Date:         Fri, 19 Aug 2005 19:09:59 -0400
Reply-To:     Edward Duntz <eduntz@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Edward Duntz <eduntz@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Negligent mechanic?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

On the advice of several on the list, I decided to let a local mechanic tackle my '85 Westfalia's exhaust instead of doing it myself. I went in with both header pipes, and the connector to the cat, as well as all the hardware and gaskets. All were purchased from Volkscafe. Pipes were good used ones. 

I got an estimate of about $150 to do the job. I dropped the van off, and came back four hours later, to be told that one of the head studs broke off, and it would be a while longer. This was no surprise, as I have heard plenty of stories of troubles with getting off the bolts and studs. 

What was a surprise, however, was how the mechanic dealt with the problem. I hung around for the last three hours of the work. At one point I saw him pouring in coolant. This naturally got me worried. He said he had to take off the lower thermostat housing in order to get at the studs to drill them out. But he still wasn't successful. He said that the drill bit slipped, and he ended up hacking off a piece of the exhaust head. And there's a new stud, put in on an angle, with about four washers and a nut on it. Next I saw him banging on something with a pry bar. He said that the flange on the exhaust pipe wasn't straight and he had to bang it in place to get a good seal against the head. He also had trouble getting the thermostat housing back on. It leaked several times.

I didn't discover how badly he whacked the exhaust head until I got home. I guess after leaving he van for four hours and sitting there for another three, I was ready to get out of there. He also added an eshaust hanger that is bolted to the frame, connected to the pipe before the cat. I had asked him to replace a broken support that was there, which he didn't do. He also didn't put the heat shields back on correctly. 

So I know that these things can be troublesome. But do you really have to remove the thermostat housing to get at the studs? And is it his incompetence that he wasn't able to remove the stud without messing up the head? 

I also told him that two of the heads have studs and two have bolts, as Volkscafe told me. He said that there was a different mixture of bolts and studs, and replaced them as he found them. It also looks like he left at least one old stud in there.

So was this guy negligent? Advice? Oh, yeah, total was seven hours for a total of $439.00. This is a local place that does a lot of exhausts. There is just no good Vanagon mechanic locally, so an exhaust shop seemed to be the next best choice.

Thanks,
Ed