anomaly. In a place where they ice^H^H^H duh, I mean salt roads, I'd imagine that almost any vehicle of a similar age will have rust and it would only be a matter of degree.

I'd want someone looking harder at my vehicles, and communicating better what they saw. If you already weren't impressed with the shop there isn't much reason to go back, but I don't know that I'd say they did anything horrible, just that they appear to have been mediocre.

On a separate note, different maintenance shops take different approaches. Some of them find every little chicken crud thing and try to get you to pay for it. Some don't do anything more than you ask them to. Some do what they think you want - if they think you want them to go all out, they will. On the other hand, if they think you want to do it on the cheap they will and not bother you about stuff they don't think you are willing to fix. Finding the right shop and making sure that they know what level of care you want is really a good thing.

Edited: s/ice/salt/, duh.