Help finding a shop in New Jersey
Posted to Open Discussion Forum on 12/20/2016
17 Replies
Thanks for taking a look, Everybody. My brother lives near
Hackettstown New Jersey. I am trying to find a good shop
that can fix his 2003 Dodge Caravan. From what he tells me,
I think it has the typical fried wiring problem in the
engine harness and possibly a loose valve seat. I would
gladly just do it myself, but I am 900 miles away from him.
I'm thinking the most cost effective repair would be a good
used engine and somebody who can correctly diagnose and fix
the erratic electrical issue. I have tried to call around
out there and find somebody who can do this, but it appears
that most shops want only to put on another head, which is
considerably more expensive and takes more time. A good used
engine is about the same price as a new head alone, not
counting the labor of assembling a head, and a decent reman
head is almost as expensive.
A very common excuse I hear is that nobody trusts their
salvage suppliers and they are all afraid of getting burned
by a bad engine. I completely understand their concerns, but
I never put in a used engine without carefully inspecting it
first. In 40 plus years of doing this (and hundreds of
engine swaps), I have only had about 2 bad ones that got
past me. Those were a long time ago, when I was starting
out. No problem today. I also don't have much trouble
finding and getting decent used engines. I do not understand
why it would be so difficult to do this is an area where
there are literally thousands of used engines available.
Does anybody have some good recommendations for reliable,
honest shops in the Hackettstown/Andover area? Surely
somebody can handle this!
Thanks and MERRY CHRISTMAS! John
John Jagitsch Owner/Technician TJ's Auto Service Champaign, Illinois, USA
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