that is exactly how it happened cause everyone here helped us fix her car.

And personally, i used Penzoil one time and they treated me well but i usually use the GM dealership cause with my 99 GTP i had a maintenence card with them so my oil changes were very cheap, but now i use them cause they do a good job and dont cost anymore than any other place here in town

Open mouth, insert foot...

Never seen that happen, or even heard of it for that matter. Every experience I've ever had and seen has been pulley bearings freezing and taking out the belt. My apologies

Juuuust kidding!! We're all here to learn, right?

The situation you describe happened to The Missus' Astro Van. The ideler froze up, chewed on the belt for a while, and then spit it all over the engine compartment.

Apology accepted CSFiend. Mos is right, we are all here to learn and share info. I remember years ago when our car lost all these little metal balls- they went everywhere. It took me a while to remember what they were called. Since I've been on BC I have learned oodles!! I can even swap out a fuel pump in my gp now if I had to. I've learned what MAF, CAI, and VATS all stand for. Now I blow a man'* mind when I start rattling stuff off about the 3800'*. I still have soooooo much more to learn but I'll get there if I stick around here for 20 more years.

The shop I used to work at in St. Cloud made me proud to be an auto tech. I've been with them since they opened, and from day one we had a very honest approach to maintenance and recommendations. If someone came in for an oil change, they always recieved a free complete vehicle inspection, which of course, was just a fancy term for "finding things to up-sell", but it was always things that they actually DID need, not just the typical generic trans/coolant/motor flush, etc.... If there was something I found, I'd go up and inform the customer and ask if they'd like to see what it is that'* bad so they understand why I'm recommending it. The car would be in the air, I'd bring the customer out and show them that, say, a tie rod end is loose. The thing that kept my customers coming back and recommending my shop was that we would take the time to show them WHY it'* important to replace it (see your tire moving back and forth? it'* doing that as you're going down the road, etc.), how it interacts with the rest of the vehicle (outer tie rod end goes to the inner tie rod end goes to the rack goes to...), and then let the customer know how severe of a problem it is and how soon I would recommend replacing it.

Many times, just having the patience (which wore thin quite often, immigrants are very hard to communicate with...but i digress) to show and inform the customer of a potential problem would be enough to win their trust and 75% of the time, the repair(*) would be performed that same day. Yes, our prices were not the cheapest in town, but I used to always hear "I don't care how much it costs, I trust you guys, just fix it." Even then, we'd still call and inform the customer of the final price so there'* no surprises for them, which keeps everybody happy.

Support your local independent shops! And once you DO find a shop you trust and have a good relationship with, SPREAD THEIR NAME! Small shops don't have the advertising budget of large dealerships and rely on word of mouth to grow their customer base.

/ steps off soapbox...for now...

Yeah you got watch it those people when I 1st got the bonneville took to my parents mechinic he told me my sareptine belt was dry rotted. I did like dry to me so I took to the dealer they said it was fine. After 30,000 miles a trip texas it still looks fine.

I agree you gotta be careful, my belt just went. That was on my 91 SSE. On the 94 SSE Jeff took the car to a crook of a mechanic and tried to get something fixed (I think it kept stalling) and that mechanic spliced wires throughout the entire car. That cost me over $1200 for him to do that and not be able to fix it and then he told me to have it towed to a dealership. The dealership couldn't figure it out so I had it towed to a mechanic in the town where I work (he came highly recommended!) and he fixed the problem as best he could, explained everything and charged me a fair price. I have used him ever since. This past December he had the car for 3 weeks due to VATS problem and he knew it was a bad splice somewhere from the crook. He finally traced the problem, told me he couldn't guarantee I'd never had another problem again because of the bad splicing and only charged me $300 for parts and labor to fix it. He is a fair and reputable mechanic!!!

ive never had that problem i have my oil changed at the dealership. im in and out in useally 10 min. i just drive in tell them i want mobil they do what they do i pay and i go.