I Haven’t Been to Boston, but I May Have Gotten Scrod
5 September 2007We had yet another disablement yesterday, calling into question whether I’m just unlucky, or whether I’m somehow doing damage to things.
Anyway, we were in the Baskin-Robbins after dinner last night, and when we returned to the truck, it wouldn’t start. We got a ride home to the trailer, and I took a cab back this morning, intending to have the truck towed for repair. I had identified what looked like a really good shop. Two good reviews on an RV repair website.
The problem is that the truck started up just fine this morning. I drove it over to the shop and told them my tale of woe. They took a look. Couldn’t make it fail. What they decided was that I needed a new fuel cutoff solenoid. I have already replaced one of these, and as soon as I heard the diagnosis, it made sense to me. Pulling the wires of the solenoid reproduced the problem, though we still couldn’t make it fail with the wires connected.
I authorized a 1/2 hour general inspection. They ruled out a whole bunch of other things, and found some other problems, none of which needed immediate attention. So I authorized the fuel cutoff solenoid.
If a distributor-type injection pump isn’t pushing fuel through the lines to the injectors, it may have a faulty solenoid. Listen for a “click” inside the pump when the ignition switch is turned on. No click means the solenoid and/or pump needs to be serviced or replaced. If it clicks but there’s no fuel coming through the injector lines (and the filter and lines are not obstructed), the pump is probably bad and needs to be serviced or replaced. (http://www.aa1car.com/library/2005/us040530.htm)
I wish we had debugged more, because after the solenoid was obtained and installed, and the oil change and tuneup was done, etc., etc., and the truck was buttoned up, and the bill paid, I went out to leave, and the truck wouldn’t start. Lots of work traced it down to an intermittent control wire that is supposed to pull in the solenoid when the truck is started.
They insisted that the fuel solenoid was bad, even though there was another problem and did not want to refund any portion of the $500 that I had paid for a solenoid and two hours labor. I have the old solenoid, but I’m not competent to tell if it was bad or not.
I feel like any mistakes made were honest ones, and that they did finally get me on the road, but I’m troubled.
So, was I entitled to any consideration on the bill? I’m not sure, but I’ll be very happy to take comments.
2 Responses to “I Haven’t Been to Boston, but I May Have Gotten Scrod”
September 10th, 2007 at 5:18 am
Ed,
I would expect the shop to take back the new solenoid and refund your money… as long as you agreed to pay for the labor to install and remove it. Probably not worth the effort since it was already in the truck.
It sucks but it’s kind of like paying for programming. Sometimes the programmer gets it wrong the first time around but you have still used his time.
The good news is that you’ll never have to replace the fuel pump again… now that you have a spare.
– Art Z.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:56 am
I had the same kind of thing happen to me with the Supra. The shop diagnosed the problem as the fan clutch and charged me about $350 to fix it but the problem (overheat) didn’t go away until they replaced the thermostat…. thermostat=cheap.
They insisted that the fan clutch was bad anyway. I never went back.