Hogan & Sons Goodyear, Falls Church
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 5:48 pm
Hogan & Sons had a Groupon special for a half price Level 1 Engine Light Diagnostic service.
With me having my weird issues with CEL on and no code to back it up, I called Payton at the Falls Church location and explained my issue(boost dependent stumbling and flashing CEL that turns solid with no code).
He said that the Groupon would cover them taking a look, so I made an appointment and brought it in.
Next day, I got a call from Brandon (the tech that worked on the car) who told me they couldn't get much info from the OBD-II as far as codes and that ECU specialist said that the ECU needed to be re-flashed, or replaced. He also said that their freeze frame diagnostics (OBD-II ECU interface) captured a misfire in cyl#3 because an IAC solenoid that was stuck.
At this point I had a few questions that I thought would be best discussed while actually looking at the car. Went over and talked to Brandon who said that at 120 Degrees coolant temp there was an engine event that made it stumble, not actually misfire (no code thrown, stored, or pending). Since that is about the temp needed to have the butterfly valves flick open on warmup and it wasn't a misfire, and then never drove it long enough to see the actual boost dependent stumble in less than one mile. Oh well, no harm done. Boy, was I wrong...(but before I get to the next point, Just wanted to state that Brandon said he didn't really know too much about FI cars and was completely honest an up-front with me when I questioned him about his diagnosis and recommendations).
On the 2.0 mile drive back to the office (AT DUSK WITH MY LIGHTS ON), I noticed that I had no speedo, and the EGT gauge was not working. A couple minutes later, and the CEL and ABS lights came on. Got on the phone not 10 minutes after picking it up and talk to whoever answered what my problem was. They said to bring it on back and they would take a look. I was just around the corner at this time from my office so I scanned the codes; wheel speed sensor error, transmission speed sensor error, ABS inoperative, TPS error. Turned right back around to drop it off and realized I also had no reverse lights, or high-beams.
Got a call from Brandon the next morning (DAY TIME) saying that since the ECU was "bad", they couldn't trust any diagnostics with it, also said that nothing they did would cause my problems. I did not quite like that explanation of events and stopped back into the shop after work (NIGHT TIME). At which point, I turned my phone on voice record and captured the whole 45 minute conversation and the followup conversation the next day. Below is a highly paraphrased summary. Complete and unedited recordings are available upon request.
Me: "WTF?"
Payton: "Not our problem, dude"
Me: "what is the problem?"
Payton: "your ECU is hosed"
"No it's not" - "Yes it is" - No it isn't" - "Yes it is, you chipped your ECU" - "No I didn't" - "Yes you did" - "No I didn't" - "You replaced your ECU" - "No I didn't" - "Yes you did. We need another ECU" - "Fine, here you go" - "No, not that one, I said I would replace it." - "No you didn't" - "Yes I did" - "Fine, take the one from my sedan that is running right outside the door" - "No, I don't know what you did to that one either, you knew your car had electrical problems and are trying to pin it on us" - "So now it is not the ECU? Can you diagnose the electrical problem?" - "No, we are not working on your car anymore" - "BBB/insurance/police?" - "F-U, get off my property"
Took it to Don Beyer Subaru, found a blown fuse (headlight/illumination relay thingy). Turns out, lost my speed sensor inputs from trans and wheel whenever exterior lights were on. Kind of makes sense why nobody could find the issue during DAYTIME work hours. They replaced it, and car runs like it did before. $62 and an honest professional from a dealer as compared to a F-tard at a local shop who wants you to spend hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars, calls you a liar and then precedes to lie himself...
I think the tech guys at Hogan and Sons Goodyear are fine for replacing tires or anything else very simple and linear.
I don't think they are completely competent for more complex issues or for the diagnostic rates they charge, and when they turn to their management with an issue, you have equal 1/3rd chances of things getting worse and more expensive, not getting fixed at all getting called a liar and being run off, or getting very expensive and maybe fixed.
That is all
With me having my weird issues with CEL on and no code to back it up, I called Payton at the Falls Church location and explained my issue(boost dependent stumbling and flashing CEL that turns solid with no code).
He said that the Groupon would cover them taking a look, so I made an appointment and brought it in.
Next day, I got a call from Brandon (the tech that worked on the car) who told me they couldn't get much info from the OBD-II as far as codes and that ECU specialist said that the ECU needed to be re-flashed, or replaced. He also said that their freeze frame diagnostics (OBD-II ECU interface) captured a misfire in cyl#3 because an IAC solenoid that was stuck.
At this point I had a few questions that I thought would be best discussed while actually looking at the car. Went over and talked to Brandon who said that at 120 Degrees coolant temp there was an engine event that made it stumble, not actually misfire (no code thrown, stored, or pending). Since that is about the temp needed to have the butterfly valves flick open on warmup and it wasn't a misfire, and then never drove it long enough to see the actual boost dependent stumble in less than one mile. Oh well, no harm done. Boy, was I wrong...(but before I get to the next point, Just wanted to state that Brandon said he didn't really know too much about FI cars and was completely honest an up-front with me when I questioned him about his diagnosis and recommendations).
On the 2.0 mile drive back to the office (AT DUSK WITH MY LIGHTS ON), I noticed that I had no speedo, and the EGT gauge was not working. A couple minutes later, and the CEL and ABS lights came on. Got on the phone not 10 minutes after picking it up and talk to whoever answered what my problem was. They said to bring it on back and they would take a look. I was just around the corner at this time from my office so I scanned the codes; wheel speed sensor error, transmission speed sensor error, ABS inoperative, TPS error. Turned right back around to drop it off and realized I also had no reverse lights, or high-beams.
Got a call from Brandon the next morning (DAY TIME) saying that since the ECU was "bad", they couldn't trust any diagnostics with it, also said that nothing they did would cause my problems. I did not quite like that explanation of events and stopped back into the shop after work (NIGHT TIME). At which point, I turned my phone on voice record and captured the whole 45 minute conversation and the followup conversation the next day. Below is a highly paraphrased summary. Complete and unedited recordings are available upon request.
Me: "WTF?"
Payton: "Not our problem, dude"
Me: "what is the problem?"
Payton: "your ECU is hosed"
"No it's not" - "Yes it is" - No it isn't" - "Yes it is, you chipped your ECU" - "No I didn't" - "Yes you did" - "No I didn't" - "You replaced your ECU" - "No I didn't" - "Yes you did. We need another ECU" - "Fine, here you go" - "No, not that one, I said I would replace it." - "No you didn't" - "Yes I did" - "Fine, take the one from my sedan that is running right outside the door" - "No, I don't know what you did to that one either, you knew your car had electrical problems and are trying to pin it on us" - "So now it is not the ECU? Can you diagnose the electrical problem?" - "No, we are not working on your car anymore" - "BBB/insurance/police?" - "F-U, get off my property"
Took it to Don Beyer Subaru, found a blown fuse (headlight/illumination relay thingy). Turns out, lost my speed sensor inputs from trans and wheel whenever exterior lights were on. Kind of makes sense why nobody could find the issue during DAYTIME work hours. They replaced it, and car runs like it did before. $62 and an honest professional from a dealer as compared to a F-tard at a local shop who wants you to spend hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars, calls you a liar and then precedes to lie himself...
I think the tech guys at Hogan and Sons Goodyear are fine for replacing tires or anything else very simple and linear.
I don't think they are completely competent for more complex issues or for the diagnostic rates they charge, and when they turn to their management with an issue, you have equal 1/3rd chances of things getting worse and more expensive, not getting fixed at all getting called a liar and being run off, or getting very expensive and maybe fixed.
That is all