Hi all.
I brought my van to Import Services in Glenview and met with Dan the owner. Both he and his partner Austin looked over the van. First, a bit of background:
I bought this van new in 2001 from Autobarn in Mt. Prospect. Every single service has been performed by their shop up to this point. (Oil, filter, tune, etc.) Yes, I was one of those people that thought that the only reliable place to take care of my van was the dealer. I had a great relationship with one of their service managers., and felt I was being treated honestly and fairly. A few things recently caused me to consider looking for an independent shop. The dealership changed hands a few times in the span of 2 years. My service guy was gone. I was also given some misleading info about a "new" Interstate battery that they installed, but in fact was a VW branded battery, that looked much smaller than the space it was in. Since the battery cover is always on, I never noticed this until recently. I also had the oil leak mentioned above and after leaving the van a few days, was told not to worry about it. They didn't find anything terrible. But it always bothered me.
Over to Import Service I go. After a few days, I got a call that the leak was coming from the head gasket. But it is not a leak, more like seepage they said. As soon as I heard head gasket, I immediately thought here goes thousands of dollars. In fact, to replace the head gasket, you apparently have to drop the transmission and engine to replace the $200US gasket. There was a possibility they could do it without all that, depending on a few factors. They said total cost would be ~$2000US to do that. That actually was not as bad as I thought it would be!
BUT, their recommendation was to not do all that. Again, they said the seepage was minimal and they have seen worse on other EV's. What they did recommend was driving the van MORE! My EV tends to only go out of the garage to go on camping trips locally. Our trusty Toyota Corolla is the daily driver.
My van has under 82000 miles on it. Most of that is highway miles. Or miles to drive to get the oil and filter! I still have 50% of my original brakes! Oil and filter is done by time, usually changed about every 6 months. I do baby this thing: zero to sixty in 90 seconds, coast to stoplights and signs, and leave about 20 car lengths between me and you. Yeah I am one of those guys!
So I think I am going to just leave things as they are, try and drive a bit more. Apparently, this may even help slow down said leak. This shop is fully capable of doing the head gasket and they could have just as easily said yeah, do it. And maybe if around a few thousand, I would have. When I asked what I owed for the diagnostic, they said I don't owe them anything! I was not going to take the van unless they take some of my dough, so i told them to spend some time going over the entire van since the only service to look at it for 20 years was Autobarn. They did that and reported back that I have been taking really good care of this thing. OK, how about changing the battery since it died once over last winter?Been fine since. Since the battery was pretty new, losing charge once was probably more forgiving than one might think. They said to put a new battery when this one sounds taxed or doesn't start the van. How about wheel alignment? They asked if van was pulling left/right, un-even tire wear? I said no. They said save your money. My total cost for all this, plus my talking and asking questions endlessly was a whopping $66.00US!
All that said, they will be handling all work for our 2017 Corrola from here on as well. Great guys. Most of their clients come from referrals and word of mouth. I am luck to have found Import Service. Here is to a happy marriage with them! I am hesitant to share this. I want them all to myself.
Jonathan
