Hires Automotive Center

Long story short, took truck for a routine oil change at Hires SW ft Wayne. They blew my engine up because the mechanic who serviced it didn't seat the oil filter on properly. It most likely could have been 100% prevented had they done the proper checks before finishing the job. If anything can be taken from this experience, for anyone, it is make sure you follow protocol at whatever job you have. If you are changing your own oil or are a mechanic, please check the work while it's still on the lift. My experience could have ended much worse. The engine siezed in my truck causing me to lose control because it wouldn't steer. I could have got seriously hurt or could have hurt someone by wrecking. Luckily that did not happen. When I left Hires, within about 1 minute of leaving onto 14, my truck said check gauges. I thought they just didn't reset something. So I turned around down by Menards to head back. When I was turning, I could smell burning and saw steam rolling of my engine. At this point I knew something was very wrong. I made it back to turn up the hill to Meijer and I couldn't turn the truck. I had to skid to a halt into the cement divider. Luckily there was an off duty police officer who saw me panic as I took of running up to Hires. He asked what was wrong, I told him, and he kindly went behind my truck while ran to get help. They towed the truck up the hill and had to manually push the truck into a bay to try to figure out what was wrong. Once they figured it out, the shop manager came to me and told me I would need a new engine. I've had a lot going on recently and to hear this was shocking and devestating. They ruined my perfectly good truck. I was first told the oil filter internally blew up somehow. The reality is it was not tightned on properly. Their first solution was to get a engine out of a wrecked same year make and model out of Michigan. We were not happy with this because I knew nothing about how that engine was maintained and it was coming out of a wrecked truck. Second option was they give me $2k and my truck back unfixed leaving my engine to blow again. I was told by other dealers and we were told by a lawyer, we had to try to let them make it right. We told them to replace the motor. The wrecked truck engine ended up not being good, so Hires paid for a remanned engine from Jasper engines. Basically we have a new engine with no miles and a 3 year 100,000 miles warranty now on our truck. They also paid for a rental truck for a week and a half. For now we haven't fully decided what to do with our truck. Hopefully Hires did their best work installing the new engine. It seems to be fine and the Ford dealership says we should be good for another 100k miles in the truck. Needless to say we won't be back unless something goes wrong with that engine. I've had enough stress with other issues recently and that was the icing on the cake.

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Service department is always friendly, courteous and informative. I feel confident in using their services. As a single woman, I feel I can trust the information and options presented and have never felt like I was being conned into something I didn't need.

They were great from start to finish. They scheduled a tow which was included in my final bill, diagnosed the problem punctually, contacted me to inform me of the problem, and had the problem fixed all in a day. I would recommend this shop.

we use the one on anthony the owners son is who takes care of us or it could be the grandson

They do not do any unnecessary work. They give suggestions or alternatives on how long you can wait before a certain repair needs done. I feel that they are honest.

My car was overfilled with oil. After returning the car the next morning, they removed some oil. I want to know if too much oil has or will damage the engine. No apology, just they will drain some oil out of the engine. Over the phone on the day of service they stated my brakes were very dusty and dirty and needed blown out and spray cleaned for $24.95. They said they were also adjusted but now I am not sure if it needed this or if it was done just to make more money. I was not shown any paperwork showing my car was out of alignment and was not shown any bad belt or the old air filter. I think is just good policy to show the customer the old parts proving that they were defective or needed replacement. My major concern was and still is, if too much oil damages the engine.