Auburn Muffler Ripped My Son Off Thieving, unprofessional, shotty workmanship, angry customers, no receipts, no estimates Auburn Washington

First of all I am the new owner. I bought the business Jan 2007. The situation mentioned happened before Jan of 2007. I was working for the old owner. I remember the white ford explorer came in for exhaust inspection only, as requested by the customer. The vehicle was not blowing any smoke from the tail pipe at the time of the inspection.

The catalytic converter, muffler & pipes were replaced & the customer was informed to have the vehicle checked out to make sure it was in good running condition. When the customer picked up the vehicle he mentioned that he had a radiator leak of some sort, & asked if we could look at it. We said sure.

When we looked at the radiator, it was empty. We filled the radiator up with antifreeze, and started the vehicle. This is when it started blowing white smoke. The cusomer was driving the vehicle without antifreeze & overheating the engine. We had no way to determine the vehicle was in that bad of shape previous to filling up the radiator with antifreeze or putting on a new exhaust.

What made this situation really bad is the way the old owner handled it. He did not handle it good at all.

Fortunately I own the business now & will rebuild the reputation of an honest & quality driven business. I cant change the past, but I promise the future is all about serving the community.

I am sorry to hear that your son was ripped off. Why did he go to a place that you live and you son live across the street from for 10 years and knew it was a rip off?

After reading your report, it sounds like your son's car was a piece of junk. White smoke coming out of the exhaust is not a muffler problem, it is a engine problem. having a new muffler put on doesn't take a week or $500 dollars. The exhaust system is nothing more than pieces of pipe and a muffler put together to let burnt fumes that your engine produces, to exit the engine via the exhaust system. Any colored smoke coming out of the exhaust is an engine problem, and sounds like your son's engine was about to blow.

You said in your report that the tie rods blew after the shop worked on it again. Well tie rods don't really blow, that is just an expression. Tie rods are not part of the exhaust system or even the motor. They are part of the steering system, and there are two of them, a left and right side.

I would agree that the shop propably took advantage of you, but you knew what kind of shop it was and still chose to go there and paid $1800 dollars. In the future I would suggust you and your son learn the basics of car repair and componants of the car so you can avoid getting ripped off in the future. Also check the condition of the shop and the employee's. That can tell alot about the shop and see if the have ASE Certified mechanics and the credentials to back them up, they will have ASE signs posted if they are.

That's my two cents. Good luck in the future.