Technical Tips > Radiators - Cooling

Radiator Rip Off

(1/1)

John Grasso:
Hi Everybody, My C4 Vette blew a radiator tank. It was towed to a Sydney Suburb Radiator Repairer. This person repaired the radiator but on picking up the Vette it was found to leak. He could not fix it for another month. 1 month later he could not fix it for another couple of months. After many months of this and an approaching summer I paid another mechanic to pull out the radiator. At this point we realised the first mechanic installed the radiator incorrectly and my detailed under bonnet was damaged. This person repaired it again. I paid another mechanic to replace it. It was still leaking. It was pulled out again at my cost as the radiator repairer refused to do anything about it. It was checked by another radiator repairer who said it should never have been repaired in the first place. I bought a brand new radiator from Albion Park for LESS than the initial repair on the old radiator. I paid my mechanic, again, to put in the new radiator. The person who did my radiator in the first place refused to talk about it, he just swore at me and threatened me over the phone (he would not have the guts to do it face to face) and we ended up in legal action in the Local Court. He sued me for his bill, I sued him for damages to my Vette plus extra costs. We settled out of court on my paying his original bill only because it had dragged out and I have a business to run, but more so I settled because he had spent hundreds of dollars sueing me and was losing alot more than me. I now have a badly repaired radiator lying on the floor of my garage, if I simply bought brand new I would have saved myself hundreds of dollars. Another consideration I should have made was, the radiator is only as good as its weakest point. When one tank was repaired the other tank was still as old as the Vette, and so was every other part of the radiator. Any of these parts could fail. My advice to all is if your radiator blows, call Dave at Ponti World on 4257-1230. He has plenty of stock and will deliver the next day for about $10 and you will have a hassle free new radiator. If anyone wants to see my old radiator on my garage floor you are welcome to.

MADLT1:
that's a bad new's story,there are a lot of shonky people out there,you should only get people that have experience with corvette's,there are people that advertise here with plenty of expereience on vett's like corvette alterations in sydney,hope you have trouble free motoring in the future,if not just post a question here and some one will come to your aid with advise in the future.;42

jolinari:
I have heard of a website where you can leave names for bad tradesmen and/or people not paying their bills.

Chromie:
Note to all Corvette owners;59
If you are getting work done on your Corvette and you do not know the repairer. Do the following and if the repairer cannot or will not do it, use someone who will comply to your request.

Rule #1 Always get a written quote before work is performed

Rule # 2 Always ask about warranty and get it in writting if you feel that
you should (if it is an expensive repair get it in writting)

If the repairer is a good repairer he would not do any repairs that he wasn't prepaired to give a warranty to.

As for radiators, no Alloy/Plastic tank radiator is repairable and just about "all" alloy radiators are not repairable.
The radiator market now is pretty much based as replace rather than repair as in most cases a "NEW" radiator is cheaper than to repair what you have. Only copper/brass radiators can be repaired/recored.

Hope this helps;58

Navigation

[0] Message Index