Hi-Line Auto Electric

I take both my Luxury Acura and BMW Z-​4 to Hi-​line A E and am always satisfied with the service, presentation and reasonable fees. I was a Mercedes mechanic for 10 years so I am very particular in regards to the care of my vehicles.

I can’t recall a worse experience with an auto repair issue. Brought our 2006 Subaru Legacy in for multiple, yet common standard issue repairs. Estimated to be ready over 2 days time. 6 days later, $ 2800+ the vehicle is not only still broken, yet we have also incurred additional damage & issues. I found another mechanic to help us sort out things (as we continue to hemorrhage money paying for the same thing). The business owner at this present time has refused, denied or admitted any liability.
I’m the type of consumer that believes in getting what you pay for. I’ve been in business for a long time and get that. And so do my clients.
Very disappointed in this business, if you can call it that. See you in court, Highline Auto Electric. I only gave one star because the software wouldn’t post without clicking that apparently!

These people are crooks. They are the bad mechanics your parents warn you about.
We brought our vehicle in due to lack of power and a recent diagnosis said the issue was fuel injectors. We said we needed it in 3 weeks for a planned vacation. They said it was not the injectors but it just needed a tune up. $ 2400 later they said it was fixed. We noticed later that a new ignition system was on the bill — we did not approve or discuss it. We drove 1 block before returning after paying stating it was still under-​powered. They then claimed it needed an exhaust system and took it to a muffler shoppe. Still no dice — no further cost estimates were provided. It was not ready for the vacation. We asked for a call and estimate — no call was made. Still not fixed and a week later, we said we wanted the vehicle back and they said it was $ 2100 more, and said it needed to be paid in cashier’s check and refused to take a credit card because I said I was taking it up with Attorney General.
These are all listed as scams on the texas attorney general website and they committed each one!
1. commencing repair work on your car without first getting your authorization to perform the repair work, and then charging you for repair work that you did not authorize,
2. starting repair work on your car before obtaining authorization from you, then charging you for it.
3. representing that repair services will be completed by a certain day in order to induce the sale, then failing to have the repair services completed by that day.
4. failing to notify you and secure your additional approval, in writing, for any additional work to be done that was not set forth in the original written agreement.
5. representing or advertising that the shop will accept consumer credit cards or personal or business checks as payment for goods and services, and then refusing to accept credit cards or checks.

Dropped off my son’s Land Rover Discovery overnight and the next morning I got a call from Tim explaining what was the problem was and then had it fixed by the next day. This is the second time i’ve brought a car there and I gotta say I’m batting 1.000. There were a few things Tim suggested to fix but no pressure whatsoever. He understood we needed the car to run and that was first and foremost the most important thing. While his mechanic was working on my main issue, he checked out the oxygen sensor which was throwing off a «service engine soon». Tighten up the harness and it was fixed just like that. They saved me $$$. I just don’t get the negative feedback whatsoever. Tim and his team is very personable and professional. The parts were even reasonable for a Land Rover. I’m sure if i went to a dealership iI would have paid twice as much. I’ll definitely bring my car here again if I have any issues. The bonus is that not only are they electrical pros, they also do regular car maintenance and also fixes.

Horrible service –Avoid this company — do not believe bbb’s rating.
The owner/​mechanic charged me $ 409.74 for parts and labor for a botched job. The majority of the charge was for a so called OEM Crank Position Sensor. The crank position sensor he sold me was definitely not an OEM part but a knock off that sells for $ 40. Not only did he sell me a non OEM part he destroyed it by misassembling the sensor into the wrong hole in the transmission housing, such that the clutch torn into the sensor housing and destroyed it.

Once upon a time, I took my Subaru here because the horn and tachometer had stopped working. After multiple phone calls from them asking for my permission to increase the budget, they had finally fixed the horn but not the tachometer, and the bill came to an insane sum approaching a thousand dollars. Guess I learned my lesson: taking my car to an electrical specialist isn’t an effective choice if said specialist is mostly interested in parting me from my money.

I brought my 2003 Ford Taurus into the shop on 4-​4-​2012 recommended by Pit stop in Burien. My engine light was coming on with P1151 code that were relating to a misfire of some sort. Also my steering panel was making a loud noise. The owner seemed polite and honest, family owned business so I had high hopes. I received a call back and Tim told me that the power steering pump assembly (which I supplied for them from Als Auto Supply) an idler pulley and a serpentine belt and a power steering system flush would resolve the noise. They recommended that I also replace the power steeirng line because there was a minor leak but was not neccesary so I declined the line because they wanted an additional $ 523.00 for just the line and he didn’t seem like this was critical to resolve the steering problem. They replaced the the front oxygen sensors and did a fuel injection system cleaning. They also recommended I replace my spark plugs which surprised me because I had just had them replaced in the past 5 months and I told him this and that I was now questioning the whole estimate. I declined the spark plugs. The total bill was $ 1,027.08. I couldn’t believe the cost but he assured me that the engine light and the steering problem would be resolved.
My steering started making a loud noise again same as before so I took it back to them on 7-​6-​2012. I have only one car so they offered to take me to my appoitment that I had which was great. The lady called me back and told me that the power steering line had blown and that it would be $ 523.00 to fix this and it was my fault because they had recommended this in April and I declined it and they wouldn;t be able to get the part until Monday because it was a Ford part. I was so frustrated and disappointed and I told her that and I told her to just put the car back together and I would be picking it up. She was rude when I did and offered nothing but an attitude of that is tough luck on my part for not taking a recommendation of a power steering line that I didn’t think was as critical as it was because of the high estimate to begin with. So here I am out over a thousand dollars and nothing to feel good about and a very bad taste in my mouth for this establishment. I would not take a chance with this place unless you are a man and know about cars, I feel taken advantage of and very disappointed that I trusted this place. My outcome and my expectations were not met. I would have liked to have been offered a lower estimate on the power steering line since I already had invested over a thousand dollars in this place 3 months ago and also treated a bit kinder, the customer service was horrible.

Bear with the back story, it’s relevant later on.
I was driving down the road when my car (87 325is) lost power. A few friends of mine (certified bmw techs with the exact same year/​model of car) drove over and helped me trouble shoot it on the side of the road. We found there was no spark at the coil. So we swapped out the DME and main power relays (fuel, ignition, o2) still no spark. I take the car back to my place and slave over it for a couple hours with a wiring diagram and multimeter. I Can’t find anything wrong so I try the ignition coil again. Somehow it’s giving about a half inch of spark, but there’s no spark at the plugs. So I change out the rotor, cap, and wires. Still no spark at the plugs. It looks like there’s a grounding issue and I’m running out of time so I call up the local auto electrical specialist (hi-​line auto electric).
A nice guy named tim answered the phone and walked me through their diagnosis process. Everything sounded on the up and up and the do not exceed price seemed fair at 150 $. After a little more chatting i hook up the toe cables to the car and we trucked her on over to hi-​line auto electric. Upon arriving we were met by some ass hat named pete. The first thing pete did was raise the DNE value to 180… after telling him what tim told us he did one of those high nosed snot in hails and changed the DNE back down to 150. No harm no foul.
Two hours later good old pete called up with the diagnosis that the car needed a new fuel pump relay, ignition coil, and spark plugs. He’s got to be joking was the first thing that popped into my mind and he’ll let me in on what the actual problem was any second now. Turns out our good friend mr pete wasn’t kidding around. He was dead serious and wanted an additional 520 bucks to spend 30 minutes swapping out 80 $ worth of parts. Before letting him in on the little before mentioned trouble shooting, i ask him if there was anything else causing the no spark condition. Nope, that was it. I then proceeded to let him in on the little secret that we had just swapped the mentioned parts out of another running 87 325IS and that it hadn’t fixed the problem. Pete fell back onto the only card he could, play ignorant and hide behind the tech who seemed to have taken off for the day (if the tech was gone, then who’s working on my car right now?). The conversation wasn’t going anywhere so i told them to put the car back together. Pete then informs me that they had hit the DNE and that if i wanted the car back together i’d be paying another 50 – 60 bucks. 150 bucks turns into 200.
At this point it’s pretty obvious they’re trying to rip me off. I ask him what the hell is the point of a do not exceed if you’re just going to arbitrarily ignore it. No response to my question… Pete goes on to suggest that replacing just those parts may not get the car running again and that I should just pay 400 bucks total and they’d replace the ignition coil, fuel pump relay and that the car would be working fine afterwards. The two statements completely contradict one another… but what choice do I have at this point?
I ended up paying them the 400 bucks and driving away with my car. After getting the car back to my place I look inside the engine compartment and it was a complete mess. The air filter was left ajar hanging by 1 of 4 clips, the engine is making a loud squealing noise that I can’t locate (not the vbelts), and the pulse sensor was left flailing around on top of the engine.
It pisses me off that we live in a society where people can get away with shit like this. There’s no legal action I can take since I have no documentation showing that the DNE was set to 150, or that the ignition coil and fuel pump relay were working fine before I took the car into their shop. And even if I did what would be the point? They’d get off with a slap on the wrist and I’d put in tons of personal time in courts to make back a few hours worth of wages.