Is my mechanic at fault?

Didn't work for me. Wound up replacing the entire shaft.

 

Most definitely. Plus, so many people chimed in quickly offering suggestions...great folks willing to help.

 

Personally as an EX service writer... If there were parts that I had expirence with being an issue with a repair, they get tacked on to the estimate and explained to the customer as a part they MAY need to replace. I used this only as a precautionary measure to avoid the situation that you are in.

If the shop has worked with airbag vehicles and preformed any tasks where the steering wheel / column needed work they should be somewhat familiar with these points posted by other people in this thread and at LEAST notified you of this potential issue.

How many miles does your truck have?

 

He is on the hook for repairs too everything he damaged.

 

Be nice,but firm with him,and have him repair it.

 

OP, you may want to look at the factory procedure for the intermediate shafts. Both require that the seat belt be looped through the steering wheel first to prevent it from spinning and destroying the spiral cable (clock spring).

 

Yeah, this is exactly what I have been thinking. He keeps claiming that this is "unavoidable", if that's the case, put it into the original estimate. If it breaks, he's covered, if not, we're all happy. When he stated it was unavoidable, I simply responded asking if this happens every time he works on any steering issue, specifically the intermediate shaft, and he replied No. So right there that tells me this was avoidable... what a moron...

My truck is just over 103,000 miles.

 

Thank guys, I have been wanting to get more into my truck... I know you all are more than willing to help and I really appreciate it. Thankfully this move will have me living closer to work, so I won't have to rely so heavily on my truck all the time, thus giving me more time to repair things myself versus paying idiots to break it for me.

 

haha, the "shop" is called Advance Automotive Services on 35th street in Milwaukee, WI. I go in there today around noon to claim my damaged goods, so don't get too harsh before then, not trying to piss the idiot off too early.

 

Half-assed mechanics in a hurry...

I had my ignition switch replaced, they didn't plug my clock back in, so the dipshit mechanic gets an impact and rattles the panel off to plug it back in... the vibration from the impact wiped out half the bulbs on my display. I ended up just fixing the bulbs myself after that (2 hours tearing my dash apart in 100 degree heat and pissed off before I even started).

 

I was once told that for business, bad word travels much faster than good. When they do you wrong once you tell all your friends, but when they do nothing wrong you don't talk about it.

 

My mechanic has a sign in his office that says... if your happy with my work, tell your friends, if your unhappy, tell me, I'll do my best to make it right.

 

Well? What happened when you picked up your truck?

 

So from this, you know 2 things:

- This guy is a fair-weather shop owner.
- He has experience dealing with small claims

As others have said, chalk up your loss and move on, especially since time is not on your side. leave your experience on google - Yelp - yellowpages.com - ripoffreport.com - etc.

 

fix it yourself and move on,you can always find another shitty mech.

 

Did you pay with a credit card? Dispute it.