1 /5 D G: I just purchased a vehicle that was exclusively serviced at Midway Automotive from about 50k miles to 200k miles over the past six years. I have many of the service records from the previous owner and I have the carfax to show there were no other shops working on the vehicle during that time.
Servicing the vehicle since 4/10/14, 53943 miles. The vehicle now has 202,000 miles. The following is based on the damage I saw to the vehicle and will be supported with pictures. (pictures posted but delayed by Google for some reason)
The mechanic work is very shoddy. Below is a partial list of damage to the vehicle apparently done by Midway Automotive. I believe I will find more issues the more familiar I get with the vehicle.
Some of this damage could reach well into the thousands of dollars to repair. Since Midway has been servicing the vehicle for the past 150,000 miles, it is assumed most if not all of this was done there. Cosmetically, the vehicle was impeccable and can be assumed the owner did not do any of this damage. because he took it to Midway for all repairs and service.
Broken wires, O2 sensor failure. This had to happen since the last smog check (2019). Somebody must have dropped something on this wire harness during an unrelated repair. Its a real pain in the a$$ trying to repair such horribly damaged wires. Hint: next time please damage the wires further away from the connector so its easier to repair, or better yet, try not screwing wires up in the first place!
See picture 1.
This was causing the O2 sensor engine light. Therefore the vehicle could not be smogged. After I fixed this and got the monitors to reset, I went to smog it. Why shouldnt it smog now? Well it didnt and it was because somebody put an incorrect PVC hose in and installed it so it was actually kinked!!
See Picture 2.
Obviously from the picture, that is not a Porsche OEM hose and those arent OEM clamps. All in all, it would have been OK if at least it wasnt kinked.
Three broken coil bolts!! These small bolts were aluminum or titanium. Its obvious when you handle them. They are not to be torqued until they break off in the valve covers. Now I will have to find new valve covers, or try to extract all of these broken bolts. Expensive and time consuming either way. Rookie stuff, and this was NOT repaired, just given back to the unsuspecting customer.
See Picture 3
Loose bolts, really? From a professional mechanic?
See Picture 4
Wrong hardware, on the upper engine torsional support, there was a bunch of Home Depot hardware (this was Grade 5, steel hardware). I assume the mechanic didnt realize that the factory hardware was aluminum and stripped everything out. Here it is with the correct hardware re-installed.
See Picture 5.
Theres a loose nut with a stripped stud on one of the turbos. I cant even imagine how this happened and why something so critical wasnt fixed. NO, this was just returned to the owner and will cost a fortune to fix because that stud is not going to come out easy.
See Picture 6.
Whats really sad is that all of the aforementioned damage was done to the vehicle and NOT fixed before returning the vehicle to owner and the owner was NOT notified that there was damage.
Its OK to damage your customers car while working on it. But its not OK to leave it like that and return it to them knowing that they probably have never even opened the hood and they wont know.
They also informed the previous owner that he would need new struts at the tune of around $8000. I believe this diagnosis was incorrect. I believe the shop did not know that the suspension system needed to be charged with 250 PSI of N2 to get the struts operating correctly again, and therefore gave the customer a false diagnosis.
This shows me that either Midway operates in an unethical manner or they have a rogue mechanic who is doing atrocious work and the management has no clue and does not inspect their mechanics work.
I hope you guys will correct this behavior for your future customers.
