Doyle's Automotive, West Seattle

Mirage

New member
We were lucky enough to find a good mechanic in West Seattle who we've stuck with for the last 17 years or so. Doyle's Automotive. They regularly have been awarded top honors in the best of automotive servicing category in local voting and it's always seemed like they treated us fairly. We've had to spend relatively little on our cars in all those years.
We haven't had diesel vehicles before now... until a few weeks ago. I took my newly purchased '03 Sprinter to them recently (late September, 2016) to remove some excess engine oil, because the former owner had over-filled. It turns out that Doyle's has a diesel specialist and he's worked on Sprinters.
I described the first diagnostic done by them in a post entitled, Working the bugs out of newly purchased 2003 118" Passenger Van recently.
I'm glad that I can take the van somewhere so nearby (a mile from home).
I'm hoping that my future reports will be mostly just of routine maintenance!! Nevertheless, I think that even routine service will be somewhat expensive in the first year of ownership, like to the tune of approx. $1,000 when you add transmission servicing [that tranny fluid is pricey!!] and a replaced crankshaft sensor to the initial diagnostic work performed after journeying home ($400). Any thirteen-year-old used workhorse is normally going to throw some curve balls at a new buyer, so it's not a complete shock to spend some $ initially. I just hope that we won't need to do much more than the above-mentioned service, although maybe the differential fluid and torque converter fluid come next, unless the former owner had them done recently. (He's sending me service records.)
 

Wallygirl

2005 118", PNW
We were lucky enough to find a good mechanic in West Seattle who we've stuck with for the last 17 years or so. Doyle's Automotive. They regularly have been awarded top honors in the best of automotive servicing category in local voting and it's always seemed like they treated us fairly. We've had to spend relatively little on our cars in all those years.

We haven't had diesel vehicles before now... until a few weeks ago. I took my newly purchased '03 Sprinter to them recently (late September, 2016) to remove some excess engine oil, because the former owner had over-filled. It turns out that Doyle's has a diesel specialist and he's worked on Sprinters.

I described the first diagnostic done by them in a post entitled, Working the bugs out of newly purchased 2003 118" Passenger Van recently.

I'm glad that I can take the van somewhere so nearby (a mile from home).

I'm hoping that my future reports will be mostly just of routine maintenance!! Nevertheless, I think that even routine service will be somewhat expensive in the first year of ownership, like to the tune of approx. $1,000 when you add transmission servicing [that tranny fluid is pricey!!] and a replaced crankshaft sensor to the initial diagnostic work performed after journeying home ($400). Any thirteen-year-old used workhorse is normally going to throw some curve balls at a new buyer, so it's not a complete shock to spend some $ initially. I just hope that we won't need to do much more than the above-mentioned service, although maybe the differential fluid and torque converter fluid come next, unless the former owner had them done recently. (He's sending me service records.)


9/21/18 I just called Doyles. Unfortunately, the technician they had that worked on diesels is no longer there. They don’t know when they’ll be able to take sprinters again.


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