DEL MAR CAR SVC

The reviews on the part on Amazon convinced me it was a decent replacement part. Although Del Mar Car service would not warranty the installation they would perform the service. I made the appointment, and because it was a slow day they drove me home and picked me up while they performed the service. They had quoted me $139 initially, $30 for antifreeze, but because the amount of antifreeze used was negligible I was not charged for it.
Kudos to Del Mar Car Service for the work performed, I am back on the road and grateful for their car service.

They are honest, thorough, and reasonably priced.

They said that the oil leak was coming form several sources but most was coming from the power steering pump. Which they replaced about $400. I couldn't confirm that the part was replaced because the old part goes back for rebuilding. The leak was not reduced, so a month later I brought it back and they said most of it was coming from the oil pan. They replaced this about $400. The leak is unchanged. Leaks are hard to diagnose and fix so I thought this was just a hard problem to solve. But I became less charitable about their competence when I asked the to install two upstream oxy sensors since the car was at 120,000 miles and I wanted to make sure it passed the smog test next time. I gave them the color coded Ford parts. They installed one of them in the down stream position (wrong place). They said it was the only way it would fit. I double checked my part numbers and even brought them color printouts showing the part numbers and color coding. They said the parts catalog was wrong (both the asst manager and technician) and that the only way to replace the upstream sensor was to get what the catalog said was the downstream sensor and install it in the upstream position. In my own poor judgment I agreed. All of this cost $225 including purchasing the additional sensor (This does not include the cost of the original sensors which I purchased myself). After I left the car there, I formed an opinion of what would happen when I got the car back. I believed that after I got the car back and it fully warmed up (we live close by so it hadn't yet been driven far) and go into closed loop operation, the check engine light would come on (indicating a malfunction and it would probably fail a smog test). I won't into the technical details of why this would happen. When I got the car back and fully warmed it up, the check engine light did indeed go on as I expected. In the past, I used to fix all my cars myself, but I have less time now so that is why I am using others to help me with this. But I realized I was going to have to do this myself. So over the weekend I ended up back under my car and changed the oxy sensors around to the correct way according to the Ford manual. I had no problem doing this and it was obvious looking at the pieces that the downstream sensors were a different configuration then the upstream ones. The electrical connectors are configured so that each sensor can can only be connected to the correct electrical plug. But it is possible to screw the sensors into the wrong places in the exhaust system which is what they did. I reversed where the sensors were screwed into the exhaust system to conform with the position shown in the Ford parts manual. When I warmed up the car the check engine light went off confirming not unexpectedly that the Ford engineers were correct and Del Mar Car Service was wrong. The tech had insisted that the way he put the sensors back was they way they came out and it was not possible to install them the other way. They maintained this position even when I presented them with copies of the Ford tech data (which I had obtained on line) Ford had color coded the wires on each sensor(one was green and one was blue) to help avoid this error. They said Ford was wrong and they were right. They are pleasant and perhaps honest. I had brought them the car when It had failed to start on a single occasion but then restarted the next morning. They said they could find nothing wrong and didn't charge me. That could have been an opportunity for them to do unneeded repairs. They did not take this opportunity. I selected this shop because it is very close to my house. But I will not return there because competence is more important than physical proximity.

Great. They changed the oil, found a little problem, called me about it, and fixed it all in the same day, at a great price. I've used them before and the price for the job was actually less than what they quoted. Pretty cool.