Puleo's Auto Clinic

unknown

We have been going to Paul, Dave, Edith and team since they first opened in Washington many years ago. They maintain all 4 of our cars (currently Lexus RX350, Chevy Tahoe, Mazda 3, Hyundai Accent). They only recommend/perform work that needs to be done. Their prices are fair. They are also AAA recommended and give a AAA discount. I trust them and would recommended them to anyone.

This is was a tricky job that had some hiccups, but they did everything by the book and did us right in the end, as always.
Our Toyota Camry has particularly picky California emissions (requires a score of 99% to pass inspection, and has two catalytic converters). When anything goes bad in this system, even with electronic diagnostics, one cannot reliably tell what went bad, so one must use some deductive reasoning, which they did.
Thus, they replaced the cat that had a leak/hole in the and quot;flex pipeand quot;, which is what we would have done too. But, when that didn't fix the problem that left two additional choices: 1) Replace the O2 sensor or, 2) Replace the other catalytic converter in the manifold. The cheapest fix would have been the O2 sensor so they replaced that. No dice. It turned out to be the other catalytic converter, most likely in combination with the other two parts.
So, again, it was a tough repair, but they did what logically made the most sense and let us know upfront that it could end up being the other cat, but gave us their strategy ahead of time, which we agreed to.
In the end, they did not charge us labor for the 2nd catalytic converter and only charged us their wholesale cost for the part, showing us their invoice and that the retail price was around double that price. So, we ended up paying for the 1st catalytic converter plus labor, the O2 sensor plus labor and about $250 for the 2nd catalytic converter with no additional cost for installation and no markup on that part.
Finally, the check engine light stopped coming on and it passed inspection. As Paul explained it to us, it could have very well been a combination of elements going bad, so it made sense to have them all repaired. Made sense to us, as there was a hole in the flex pipe (that we knew about and could hear when driving) and he said that the 1st cat rattled when he shook it, indicating it was deteriorating anyway (it was 12 years old).
This may sound like like a less-than-positive repair story, but it's situations like these where a problem might be difficult to diagnose for any mechanic no matter how qualified (and they are extremely qualified) that make us thankful for Puleo's. They always do right by us even if it costs them to make things right -- and that's happened several times so far at no fault of their own or ours. They simply and quot;took the lossand quot; in order to keep us happy or compromised with us.
We've been going to Paul's and quot;auto clinicand quot; for about 12 years and would not consider going elsewhere. Paul (Puleo) has been extremely trustworthy and forthright with us. It's rare for us to trust a mechanic so much, but he's truly earned that trust. We've found him to be a rather rare human being who puts extremely high personal emphasis on honesty and integrity and seems to live by a much higher code of conduct than most people you'll come across.