Imperial Automotive(owner Joe Merklin) told me I needed an oil pan gasket while they had my car doing a valve job. I told him I found that strange since the car never left a spot on my driveway but said I would look at it when I got home from the valve job.Merklin told me he would put silicone on it for me as a nice gesture. If he just puts the silicone on like he said then nothing goes wrong like it did. After picking up the car and as soon as I got home the car was smoking from oil dripping quickly down on the exhaust and made an 8-10" puddle of oil in 30 minutes on my driveway. I call Merklin immediately after getting home to ask him what he did to my car because it was smoking. He tells me it's the pan gasket leak he had told me about. I said it did not leak like this when I brought him the car for the valve issue. He now says that when I brought him the car it was 3 qts low on oil. I told him the engine would have been making a lot of noise when I brought it to him if it was 3 qts low on a 4.5 capacity pan. He then says it was 2 qts low. Not true either. I later found out AND Imperial Auto(Merklin) admitted to me and AAA MO , that his shop intentionally bent the lip of my oil pan and covered it with the silicone. AAA MO Auto Club investigated since they back this shop, and their final decision states "Merklin told me (AAA Mo rep) his technician bent the edge of the pan to facilitate the delivery of silicone to the area of an alleged leak. Both you(Steve) and Merklin have told me that you accepted the offer to attempt to mitigate the leak with silicone" __Yes, I agreed to the silicone but Merklin never told me of the AAA certified pan distortion until I had taken the pan off. AAA MO thanked me for contacting them and said "at the very least, unorthodox and inappropriate "repair" techniques were employed" but said the facts only warranted they monitor Imperial Auto for a pattern. AAA offered to pursue compensation. The compensation should be informing the public.
Pros: None I can see at this point
Cons: If they thought is was OK to distort the pan surface, they shouldn't be taking money from the public for any service work.
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