West Portal Auto Service

$ 35 to pull a screw out of my tire and fix the tire. Usually it’s $ 25. Turned out to be a little ½ sheet metal screw that couldn’t have even made it to the steel belt. They still charged me.
I won’t be back.

Ask for Kenny ;)

this place is a joke. right off the bat someone answers the phone and claims all the mechanics are «at lunch» when i ask to speak to one. this may be ok, but once i started talking to him he then decides to connect me to a mechanic. BIG red flag since they don’t want to engage with their clients.
i proceed to ask for help and engagement with the symptoms with my car and all the guy was seriously interested in was getting me off the phone. «we don’t take appointments». «i have no idea what you’re talking about» he kept garbling to me. «take it to an electrical shop»… he is a joke, maybe even more so than the place itself. STAY FAR AWAY.

I’ve had mixed results with this place. If you deal strictly with Ken he will give you decent service but if you deal with any of his cronies all bets are off. I used to go to this place for routine maintenance and repairs at a fair price, but I’ve moved on except for really simple stuff or smog checks.
I had a check engine light on a few months ago and took it down there for diagnosis. Despite being a regular customer, one of Ken’s guys charged $ 50 just to tell me it was the knock sensor! They didn’t have the part so I couldn’t get it fixed that day, then when my wife took it back a couple of weeks later, the guy on duty (not Ken) told her they would have to re-​diagnose the check engine light — for another $ 50! Uh, thanks but no thanks.
I looked up the procedure for changing the knock sensor, ordered the part off the Interwebs and changed it myself in under an hour — a very easy job on a 2000 Outback. The check engine light was still on so I took it down to Sunset Service at 19^th and Q where the guys cleared the code for free! Disclosure — I am a regular oil change customer there.
WPAS is only a block and a half from my house, but now I have all my work done at Sunset Service Super Lube except for smog checks which SSSL doesn’t do. $ 50 for a 1-​minute code check for a regular customer to tell me I need a knock sensor replaced? C’mon!

I don’t know why it is called west Portal Auto Service, it’s a 76 Service/​Gas Station.
My dad would bring our VW here for oil changes and smog checks. Everything was ok but they were always coming up with new things that needed to be fixed.
We took the car for a smog check a few months ago because the check engine light was on. After looking at the car they «fixed» the problem. When I went to go pick up the car, I turned it on and 10 seconds later the check engine light was back on. All the guy did was use some little machine to turn it off. Once I parked the car in my driveway at home the light was back on.
A week ago my car broke down just a few blocks away from this 76 and I had the tow truck drive it to the station. The tow truck driver left the car on the street (according to him this was procedure) and I asked him if he could roll it into the station. Long story short the dude at the gas station started yelling at me because the tow truck driver didn’t park the car exactly where he wanted him to. They came up with an $ 800 estimate to fix some random stuff. I was pissed the guy yelled at me so we brought the car somewhere else. Turns out the damage wasn’t that bad and they were trying to fix parts that were working just fine.
The staff here was rude to me and they didn’t provided good service. From now on I’m filling up across the street.

Ask for Kenny. He is honest and hard working. I go here for oil changes and full service including the occasional smog check. I would trust these people with my car, maybe even my life, any day! Goodbye to the ex-​convicts from San Quentin at 19^th Ave Penzoil 10-​minute oil change.

This is my go-​to spot for patching nail holes in my tires or getting a smog check. Quick and professional service.