H & J Auto Repair

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What a nightmare. Do NOT trust Jay. He and his crew took my civic that's been in good running condition for years and created one new problem after another within a course of two weeks. Now my only option is to replace the engine and this will cost me the value of the car.



It started early Sept 08 when I tried to save time by finding a mechanic near my workplace for an oil change. My car was in perfect running condition then and had been trouble free for the longest time. H & J was the closest so that was my pick. A few days later, I checked the oil to make sure it got changed, and noticed I was losing coolant. My coolant had been full the whole year so this was strange. So I brought the car back to H & J and Jay said there was a leak in some hoses. He said I needed to change 4 or 5 hoses. So he changed them the next day. Within an hour after he returned the car to me, it overheated and broke down on the freeway while I was driving home to SF. When I looked under the hood, there was no coolant at all. The next morning I had it towed 30 miles back to H & J. The tow truck driver, who was a former mechanic at SF Mercedes and an auto enthusiast, took a look at the car and told me this was totally H & J's fault because they used an aftermarket hose that got bent in such a way as to block the flow of coolant. He also said that H & J did not bleed the system (to get rid of the air in the cooling system). He explained this to me in detail and when I confronted Jay about it, Jay told me that 1) there was no such thing as a manufacturer hose, and 2) he did not bleed the system because Japanese cars like Honda Civics did not have bleeders and did not require bleeding. He told me that European cars like the BMW had bleeders and required bleeding but not Civics. Yes, he actually said this to me. I wish I took an audio recording of him saying this. He really takes you for a complete idiot if you give him the impression that you don't know about cars. He kept the car for 6 days, said he didn't know what caused the overheating, denied all responsibility, and wanted big money for major repair work. I filed a claim with the Bureau of Automotive Repair and towed the car to a shop I trusted for repair.



If this sounds like the kind of experience you want to go through, H & J Auto is right at the corner of E Evelyn Ave and Pioneer Way in MV. Jay has an honest appearance and demeanor that will disarm you but he has shown himself to be a crooked liar to me. These guys don't do proper paperwork. They never gave me an estimate form or any paperwork after taking my car. Good and honest mechanics do. Good and honest mechanics like the ones I frequent are also busy...insanely busy. Drive by H & J and you will see more empty parking spaces than cars. They are the prototypical dishonest mechanics that give such a bad name to the auto repair business.