I recently had my car reapired by Aamco and a few days later it catches on fire.

My car was overheating and Aamco said they could check it for free. I brought the car into them, the week before repairs were made, and they told me it was one of two things, my PCM Computer or a faulty wire to my relay. They then said to dtermine the issue it would cost me around $100 and then $80 and hour to fix.

I brought my car to them on a Wensday the prior week. They fixed the car and told me it was a wire and the relay. I also asked them to fix my cigarette lighter adapter so that I could use it (I do not smoke). After the repairs before I left the lot, my car was making an extremly loud buzzing noise as soon as I turned it on. They told me it was a problem with my automatic seatbelts and said they would disconnect the module and fuse that goes to them. The buzzing noise stopped and so I left the lot.

I drove my car less than five miles the next two days and did not drive durring the weekend or that monday. On tuesday after dropping my daugther off at school I decided to head to my sisters and my car began overheating. I called the shop they told me to bring it in. I told them I could not drive it because it need to cool down and I let it cool off at home.

Hours later, I headed to the shop on the way, it began smoking and caught fire. I pulled over and took my 9 month old son out of the carand put him and his car seat on the side of the road away from the car and my sister and her husband got out to examine the fire. I opened the middle console where it was burning and put water on the fire to put it out. It kept smoking. An Orange city officer stopped to help and said it was an electrical fire and to have it towed.

I called the shop and they told me they have nothing to do with it but I could bring it in for them to look at. I brought the car into them and they told me it was the "body control module" which caught fire and that the car was not worth fixing because it was $400 for the part and about $2500 + to rewire.He told me not to drive the car and also said they were not at fault because they did not touch that area of my car.

There is no BCM for my car - they lied to me.

I had the car towed and it turned out to be the PCM which caught fire and the relay, the two things they did in fact mess with.

I now have no car and no transportation. They are not accepting the mistake they made and will not give me my money even though my car was still overheating after their repairs and then caught fire.

I have a nine month old son who has a heart condition and needs to go to the cardilolgist in orlando in a week. I am at a loss for what to do.

This is a very long story. It starts in St. Marys, GA where a very nice and competent man named Jack Allen at the AAMCO shop replaced our transmission. The total bill was 4, 661.20. I live on disability and was only able to pay for this through the one credit card I had with that much money available on it. This was on 5/7/09. On 10/6/09, while traveling through Texas, the transmission lost 6th gear. I had it towed 112 miles to the closest AAMCO which is in Odessa, Tx. That is where the real problems began. I was told by the owner there after diagnosing the transmission that a new one would have to be shipped to him. I was also told that my clutch, throw out bearing would need to be replaced or he would have my warranty voided. He also insisted on not giving me a receipt for this work as he would then have to charge me more money even though he stated the problems with those parts were directly related to the transmission.

I was told I had to get the parts to him and pay for them myself. Mind you he had my truck; I was in a place where I knew no one; I had no means to rent a car. A very nice employee at Advance Auto Parts was able to have the parts delivered directly to Ben's shop since I had no way of picking them up. I have the receipt with HIS address on it. On 10/9/09 he contacted me and told me to come pick up the truck. I did. I then hooked my 5th wheel trailer (that is what I live in) and proceeded to leave Odessa. 28 miles into my trip the same gear blew. I promptly turned around, called Ben and brought the truck back to him. This was a Friday and he wouldn't be able to do anything until Monday. Finally, the following Wednesday (at 4pm mind you) I was on my way with yet another transmission (or so he said). It turns out (I was just informed by the transmission manufacturer) that Ben put the wrong fluid in not just the first transmission, but the second one as well. Now, 2 days before my warranty runs out I have it looked over by AAMCO in Cathedral City, Ca. (I have to be where it's warm year round due to my disabilities) and sure enough there are more problems. I knew there was something not right with 2nd gear when at a stop and 6th gear when at highway speed. This AAMCO in southern California confirmed there is a problem. Regardless of when my warranty runs out or what the problem is I DO NOT HAVE ANOTHER $5000.00 to replace the transmission again. I feel AAMCO needs to not only honor this warranty but extend it in case, on my way to my next destination, I have another issue I will be able to count on not having to be stuck in the middle of nowhere because I have no money to fix what was broken by AAMCO to begin with. They are now saying that they may possibly drain the fluid out of this transmission and hopefully that will fix it; but if the fluid is wrong and has damaged some of the transmission, what good will putting the right fluid in now do? I just want to drive down the road confident in the workmanship AAMCO professes to be so concerned about. I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT the AAMCO in Ga. or in southern Ca. Both shops have/are doing their best to help me. Of course, they need to make sure they are reimbursed for their time as well.

Rubens AAMCO, Moca, Puerto Rico has had my car 41 days as of Oct 11, 2009. The manager keeps coming up with lame excuses for the poor service, that is, when he bothers to return my calls, which is not often.

Mark DeLeon from Aamco Transmissions helped us out on 4-14-10, with our car. He did an OBD2 reader which told us that is was a Cylinder 4 misfire. He said to bring it in on 4-15-10 for them to do a diagnosis on the vehicle. This would include just looking under the hood to see all that is wrong with the vehicle. We asked him to give us a call before they did any work. My sister and I did an oil change this morning with an engine flush. I have worked at an oil change shop where I know doing an engine flush is not going to harm the car. The car was perfectly drivable when we took it in. We took it in today, got a call back an hour later saying our car is not drivable. He gave us three different stories as to how the car does not work. First story was that it was the engine flush we did earlier today. Second story was that his mechanic was driving it and that it blew up on him. Third story was that his mechanic started the car in the driveway and it blew up. He told us that it was a Valve Seat that blew up. You cannot determine this unless you take the motor engine head off. He told us we needed to do this. How can he be so sure that it was a Valve Seat unless he looked under the motor engine. He then proceeded to tell us that the car was running horrible when we brought it in. The car has its moments, when we did the oil change the car ran just fine. He asked us how the car was running today and we told him perfectly fine. My sister called him back, he told her that we are not going to get anything free, that we broke the car, not them. This is untrue. We are in such shock because we know that our car was drivable before we brought it in. Just fine to drive. If we did not bring the car into the shop our car would be driving still. This is how sure we are that they broke our car. We also called another mechanic who has in the past worked on this car. This mechanic told us that it sounds shady. That if the car was drivable before we brought it in that we did not break our car.

I want everyone out there to be aware of the scam this shop tries to pull.
I dropped my car off at 8 am and at 9:30 am I received a strange phone call from the shop which consisted of "Has anyone been messing around with your car?" well no except for Jiffy lube and pep-boys for repairs here and there. Why the question with no reason to ask I thought? I also thought is there something weird you have found I should know about? Well this will make more sense toward the end of my story.
I recently had a situation where the check engine light came on and the car had trouble accelerating and shifting out of first or second gear. I was told it was the transmission by another mechanic and he suggested taking the vehicle to AAMCO or to the dealer. I chose AAMCO because they specialize in transmissions. I was informed by AAMCO that they had checked the car diagnostically and the codes were for the transmission however they were not ELECTRICAL codes but rather MECHANICAL codes and the trans would need to be taken out of the car, taken apart and possibly overhauled costing no less than $1500. When I said no thank you I will be in to pick up my car I received a phone call from the store serviceman about a half hour later offering me a "feasible alternative" which he was "confident would have the car problems solved". The story suddenly changed as far as what was causing the trouble with my car. It was no longer a mechanical problem located on the inside of the transmission but rather a problem with the solenoid sensors on the outside of the transmission. But the catch here was the solenoid sensors are located (according to him) in a panel on the outside of the trans which requires the trans to be removed from the car in order to access these solenoid sensors. Seriously?? Suddenly went from mechanical to electrical but this would only cost me at least $800. I politely declined and proceeded to drive 15-20 mph all the way to Lincolnwood Illinois where the car dealership is located.
It turns out the car dealership said I do not need a new transmission nor new solenoid sensors nd the transmission. The car has some wore out wires which run along the underside of the vehicle that had been pinched are spliced and corroded and need replacing. Fixing it at the dealership did not even cost 1/3 of what the AAMCO shop wanted to charge me. The dealership price also included a new O2 sensor and installation along with the price of the diagnostic workup.
I wonder if the AAMCO noticed these wires and that was the reason for the question regarding has anyone been messing around with your car? Even if they did not notice this I believe they are incompetent and do not know how to properly diagnose a vehicles transmission problems or just plain crooks out to take as much money from consumers as they can by pretending to conduct unnecessary repairs on vehicles. It is a shame thet someone would try to take advantage of another person like this. This shop lives up to the stereo-type given to auto mechanics regarding ripping people off. I want to share my experience so hopefully this does not happen to anybody else.