Care Care Clinic, Birnam

We never complain about anything on social media, but in this instance we feel that we have been treated badly, and so we should.

This is a long tale of woe, so bear with us! In May our car, a Botswana registered, Japanese assembled Mitsubishi Pajero, overheated. Aside from the overheating problem the car was running well after being serviced a month or so before. We booked the car into Care Care Service in Birnam, Johannesburg to be fixed. When my husband initially took the car in, the radiator was checked and he was told that it was fine but that further tests on the cooling system would be necessary. We left the car with them. Having not heard for a few days we followed up to be told that it was indeed a broken pipe and they were looking for the part. After about a week, my husband went in and they showed him the broken pipe between the engine blocks but they could not find the part and that they were going to have to get the broken pipe fixed. This continued for several weeks with my husband following up every week. Never hearing from them in the interim. Eventually they told us to come and get the car, that it was washed and ready to go. It was going to cost us a lot more than we were originally quoted. Happily (aside from cost) we went to collect it. Paid for it. Now have to wait for it to be washed! Got in to drive off. The workshop foreman who my husband had been dealing with, stood and watched us from inside the garage. My husband started the car and it sounded like an uneven washing machine! Obviously we turned the car off and the foreman came over and only then told us that in dismantling the engine to sort out the pipe they broke 2 pencil coils. We could not believe that they took our money, watched us start the car and then told us that it was still broken. Parts that they broke. Absolutely nothing had been said before. We left the car with them. They said, only at this juncture that they would look for the coils and replace them. After another week of waiting and hearing absolutely nothing we got hold of them. They couldn’t find the coils for this make of car, but if we try the dealership we may be able to get them. Now transferring their problem to us! And on top of that they now tell us that the radiator, which they had checked up front, was damaged, and that we now needed to replace the radiator in addition to the coils they broke! We had to go to Cape Town so my husband decided in the interim to look for replacement parts in Botswana, as we knew a mechanic there. In the meantime, Car Care Service Birnam brought the car back to our home and parked it. The parts, coils and radiator, were found in Botswana and sent to us in Johannesburg. However, the car would not start because whoever bought the car back to our home while we were away never disconnected the battery. So we borrowed our son's car drove to the garage, collected someone to come with a battery, jump started the car and drove it to Car Care. They installed the parts over the next few days but told us that the coils we managed to get from Botswana were not the correct coils, they were too short and the car will continue to mis-fire. Nevertheless, they will use a few of the unbroken ones to get the car going. They call us a few days later to say it's ready, but we now have to replace the battery! With the car intermittently misfiring, we decided to take the car back to our mechanic in Botswana. The car got us there, although we had to borrow a car to follow the Pajero, just in case it never made it. Our mechanic came and collected it from where we were staying. He called us the next day to say that not all the coils that were installed by Car Care had been bolted on properly, one with only one bolt and another very loose! He bolted them up properly and the engine now runs smoothly. So all in all, a bad experience for us. In our opinion, these people are not reliable, and, again, in our opinion, they are definitely not professional. Don't use them!