And I'm Not Certain Their Diagnosis Is Correct!! 

I'm too old to work on my vehicles anymore, but I do have an honest and trustworthy mechanic I take my vehicles to. He broke a rather expensive line on my truck last year and replaced it with no charge to me. When he told me about it, I just smiled and thanked him for his honesty. Then I gave his wife a tip worth much more than that silly line. Trust is worth the extra money. But you can't buy it.

An honest mechanic is gold.

That was a "we don't want to work on it" quote🤣

A good thermal imaging camera can show how hot the cats are getting.

This sounds like one of those absolutely ridiculous estimates shops give when they really dont want to work on that customers vehicles anymore.

Had something similar this week. Neighbor of a friend had electrical problems in his home. Had some electrical outlets not working. Called electrician for repairs. After 30 minutes told the guy he needed to rewire his home and the cost would be $15,000. I got a call to see what I could find and after 30 minutes I found a GFI outlet in his garage tripped. After resetting the outlet breaker, everything worked as it should. Saved the gentleman $15,000, and made a new friend. By the way, they still charged $98 for a service call, and all they did was check voltage. Scammers are everywhere

I drove a wrecker for a long time in the NE.. Something I learned working there.. because they were CRIMINALS! If you feel like you are being ripped off, you probably are! Thank you Kenny for doing the right thing!

Good video. $12k for an old Honda transmission? Insane. I bet some people have paid this shop that kind of money. Sad😢

Kenny, when I hear, "What am I workin' on now?" I'm hooked. So many different problems but always the same solution - intelligent and professional diagnosis. You may have an idea what the problem but you always test that hypothesis instead of throwing parts at the problem and, as many bottom feeders do, overcharging the customer in a fraulent way. Kudos to you and the other honest mechanixs out there. It's sad you have to deal with so many bottom feeders in your field.

I can sympathize with you on the radiator. I've had my bad day doing the same thing replacing water pumps. But for me I didn't learn the first time, it took two times for me to start putting a thick cardboard against the radiator. Keep Wrenching Kenny!

if the front cat melted down the material went somewhere. if the car has a rear cat all the stuff is probably plugging it. i would use a borescope down the exhaust and check

Thermal camera will show you in two seconds if the cat is plugged , they're pretty cheap these days.

Yeah, I ran into a plugged CAT on my 08 Nissan Versa. The back pressure got so great it started opening the spring-loaded flange joint in the exhaust when climbing hills, or trying to accelerate. Turns out it was a thin-fouled coating on the surface of the CAT media on the upstream side. I removed the CAT, sunk it is a bath of soapy water, LIGHTLY scraped off the coating the fouled the media, pushed water backwards thru the cat to flush it out of any particles. Then dried it by running an electric heater on LOW for 12 hours pumping warm air thru the CAT. Put it back on, and I've been running it for 100k miles since! Something to keep in mind!

$12000!!!! I've just sprayed coffee all,over my iPad!!!

Just had a friend hit me up fir help on his 2010 Acura. RF steering knuckle and 2 toe rods, $2500!! I checked their part numbers, all Dorman!! I got a full RF knuckle assembly and both tie rods from Acura, $550. I did the job in 1.5 hours. His cost, one coffee and burrito, parts and an an alignment. Well short of $2500!

Crap happens, like inadvertent radiator damage. What almost never happens is a mechanic such as yourself owning up to it and making it right. The other shop would have said it was an existing problem and charged 3 times a reasonable price. I would suggest your customer out this shop for massive fraud to protect others from getting the same ripoff

stuff happens Kenny been there done that , now I protect the rad with a cover made from a banana card board box , the last rad I punctured was on a 1990 chevy 1500 removing the fan 2 years a go .. lol

Hey Kenny! Thanks for the video upload! That other shop is horribly criminal! They should be put out of business!

I like how honest you are

That van was about to get a rattle can rebuild, maybe a couple of new cats or a couple of good used ones and the owner would not have known the difference until someone pointed it out to them. The sad thing is that that shop has probably been doing shady stuff like that for a long time! Keep on wrenching Kenny and keep up the honesty, it always pays more! 👌🏼👍🏼

I work in a transmission shop. We specialize in transmissions, but we do front and work all the other work but my point is we see more vehicles come in with plugged exhaust systems misfires and other shops telling them oh you need a transmission no you got a plugged exhaust or you got a misfire I’ve seen transmission is highest $10,000 just for the unit are reman that’s not including flashing it and any mounts axles etc. that it needs. Yes he’s right about the mount situation. You don’t charge him lines because it bolted to the motor frame whatever and then you have to put a power flusher on it to flush the cooler out, the floor gets heated up and you reverse it so it gets all the metal out and it has more air connected to it. It’s a new advance machine my point is for a transmission price for every gear add $1000 to it that’s the going rate for automatic transmissions now With a lot of shops do not rebuild them anymore because they can’t compete with the big dogs out there. Customer gets a better warranty that transmission fails. We don’t have to war warranty nothing on it we just called the manufacturer tell them what happened what code they ship apart or ship another one you’re clear from the labor Clear from all warranty issues from that transmission. You just have to cover your labor install that’s it long as you didn’t screw up there you’re good but nowadays it’s not worth rebuilding transmissions at all any good shop out there they pull them drag the casket over, put the reman in itand out the door mom and Pop tiny little shops. Yeah, they may still rebuild them but that transmission fails out of state you have to cover it you’re liable however, long you warrant that thing, at least with a man is nationwide you don’t have to worry about it.

I used to overhaul Detroit Allison Truck Automatic gearboxes. About 2 to 3 weeks from start to finish. That was in mid 1980s.

Even if you could get the downstream O2 sensor off, replace it anyways when replacing a cat. Both those items should be replaced together unless it's just a bad O2 sensor and the cat is still good. Both upstream and downstream O2 sensors work as a team, when one goes faulty or gets too old it'll throw the other one off and could set two codes.

$12,000 for a transmission, sounds like the other shop didn't want to do it.

Sad but this other shop is turning into a whole video series of mishaps. The worst part is it is probably happening to every vehicle that has had the misfortune of having their owners having the misfortune of using that shop. The worst part of all is this other shop is probably advertising that they have been in business for more than 20 yrs as a selling point to their prospective new customers. I really enjoy the videos you produce because you don’t show the watch me unscrew the nut aspect of the trade, but focus on the what, where and why of the whole process of being a mechanic!

There's a test you can do before you resort to taking the cats out. Go to the data stream in your scan tool and monitor the PCM in both open and closed loop. If the problem only occurs when in closed loop, the cats are OK. It would have to be something in the emission control system not giving the pcm the correct data it needs to set fuel trims.

Wow 12,000 i remember back in the early 1980s my dad got a transmission rebuild for 350.00 buck.

will be interested to see how this one goes

Report this shop to The State Bureau of Automotive Repair.

Thanks Kenny

Ok Kenny I'm in Canada eh and even up here you can do a trans on that van for far less than $12,000 Canadian dollars...that estimate is insane!

Kenny, I'm a few years older than you..... used to sell Sun Electric Equipment, and we used to train technicians to look at idle engine vacuum and as you slowly raised engine speed, expect the vacuum number to continue to rise... run the engine slowly up to 2500 - 3000 rpm and if you have lower than idle vacuum through the range expect a plugged exhaust.. I follow you and a couple of other guys... none of you use that simple test.... Does your scan tool read vacuum?

A friend of mine had his transmission rebuilt at at shop in business for 40 years, the guys kid took it over. The problem he had was the car was reving up and didnt seem to shift. He got it back and it drove the same, so we went back and they said you might have a plugged converter. We took it to the shop to check the cat. It had a plugged cat and the guy showed us a leak and a crack fixed with jb weld and spray painted silver. As we told him the transmission had been rebuilt. Funny the trans shop had JB Weld on display The transmission shop switched the trans case. Just makes me wonder, did they know all along the car had a bad convertor.

I have yet to find a good and trustworthy mechanic or shop near me in West Texas!

If the upstream cat is in pieces as that one is the downstream cat is going to be plugged or a chunk of converter substrate will likely be lodged in a bend of the exhaust piece if the tube is crush bent. Most mufflers neck down slightly just inside where the nipple meets the perforated tube, I often see a chunk of substrate lodged there. I just general drill .125 holes down the system in front of each component and test BP differences looking for a big change.

Like oneeyedjack says. Use the cardboard from the last radiator you punctured to put by radiator fins.

I have seen these billing practises before. I tell people to run when they see it or get a second opinion on the estimate!

I build large bore engines for Caterpillar in Texas & I love your videos-keep up the great content!👍🏼

I like all the comments about the cardboard, as if hindsight isn't 20/20

Transmission oil looked very clean and translucent.

I'm hooked on your videos. Look forward to the new ones.

God bless you Kenny. If I busted a Radiator I’d be so aggravated and frustrated but you have the right attitude.

Whenever I visit the US I refer to the centre turning lane as the “Suicide Lane”

Yes, it does check for ABS codes

I've had customers like this 1. They're hard one's. Earning their trust and getting them to spend all the money again is tough sometimes. Good show sir,

I would recommend a partial trans fluid flush while its there.

How does it work Kenny when you damage something like the radiator, does it come out of your paycheck directly, or the shop eats it?

This looks like one of Hondas vcm motors. It shuts off 3 cylinders at cruising speeds. These were junky oil burners. I would bet the after cat is plugged, too. I just had a Chevy Express van this past week that was a towed in no start. Bank 1 converter was so plugged it wouldn't even run. I also did a full tune up and replaced the underhood fusebox that caused the misfires in the first place

I don't know if you tried this or not, but I'd verify that it's only that cat that's causing the performance issue by gutting out that one while waiting for parts to come in and do a test drive. That way in the meantime you can verify everything else is kosher, especially if it allows you to then verify the proper operation of the trans.👍

You said that Odysseys with bad transmissions are not that common. I was under the impression that Odyssey transmissions were known to be weak. Could you clarify?

LOL, great vid as always BUUUUUUTTTTT who has to pay for that rad?

i love getting jobs that have been to other shops first , they are a proper skill test and very satisfying when you beat them . sometimes it takes minutes , sometimes days......

Congrats on 70K subs Kenny! I cant wait to see the conclusion on this Honda minivan.

I's been bad like that for a long time. I went out with the rollback to pick up a car at another shop that they diagnosed as needing an engine. I got there and looked at it and decided to try it. It started right up, ran fine and I drove it up onto the rollback. Customer's original complaint was stalling. I looked at it and it was nothing but a damaged wire going to the primary side of the coil. I called the customer and he wouldn't believe ME, he kept asking if I was sure

Good observation Kenny! Many times, more than one, an engine has been replaced BUT the cats and the exhaust system is/has not been addressed nor replaced and VERY easily can mess up the works by having ill power and It might add up to being in due fashion by overheating the engine that has already been replaced and blowing a head gasket thereafter. I just don't think that the other servicing garage has what it takes to do a good proper diagnosis, callout OR get a proper job done. I have seen such a thing involving a Mazda truck clear back in 1995, I believe. It was a company vehicle that was sent out for repair and although it had far more mileage than this one and it costed my boss entirely too much money because of a clogged up and destroyed catalytic convertor and my boss finally decided to scrap the idea of fixing it! He retired it to be used to hauling firewood on his multi acre property and even at that, that truck still ended up being toast. For a boss that doesn't know jack at all about vehicles and vehicle maintenance and repairs in general is a BIG, HUGE waste when it comes down to operating a fleet! I always tried to help the boss with his decision making but instead he would just flat out ignore me and the operators of these vehicles as well. But then all these other driver's did not know jack on vehicle repairs either! I always had my thinking cap on and the vehicles that I drove, I made damned sure that maintenance and repairs were right on the money and on time! Now that's the big damned difference! It took automotive trades courses clear back in 1973 and it has saved me tons of money all of these years gone by! I have NEVER, EVER blown head gaskets, no blown engines or transmissions just one rear differential and that is because I was out raising hell with my Chevy van that had a small block 400 that had very exceptional power that the rear diff could not handle it and that is my only claim to shame EVER in all these years gone by! A c-lock for the axle shaft came undone that rear diff sounded like a grenade went off and like I had been hit in the rear end and the axle shaft ended up hanging half way out of the diff tube on the passenger side, oh yeah, I f'd up big time on that deal.

When working near a radiator, I always slide a piece of cardboard over the radiator core. It only took one radiator to teach me that lesson.

The $12,000.quote is a clear "we don't want this job" quote.

Very honest tech.your good people Kenny.

We had something that sounds similar on the Impala, a piece of the catalytic converter broke loose on plugged it

I have a 2006 Buick lacrosse. I had a gas line leak. Leaking bad I called a couple of shops and they quoted 4 to 5 hundred dollars to fix it. One shop said just drop it off and we get to it when we have time. They specialize in gas tanks and lines. I called a local family shop and they asked me if I could be there Saturday morning at 8am of which I did. I was there before opening. He was making coffee. He got my car in about 8:20. At about 9:10 my car was fixed. 👍 And he only charged me $207.15 of i thought was fair. They put me in front of other repairs that day. This is why they have a 5 star rating. They replaced my heater core for less than half of other shops. $588.00. One shop quoted me $1700.00. They also done other repairs with nothing but attention to detail. Spot on. They definitely earned their 5 Star rating. I'm from Michigan and love your channel and Subscribed 👍

Kudos to the man who will own up to his "Oops."

I had '88 Bronco. Check engine light came on about 53,000 miles. Took to repair garage near me. Was told O2 sensor $63 later no light runs ok. Few days later, light on again. Was told MAP sensor. Only charged for part, $17. Got back, ok. Month later, guess what? Light on again. Took back, was told EGR sensor. $18 for part only. Got back, no light. Bronco always ran fine. 1 year later, dash gauges read funny. Someone told me maybe bad ground on cluster. When removed dashboard, found out Check engine light bulb was missing.

I just done one myself it was a new cat on a 2007 ford f250 gas burning the cat came loose and sounded like a rod knocking

As soon as you said that it had only one code my thought was the other shop had cleared any other codes & the only one to come back was to do with exhaust flow I (like you ) said clogged cat/s.Cheers mate & like you said we all make mistakes especially with transverse large motors shoe horned into a 4 cylinder engine bay dead easy to do.

Good work Kenny

That is more than that van is worth

I try to put a piece of cardboard to cover radiator when working on anything in the area ❤. Might help in the future,

The other shop is a great customer for sending your shop work ... Ignorance is bliss to them !

What about using the exhaust of a shop vac to push air through the rest of the exhaust and see what kind of back pressure you get! It should flow through fairly freely. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

They would have done the famous paint the transmission whilst only fixing the exhaust.

That's the same as that Steve mechanic that I told you about again,on my mothers side of the family whose a Ross they're a Barton as well l. My uncle & grandfather on that side of the family seems to only have them whose Steve !

Im curious to see what happens 😊

Another great video. Thank you. It’s a shame bad shops make the rest of us look bad. So you don’t look bad perhaps have the customer file a complaint with customer assistance? That way it would be on the bad shops record. I’m curious about the welding around the O2 Hole? Usually the manifold part is a cast piece. If that manifold had been cracked earlier, it would cause the O2 to read lean because of the air leak. Which would force the mixture, rich, and overheat, and melt the cat. Just a thought. 😊😊

Eastern converter in north carolina sells reasonable priced cat converters!

$12,000? Im in the wrong business!!

I wasn't sure what to look for in a bad catalytic converter. It looked deformed or melted possibly.

Those hondas do have issues with transmissions especially at high mileage. The root of most transmission issues is a leak followed closely by lack of maintenance. No one changes fluid. Properly serviced most transmissions will last the life of the vehicle.

That's about an 80% or so mark up on a transmission. Ridiculous even if they weren't wrong.

I dropped a screwdriver and put a hole in mine. I got lucky and used propane torch alumaweld rods to fix it

I wonder if these shops don’t want to put the time/effort in to diagnose and would rather just replace and charge. If the new part doesn’t fix the problem bring it back and we will add new parts. Does the sketchy shop also have certified mechanics or are they part time wanna-be mechanics who are still in high school?

id charge out the radiator job too...a car that old it was thin and wasnt really the technicians fault it was on its way out

Its easy Brother, if you dont want the job, give a very high estimate but be sure to use the book labor rates and charge for every little thing you can put on the list, hence labor for mounts, does the Service Info say to remove one or all mounts as part of the R&R process of the trans??? I see now, added in weak engine mounts also. 300 bucks for misc, there better be a list given on demand, THAT IS CRAZY & SOUNDS ILLEGAL. This estimate does not give a list of work hours, isn't that also a requirement, maybe it will be on the final receipt??? 1/4" PLYWOOD to block the radiator will save you a lot of cash. Thanks for all your videos.

The other shop should be shut down for criminal practices. Just a bunch of thieves that give good mechanics a bad rap. If they broke something like the radiator, they would not admit their error, they would just overcharge the customer.

that price sounds like a f off price because they dont wanna do it

Well I’m glad you showed us your mistake !

That can ,at best low mileage,is only worth 10,000 USD. At least IMO, but shows how untruthful some places are. Remember folks, education and knowledge are your best defense.😁😎☮️✌️

good vid KEN

Keep em honest young man.

Honestly it's hard to find

Plugged Converter on Exhaust System Fire It Off and Run It With The Exhaust Off On The Lift See If The Power Is Back Before Replacing Those Converters 😊

That’s why u put cardboard against the radiator

Love your video.

That's insane. I have a 2019 Chevy Tahoe that had to have the transmission rebuilt it cost me 6500$ 12000$ is completely insane

Sounds like they don't want to work on it if you ask me.

Question about the estimate from the other shop. Were they gonna charge 292 dollars to put fluid in the replacement transmission?

That shop can't be in business too much longer but there are plenty of folks that don't check the completed work on their vehicles. An honest shop won't mind showing what they did. People listen to this man!

my son makes catalytic converters so throw a few in they can always use more business LOL

For $12,000 you could buy. 4 of them vans😂😂😂😂😂

To me, $12,000 = “We don’t want to do the work, so we’re giving you a ridiculous quote.”

Never be too proud to throw a pc. of cardboard in while you do front stuff