Engine repair service near San Carlos, CA

Car shaking while driving at speed. Seemed obvious alignment problem. Had alignment done. Received car back WITH NO COMMENT. I drove car and shaking still there. Took car back to tire/alignment shop. Now they tell me it’s the shocks. Something they probably should have noticed and told me already. But I know a little something about cars and it didn’t seem right to me; the car clearly passed the bounce up-and-down test. So I took the car to Expert Auto Care (EAC) being reviewed here. They put the car up on the rack, and within minutes came back to me to show me rattling tie-rod and bad ball joint…OBVIOUS, they were so bad. On the opposite side they showed me an adjustment nut was rust-locked into place and rounded-off. It obviously didn’t happen within the last week, when I had the alignment done, because of the corrosion. You would think the alignment shop would have noticed and told me that too. And how the heck could they do an alignment with either of those problems??? Also, they showed the tire shop we got the tires from (not aligned so), used a single 6oz weight for balancing. EAC said maximum single weight to use, according to state regulations, was 2oz. This is something else you’d think would be noticed by the alignment shop. All in all, EAC ball parked a couple of thousand dollars to service a $2000 car, and suggested it might be better to buy a new/newer car, and we should go home and think about this. Which was very good of them. (Not that I wasn’t going to do that anyway). On the shop wall there is cost of service, and the 20-25min diagnosis should have run between $60-$95, but EAC charged me nothing $0. Which was very very kind of them. I can highly recommend EAC for, at least, diagnosis service honesty. And, based on EAC’s diagnosis (which they showed me) I cannot recommend “Wheel Works of Mt. View” for suspension work.

Dean's Automotive has been serving Mountain View auto repair needs since 1963. Our multiple award-winning shop goes the extra mile for you and your vehicle. Service excellence is our top priority.

I took in my 2007 Nissan Murano because the dealership said I had both exhaust manifolds cracked and leaking. Niki and his team discovered that I really only needed one replaced and the other would be fine for a few more years. This saved me a lot of money and I never would have known the difference! I appreciate the honesty. The other thing to mention was that they ran into some issues with the replacement because the old one was so beat up. Niki said it would take another day to complete, but I was going out of town with my family. He and one of his mechanics worked extra hard and got it done in time. Very good service! -Patrick Naylon

I brought in my 1987 Dodge B150 van. Yes, a really old van that wouldn't pass smog. A "gross polluter" per the smog shop. Michele and Dennis worked on my car diligently to figure out what the issue was. Turns out the timing was way off. After 2nd smog test, the van no.'s were really good to a low emissions vehicle. Yeah! Dennis also pointed out that my steering column was very loose. In the past, I've been told that the whole steering column needs to be replaced. But here at GF Automotive, it might be repaired, saving me a whole lot of money. GF is an honest auto mechanic shop. Hard to come by these days. Thank you Michele and Dennis for all your help!