An acquaintance of mine owns a 2006 Camry (2.4L) that has 200k miles on it.
The vehicle had a bad water pump leak. They are going thru some tough financial times (spouse in school) so I offered to fix the water pump for the cost of parts. I normally do not do much free work these days but I decided to make an exception. I installed a new Aisin pump, new Gates belt, checked all pulleys (they were OK) and confirmed proper operation of the belt tensioner.
Upon pick-up of the car (before the work) I had noticed a slight whine at idle and a very noticeable high-pitched whine upon acceleration. I advised her that I did not have any additional time to spend on the car to diagnose the issue, but suggested that it sounded like an alternator noise and to have the alternator tested asap.
The owner brought the car to AutoZone and they confirmed an alternator failure. At this point I suggested that the alternator was probably the cause of the noise (maybe bad bearing??) so I ordered a remanufactured Denso alternator and installed it. For free. There was no change in the noise. During this visit I had more time, so I road tested the car more and was able to isolate the noise to the transmission. I checked the transmission fluid and it was very dark, so I flushed it with 12 quarts of Genuine Toyota T-IV (will be at my expense since I didn't obtain approval). Again, no change in the noise.
So, my dilemma is:
I "sold" the owner a new alternator and advised them that it would probably fix the noise. But it didn't. Should the owner still pay for the alternator?
I'm fairly certain that the alternator needed replacement anyway but the principle of the matter is that the owner was incorrectly advised that the alternator would fix their problem.
What do you guys think?
The vehicle had a bad water pump leak. They are going thru some tough financial times (spouse in school) so I offered to fix the water pump for the cost of parts. I normally do not do much free work these days but I decided to make an exception. I installed a new Aisin pump, new Gates belt, checked all pulleys (they were OK) and confirmed proper operation of the belt tensioner.
Upon pick-up of the car (before the work) I had noticed a slight whine at idle and a very noticeable high-pitched whine upon acceleration. I advised her that I did not have any additional time to spend on the car to diagnose the issue, but suggested that it sounded like an alternator noise and to have the alternator tested asap.
The owner brought the car to AutoZone and they confirmed an alternator failure. At this point I suggested that the alternator was probably the cause of the noise (maybe bad bearing??) so I ordered a remanufactured Denso alternator and installed it. For free. There was no change in the noise. During this visit I had more time, so I road tested the car more and was able to isolate the noise to the transmission. I checked the transmission fluid and it was very dark, so I flushed it with 12 quarts of Genuine Toyota T-IV (will be at my expense since I didn't obtain approval). Again, no change in the noise.
So, my dilemma is:
I "sold" the owner a new alternator and advised them that it would probably fix the noise. But it didn't. Should the owner still pay for the alternator?
I'm fairly certain that the alternator needed replacement anyway but the principle of the matter is that the owner was incorrectly advised that the alternator would fix their problem.
What do you guys think?