I brought my Subaru in over a year ago. At the time I wanted to see if my turbo needed replacing. Apparently it did. I hope that's true After 2 weeks I lost oil and brought it back. The mechanic said the engine was shot I asked if he had done a compression test and he said no. That I didn't ask for one. I thought when a "shot" engine is diagnosed that it would be because of a bad compression test. He proceeded to do one Said he could only get to 2 cylinders and they were showing a bad test. I was charged over $100 for this test. He confirmed the engine was "gone". Needed a new one. I parked my Subaru. For over a year I was trying to figure out what to do with it The turbo alone cost over $3000. I had to figure out if I wanted to put more money into an older car. I decided about a month ago to go ahead and have the car fixed. It had low mileage and after spending so much on the turbo I wanted a good used car. I bought this one new so I knew what was good and what was supposedly bad. I took my car to another mechanic They did and updated compression test on on 4 cylinders They could find nothing wrong with the engine. After a year without my car. The inconvenience of borrowing a car from my son, I have to warn people about Westside Car Care. The owner is great but he is loyal to a very bad mechanic. I have never left a review but I felt compelled to leave one, in this case to warn people and to share my own experience. I would never recommend this place for any major work. I just got a response on the review above from the owner of Westside. He apparently looked over his notes about the compression test done by his employee. I have the notes from when the work was done. I can also upload a picture of the invoice and what the mechanic told us at the time. I wrote down the numbers that we were given for the compression test on 1 & 3 cylinder. The numbers were 100 and 110 The other two cylinders were not done. According to my notes the mechanic/owner told us that the 2nd cylinder "looked bad". Recommendation that the car needs a new engine and intake boot as well. If the owners notes and my notes don't agree then there is a problem there as well. I was looking at spending another $4000 on the only car I own. The stakes were high for me I would not have made that kind of mistake in my note taking or what I actually read on the printed invoice .I let my car sit for over a year based on this mechanics testing and recommendation . I appreciate the owners response. I believe he is an honest man. I'm sorry too that we couldn't have worked this out but I will never trust his mechanic again. I can't afford it. I must change my rating and add to my original review. I received the response from the owner of Westside. He said he wanted to stand by his work and see if he can make it right by me. My check engine light continually came on after the diagnosis of a "good" engine. I brought my Subaru back to his shop and after extensive testing and re-testing of my car, we are going to go ahead and get to the bottom of why my engine light continues to come on. He has been nothing but forthright and honest (as before) but this time going that extra mile. I am considering giving my business back to this shop. I am very impressed with his efforts to get my car running again and the attention they are giving an older car that obviously needs more work.
Jacalyn, I am sorry that your experience with our shop was not good. I have reviewed our notes and talked to the other mechanic shop about your vehicle, they had called us last week to get a history of what we had done. They did say that when they did their compression test the cylinders were all around 117-120psi, and our notes show 115-120psi. Subaru’s specification is 142-171psi which does indicate your engine is worn a bit. The reason the technician did not perform the test on all four cylinders was the first two he checked were low and it would only have cost you more for us to continue in testing the other two. So, we thought we would try and keep the cost down since we found two weaker cylinders already. We also did find lots of oil in the intake from excessive blow by from worn piston rings and that is why we recommended replacing the engine at that time. Again I do apologize that we were not more thorough on our diagnosis and should have presented more options to you when you were in the shop a year ago.
- Westside Car Care