Al Cyril, Owner
Tonnelle Auto Repair LLC
505 Tonnelle Ave
Jersey City, NJ 07307

Tel: 201-963-5831

Al is a really decent guy. He fixed my truck for a fair price. He figured out exactly what was wrong, he didn’t do just the obvious fix, or just what I had suggested needed fixing.

I brought my truck in thinking it had something wrong with the right rear cylinder. There was some tapping sound coming from there, oil was leaking from the valve cover. Also, the truck was sluggish, always needing to downshift on the slightest incline. Some kind of power loss. Maybe the right rear cylinder was not firing. I’m not a mechanic, though sometimes I do dream I am and make up all sorts of pseudo explanations for what could be causing the problem.

I was expecting the worst: valve job, head job, something expensive like that.

Al listened to what I thought could be the problem, and then I left the truck with him.

He had it for a week. Right away, obviously, new valve cover gaskets were needed. As for the power loss and the tapping sound, he had to dig around, I guess. He took the truck out for a few spins, looked at the valves, cylinders, and poked around the rest of the engine.

It wasn’t obvious, but he found the problem: not a valve problem, not a cylinder problem.

My fan clutch was stuck in the lock position, causing the fan to spin at all times, even at high speeds when the fan isn’t necessary to cool the engine. He put in a new fan clutch, and voila, problem solved. The power is back now. Who knew a spinning fan could eat horsepower?
The tapping sound? fan belt needed to be tightened.

And that was it. He could have sold me any number of repairs involving valves, head jobs, or cylinder this or that. But he didn’t. He did exactly what was needed and he did a great job, too.

He’s a really nice guy. I highly recommend him.

Cheers,
Colin