Unfortunately it did not go that great. On the first visit when I had an appointment, he forgot he had a doctor's appointment himself & wasn't there when I arrived . A managed to get a response from him on email and he said he was on the way about an hour later. I'm a gracious person so I didn't make a big deal about it.
And then he put my car on the lift and made a few observations. But when I said " my car is actually running well" then he was kind of sarcastic because it wouldn't start without touching the gas pedal. That's NOT a big hardship for me to touch the gas pedal to get the car to start.
He was astute about observing that there might be something else going on besides torque converter. Because the codes were showing oxygen sensors, mass air flow sensor, and purge valve among others.
I realize now ex post facto that an experienced mechanic should have thought about the fuse because this same fuse controls all of those and it turns out that this fuse was burned out. And a fuse usually doesn't burn out just for being old or anything. There's usually a reason.
And as it turns out there was a reason. And he almost looked right at it because he noticed the oil leaking below the pan. But he didn't spot the melted wires from the hot oil. A different mechanic later on noticed this and fixed the wires which solved the code problem and we're hoping the torque converter issue as well.
Still haven't driven it far enough for long enough to know 100% for sure. The further problem is that before I went to the second mechanic he had already convinced me that I should invest in a new mass air flow sensor and make sure it's OEM.
Despite my reservations I paid the extra for an AC Delco MAF sensor but it didn't solve the problem because with a burned out fuse the MAF sensor wasn't working at all - once again an experienced mechanic would notice that the code for this sensor was low input, not defective.
"Low input" means the MAF sensor was not giving a signal to the ECU. This should have also been a clue to an experienced mechanic that there was something else CAUSING the problem for the MAF sensor .
So on the second visit to see this mechanic at quick feet I had already installed the new ACDelco maf sensor, but he began ridiculing me for not buying it straight from an AC Delco dealer.
I bought it from a person who guaranteed it was AC Delco but when it arrived I wasn't positive it was ACDelco because I hadn't seen the words on it, but later I did I verify it, so it was not the issue.
But once again I repeat myself it wouldn't have mattered if I had the most expensive MAF sensor in the world installed because it was the fuse and the fuse was due to the wires being melted which he could have spotted if he had looked at them closely for a few seconds when he was underneath the first time!
It was the second visit when he became abusive that I just couldn't take it anymore and I left. He also seemed to expect me to give him money but he hadn't done any actual work yet. We were still trying to get to what the actual issue is.
I was positive about him even after him being late the first time I thought that he was a good person and that he was a new mechanic starting a new shop and I would be glad to support a young ambitious person. But if he's going for pocket change already just to read the codes and take a quick look this makes me wary.
Nonetheless if that's important to him he should say so upfront. There are places that will say up front that we charge for looking at the vehicle or for reading the codes so you know what they expect.
In this case he didn't say that up front and then he seemed to become passive- aggressive about it. That quickly turned me off and I left abruptly. And I apologize for words I used towards him but he was abusive towards me as well.
I wish him well in the future and Hope he can work out his time management and hopefully sleep management as well because he works nights also. I don't know how he does it but I wish him the best.
