Came in with a problem of temperature gauge showing hot at all times and flickering dash lights. The person who attended me, took very little interest in even listening to the complaints in my car that I wanted fixed. I overlooked that attitude since it was almost closing time, and hey, who would want to listen to long list of tasks when you are right about to go home? I gave him all the complaints that I had to say anyways.
Before i brought it in, did some basic research on the internet and did the following myself.
1. Replaced tempertature sender(the one which goes to the instrument cluster)
2. Replaced temperature sensor(the one which goes to the ECU)
3. Checked the battery at Walmart, and had it replaced since the test they do at Walmart recommended replacing the battery
4. Checked for variations in voltage from the alternator in full load vs normal load, which showed good readings in my $10 multimeter
4. Bought a used instrument cluster from eBay and had it replaced to no avail.(had to take apart the rails, and disassemble the entire dashboard to get this done. 1 hour work) Returned the part since it didn't help.
##If you can understand everything that I have mentioned till now and have the tools(basic ones) to do them yourself, you can do a better job of fixing your problem than the guys at Casey Auto)##
5. The next step towards fixing my problem was to identify a shorted wire which could possibly be grounding the circuit somewhere, for which i did not have the tools or the time. I thought I would take it to some "experts"
I was told that I would get charged $69.95 for a pin-point comprehensive testing. I trusted that these guys at Casey would have better tools and knowledge about the issue and go ahead few more steps into identifying the issue. Sadly they did not. They called me back after the diagnosis saying that the temperature sender needed to be replaced(step 1 which i did myself). I told him that I tried this already. The person who called me, said that I would have replaced the wrong prat. He also confirmed that I would have a 2 year warranty on this fix. The issue did not get resolved. I ended up paying $69.95 for the diagnosis and $60 for getting the temperature sender replaced. He said I would have to pay an additional $98 to have the issue looked at deeper. To me it seemed like they were going the same route as I did and I would have to shell out a $100 for every single step that these guys would take. Which is absurd. With the tools and equiment that they should have, they should be able to confirm if replacing a part would actually fix something. Not try every possible way there is, and charge the customer for their trials and playing arounds.
I paid $130 to let these guys "try" to fix the problem with my car. It is in the same shape as how it was when I brought it in. Total waste of money and time. I have the tools to take apart the dashboard and the instrument clusters. I will spend this weekend on identifying the problem and fix it myself.
Bottom line
1. if you think your problem has to do with electricals in your car and is a little complicated to pin point yourself, then don't take it to Casey. They do not know what they are doing.
2. The $69.95 full electrical diagnostic test is total BS. A "pin point full electrical comprehensive diagnostic" test according to Casey Auto is, a one minute google search and doing the first basic and easy thing that comes up related to your problem.
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