My power steering pump was making a whining noise so I brought it to Austin Automotive on Research Blvd. When the job was done, I recieved a call saying my car was no longer making noise. As I drove off the property, I noticed it was absolutely still making noise even though they said it wasn't. When I took it back they replaced a hose and said it was all fixed. This turned out to be false and I found the pully on the power steering pump was wobbly. So they warrantied the power steering pump, and when I picked it up, it was still making noise. They then told me my rack was failing internally and polluting the power steering fluid. I didn't have any more money pay to have the rack replaced for $1,400, but I did have a Firestone credit card for emergencies. Firestone strongly disagreed that the rack was failing, and said the new power steering pump that Austin Automotive installed was bad. I still had Firestone replace the rack because I trusted Austin Automotive's diagnosis anyway. Turns out the second new pump was also bad, but Austin Automotive refused to replace it with a fully functioning steering pump. They told me this was all my fault and wanted to charge full price on a 3rd power steering pump. I feel strongly that Austin Automotive did not hold them selves accountable, and came up with any reason to make it my fault. If you can't see the rack is failing, how do you know it's the rack when the first new pump was clearly malfunctioning? This cost me $942.66 for the power steering pump + $1400 for a new rack that probably didn't need replacing. I ended up with my car not being fixed and driving around with a noisy embarrassing pump. I will take my business elsewhere next time. I don't trust Austin Automtive any longer because of this. Nobody said anything about the rack until I brought it back to warranty the power steering pump with the wobbly pully. Does the rack cause the wobbly pully? It seems that you won't warranty shotty work without adding on another expensive repair. Like I said, other ASE mechanics strongly disagree that the rack caused this problem. There were no leaks or obvious damage to the rack so how could you say it was failing? I don't believe that the pump was ever warrantied, but that you tried to reinstall something that wasn't installed properly in the first place, which is what caused it to break. I had to sign whatever I had to sign to get my car back because I NEED IT FOR WORK! I cant just keep taking days off and its expensive to Uber all over town. My car is all fixed now no thanks to Austin Automotive. You took my money and that's all you cared about. It's not ensuring a stellar experience.
Hi John, we are truly sorry you felt like your experience at our shop wasn't up to standards. We take that feedback very seriously and always try to make things right. In your situation, we did note that the rack needed replacement during your initial visit and noted we had concerns it would cause the new pump to again fail if not taken care of. We even went as far as to document this with you on the invoice, having you sign that you understood what could happen if you didn't take care of the rack. We do sympathize with you having recurring issues with this but we believe we recommended the right course of action to ensure the problem was solved the first time. We tried to discuss this with you during your recent visit but you didn't seem interested. We do apologize, we want every customer experience to be stellar. And we take always responsibility of we perform a service that might not have been done right or install a part that fails. But we do feel like we did everything we could for you the right way.
- 12990 Research Blvd