Author: Eric Fritzius
March 9, 2005
My little blue 1999 Chevy Malibu has been a good and faithful car for me. For the most part. It’s certainly treated me leagues better than my former vehicle, the blue 1985 Chevy Caprice Classic, referred to with heavy spite and ire as the Bent Turd. Oh, sure, the Malibu has konked out on me on a few occasions and has had to have various bits of it replaced, such as water pumps, serpentine belts and the occasional alternator, but it’s been a good car all the same.
A while back, I began noticing a strange belt-squeaking noise beneath its hood, though and I decided it was time to get it checked out before I learned what was causing that noise the hard way. I decided to bite the bullet and take it in to the local Chevy dealership for its 100,000 mile tune up. I’d actually had mixed experiences with the dealership in the past and was once even yelled at by one of their employees who kept insisting that the keys he had handed me were my car keys despite the fact that they weren’t. But again, they’re the Chevy dealership so ostensibly they would be the ideal place to take a Chevy.
We dropped my car off late on an early March Tuesday night. It was a carefully chosen night, because my wife Ashley’s medical rotation in March gave her Wednesdays off so she would be able to shuttle me to work the next day.
With snow falling on my head, I stood in the freezing wind and filled out the little after-hours drop off sheet. I wrote there that in addition to the tune up, all belts should be inspected as one of them was making noise. I also checked that I would need an oil change.
“Did you mention the grabby brakes?” Ash asked as I climbed back into her car.
“Uh, no,” I said. I’d forgotten about the grabby brakes. They’ve actually been grabby for quite some time, but the local brake place said everything looked good in them so we shouldn’t worry too much. Still, who likes grabby brakes?
The following morning, Ash called the Chevy place and told them about the grabby brakes. They said they’d check them. Meanwhile, they already claimed to have found a leaky engine intake that needed fixing to the tune of $700. Ash asked if this was something dire or if it was the kind of thing that might wait a few months. They said it could wait, though if it should spring an antifreeze leak we should bring it back in.
“Did you remind them about the oil change?” I asked.
“No.”
“Well, it’s on the form I filled out, so I’m sure they’ll get it,” I said.
Despite claiming they would phone us, the garage never called. So in the early afternoon, I phoned them and learned three things: 1) the Malibu needed new rear brake drums, which would stop the grabby brakes; 2) the mechanics weren’t going to do the tune up because it would involve replacing bits that would have to be replaced again once we decided to have the intake fixed and they didn’t want to do the work twice—fine with me, as I didn’t want to pay for it twice, either; 3) they couldn’t hear any belt squealing noises so they hadn’t done anything with the belts. I told them okay on the brake drums and they said they would call when they were finished. Naturally, they did not and by 5 p.m. I was left with no other conclusion but that my car was not fixed.
The next morning, Ashley drove me to the Chevy dealership where I planned to wait for my car to be finished. However, when I arrived they claimed my car had already been repaired the previous day. I paid them for the drum replacement and noticed they’d also charged me for a lube job. It was only after I was driving away that I noticed they had not replaced the little Oil Change in X number of Miles sticker on the inside of the window, leading me to believe they’d not actually changed the oil.
The car ran okay for several days, despite the continued belt squeal sound. I could kind of understand them not being able to hear it because it only seemed to happen on warm days.
The following Sunday, the right rear tire began to make a horrible clunking sound whenever we braked at low speeds. By Wednesday, we decided this wasn’t good so we took it back in to the dealership. The man at the service counter seemed a bit angry about this. He also didn’t seem to want to accept the car at all as he was four mechanics short. We didn’t see how his lack of mechanics was our problem and told him we would much prefer it if they had a look anyway since we didn’t like driving with horrible clunking sounds coming from brakes they had allegedly repaired. Dude wrote down a little of what we were saying, but wasn’t writing in near as much detail as I thought was required.
“Also, would you please have them investigate the belt-squealing sound that I’m still hearing in the engine,” I asked. “Oh, and please change the oil, too.” This seemed to make the angry man even more angry, but he agreed he would try if they had time.
When I called them for a status report that afternoon, the Angry Man at the desk said they couldn’t hear any clunking noises coming from the engine nor any squealing noise from the tire. I corrected him that it was actually a clunking tire and a squealing engine. He said they still couldn’t hear either and suggested I come in the following day to help them hear it.
So at work, Thursday morning, I gave the dealership a call to arrange the auditory aid session. Angry man said they had driven the car again that morning and still couldn’t hear anything. I asked if I could come by at noon and he said that would work.
At noon, a co-worker dropped me off at the dealership. Angry man was there but became still angrier when he saw me. He said all the mechanics go to lunch between noon and 1, so I’d have to come back later.
“Well, I sure wish you’d mentioned that on the phone before you told me it would be okay for me to come in at noon,” I said, very calmly.
Angry man flared. “Well, I’m not going to stand here and argue with you who was right or who was wrong!” he said. “Let’s just go give her a drive now.”
“Sure thing,” I said, still remaining admirably calm.
He dug up my key and led me outside where he moved for the driver’s side door of my car.
“Would you mind if I drove?” I said. Angry Man did seem to mind, but didn’t really have any grounds to refuse me the wheel of my own vehicle. To make small talk while I started the car and maneuvered out of the parking lot, Angry Man started back in on the whole business about how the mechanics had already driven the car twice and couldn’t hear a thing. As he was saying this, I applied the brakes until the car was at a very low speed.
“CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK!” said the back tire.
“Hear that?”
Angry man’s mouth dropped open. “Yeah. Yeah, I hear that. Anybody could hear that.” He then became incredibly angry at the incompetence of his mechanics for putting him in such an embarrassing situation. I continued to drive the car out of the parking lot and down the road, both to try and get the belt to squeal and also to make angry man that much more uncomfortable at having to sit there beside me and take it after once again having been shown up. The belt never did squeal for me, but like I told him it usually didn’t do it when the weather was cold.
“Uh, you said you needed an oil change too, right?” Angry Man said as we drove back to the dealership. “Well, we did that when you brought it in last week.”
“Oh, really? I thought maybe you hadn’t since no one replaced the mileage sticker.”
”Well… um… they’re supposed to do that,” he said.
We resolved to have them fix the clunk and I would save the belt squeal for a day when it was actually squealing.
Naturally, the Chevy dealership never phoned me to alert me to what the problem was with the clunking. I phoned them, however, to learn from a very sheepish sounding Angry Man that they had replaced my original faulty brake drum with yet another faulty brake drum. Wisely he didn’t try to get me to pay for the re-replacement.
Jump ahead two weeks. The wife and I go out of town for a medical mission trip to Central America during which time my car sits in my driveway. Upon our return, the belt squeal has not gone away, but has in fact gotten worse.
It sounded particularly bad on the following Saturday, when it did its best impersonation of a choir of crickets throughout my drive to work. I made it to work okay, but on my way home, after having made it nearly up the giant hill that leads to my street, I hit a dip in the pavement and heard something beneath the hood give way and noticed that the power steering was no longer working. As I reached my driveway, the engine died and the battery light came on. I parked, called the wife down for a gander and opened the hood. Sure enough, the serpentine belt was completely off its track. And the reason it was off its track is because the alternator had broken off.
No, really. Broken. Off.
I’m talking, broken off from the engine block at the bracket, broken off.
“Well, that sucks,” I said, staring at it.
“Yes. That does suck,” Ashley replied.
“Those complete and utter morons,” I added.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by this. However, you’d think that when you go to allegedly qualified Chevrolet repair specialists at an automobile repair garage that deals specifically with Chevrolets and you tell them that your particular Chevrolet is making a sound that’s reminiscent of a belt being loose that they’d actually, oh, I don’t know, HAVE A LOOK IN THE GENERAL BELT AREA or something and maybe noticed that the bracket connecting the alternator had CRACKS IN IT!
MORONS!
I don’t say nearly often enough how much I adore my car insurance company USAA. Genuinely love them. In addition to being very good insurance, they also have customer service representatives that should be the envy of all other call centers the universe wide. When you phone them, you don’t get a huge hassle from any automated answering service that makes you jump through hoops to talk to a real person. No. You get to talk to a real person who’s friendly, empathetic and willing to help make sure things are as easy for you as possible. It’s one of the most amazing concepts I’ve ever heard of!
USAA not only arranged for a tow truck to come get my car and haul it to the nearest repair provider, which just happened to be within walking distance of my house, but they also commiserated with me over how much having one’s alternator fall off truly sucks. I think I’m in love! Even better, the towing is COVERED by my oh-so-marvelous USAA insurance! Glory Be!
The tow truck driver, arrived in 20 minutes and hauled my car down the hill. I then gave it an hour before calling the conveniently located repair place. I was expecting to have to explain why my car had been dumped on them and what I wanted them to fix and then have to wait upwards of a day for this busy garage to get around to doing anything about it. However, they already knew the whole drill about my car. In fact, they’d already been on the phone with parts yards looking for a new bracket for my alternator and expected to hear back from them any time. That wasn’t the truly shocking part, though.
“Did you know your alternator was missing a nut in the back?” my new repair guy asked.
“No. No, I didn’t,” I said.
Apparently, in the back of the alternator there is a bolt that helps hold the thing down and that bolt is supposed to be held in place by a nut. Without the nut, much vibration can occur which can and did cause the metal bracket of the alternator housing to weaken and eventually snap.
Now, I can’t say for sure that the Chevy dealership is directly at fault for that nut being missing, but they were the last folks that had anything to do with that part of my car since they’re the ones who put in a new serpentine belt several months ago. A more conspiratorial soul might suggest they’d done it on purpose to get more business from me, but I don’t think so. No, those folks seem to hate doing any work at all, let alone bringing more work down on their heads through sabotage.
A mere six hours later, my new repair guy PHONED ME to say the car was ready. Imagine that; a repair shop that actually PHONES YOU when your car is ready, rather than making you hire a Sherpa. I walked on down the hill and picked it up with no problem. The bill was only $86, which didn’t strike me as too bad at all. I think I’ve found my new repair shop.
Copyright © 2005 Eric Fritzius
