Warning about very dodgy crooks Minshull Mechanic in Broome WA
Just wanted to let you all know about a notoriously dodgy mechanic in Broome called Minshull Mechanical. These guys are also own the ARB franchise and are Repco service agents. They are also the RAC towing and recommended repairers for Broome via there subsidiary Broome Towing and Salvage.
We took our Jeep Grand Cherokee there 4 months ago due to an oil leak. The reason we decided on Minshull was because they were the authorised and recommended Jeep repairer and service agent on the Jeep Australia website and also they own the ARB franchise which is a company we know and trust. I have been living in Broome for 2 years and everyone I spoke to warned me off Minshull Mechanical, but because of the Jeep and ARB recommendation I decided to give them a go.
This was one of the biggest mistakes I have made in my entire life.
They diagnosed the problem as being a cracked oil cooler where the oil had leaked into my cooling system. They ordered all the parts and we waited and waited and waited for the repairs to be carried out.
When we finally got our car back after about 5 weeks we paid them $4300. On the invoice it said they had flushed out the cooling system to remove all the excess oil and pretty much replaced all the hoses, the water pump, the oil cooler, the power steering pressure hose and a new radiator was fitted. (After they quoted us $1800 for a new radiator we decided to source our own which we did for around $500. When they fitted our radiator they told us it had a leak and so they charged us another $160 to service it)
We drove home.
The next morning I decided to check the radiator reservoir. It was full of thick black oil - Litres and litres of thick black oil. Like someone had poured engine oil from a 4 litre bottle straight into it. We rang them immediately and were advised that this was normal and it was just residue. After a few choice words we told them there was no way this was residue. They advised us to flush it with tap water for a while then drive in and see them. We did that.
We also noticed that the grill has not been screwed back in and is just sitting at the front of the car with nothing holding it in place. There were several screws missing from the radiator reservoir and we had trouble closing the bonnet.
Later that day we had the car back. They advised us the radiator low level warning light was on but to ignore it because it had just gotten wet while they were flushing the car.
We drove home.
The next day we checked the Radiator reservoir. It still had oil in it. We drove back in to town and the radiator warning light was on. We ignored it as they had advised. As we approached town the car overheated and coolant and oil spilled out over the road. When we popped the bonnet we noticed a heater hose had burst. We called the RAC and the mechanic who came happened to be from Minshull Mechanical. He told us that when they were fitting our radiator they had dropped it and a piece had broken off. (a different story to the previous one we were told). He towed our car to Minshull.
A couple of days later we got a call from the service guy at Minshull saying they would replace all the hoses in the engine due to oil contamination and that this was the only way to be sure that oil wouldn't eat away the remaining rubber hoses. He said it was the only way to prevent it happening again. I asked why they hadn’t done this in the first place and he said he didn’t know. He said they would replace all the hoses they had already replaced for free and not charge us labour, but that we would have to pay for the additional hoses. I agreed to this.
A couple of weeks later we got a call from them saying the parts hadn't arrived yet. The next day I got a call from the dodgy crook owner saying our car was ready. I was really surprised by this considering I had a call the afternoon before saying the parts hadn't arrived yet.
I asked him how he managed to fix it so quickly considering the parts hadn't arrived yesterday and he had 24 hoses to replace. He said he only replaced one hose. I told him one of his service staff had ordered 24 new hoses for us and he looked at me blankly and said he didn’t know what I was talking about. He said they weren’t even 24 hoses in the engine and that nothing needed replacing except this one hose and that that was all that the Jeep Dealer had sent them. He told us to only deal with him from now on and to speak to no one else that worked there.
We drove home.
When we opened the bonnet we noticed that the heater pressure hose in question hadn’t been replaced at all but the rubber had been cut off it and it had been modified and reclamped to the metal part of the hose with garden hose clamps and zip ties instead of being crimped like you would normally require on a pressure hose. The engine bay was a mess and we noticed the power steering reservoir had no screws holding it to the engine bay and it was just moving around. There were rubber hoses zip tied to metal hoses and there was still oil in the radiator.
Called the service guy from Minshull’s to tell him what had happened. He kept apologising about the work done to our car and advised us that Jeep had sent the wrong part and so the owner had modified it. We asked him to order the correct part. We also advised him that our power steering fluid was still leaking and this was surprising considering we had been charged $400 for new Power Steering Pressure hose. We also advised him that we would not be getting Minshull to do any further work on our car. He said he understood.
We took our car to Natrad/Promec where they have fixed the problem. This has cost us another $2700. They had to replace every single hose in the cooling system and also the airconditioning hoses as the oil had seeped in. They said the oil contamination was so bad it was leaching through the new hoses that Minshull had installed. They also had to install another new radiator as the oil contamination had destroyed the seals in the first new one. They said that you would never install the new parts until you were certain you had flushed all the oil out of the cooling system as the oil eats away the rubber in the hoses and seals. He couldn't fathom why this hadn't been done.
Natrad/Promec also discovered that our new Power Steering pressure hose had been cross threaded badly when installed and they had to heli coil it to try and fit it properly. Another Minshull epic failure.
This may sound long winded but it's just a warning to everyone that just because a mechanic is recommended by the car dealer doesn't mean they have any idea what they are doing. Our safety has been put at risk by these dodgy crooks as we prepare to leave Broome towing a 2500kg caravan.
In the past 4 months we have driven our car for a total of 40 minutes. We are currently pursing this matter with Jeep Australia and Fair Trading in order to try and get our money back.
I wouldn't get my Wheely Bin serviced by the incompetent fools at Minshull Mechanical let alone my car!
How can a reputable company such as ARB or Jeep or RAC possibly endorse these crooks or have anything to do with them?
I know they probably don’t care about the little people like me and are probably making a squillion dollars out of these crooks but they are rip off merchants who put the safety of all who get there cars repaired there or equipment fitted there at risk.
Dealing with Minshull Mechanical has been one of the most stressful experiences of my life.
__________________
rosi
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”
Last edited by kj69; 25-11-2012 at 09:00 PM.
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