Thao Auto Repair Auto repair & auto body · San Diego
Service desk(619) 640-4606 Book a slot
Bring this in Oil change $45 · full synthetic $60

Bring this in

Oil change

Conventional$45up to 5 qt
Full synthetic$60up to 5 qt

Plus sales tax and any disposal fee, itemized on your invoice. Not an out-the-door price.

  • New filter, every time
  • Multi-point inspection on the lift
  • Tire pressures set, tread measured
  • Fluids topped to the correct spec
Expires 12.31.26 Thao’s Auto Repair
(619) 640-4606 Call

Expires December 31, 2026. One vehicle per visit. Most cars and light trucks.

Quarts beyond five, diesel engines, and European engines that require a specific manufacturer approval are priced separately — the extra cost may be substantial. We tell you before we start, never after. Some engines must have full synthetic; if yours is one we will say so rather than put the wrong oil in it.

You get a written estimate and you authorize it before any work is done. If the job changes, you get a revised figure to approve.

Home / About

A shop that would rather lose a job than sell you one you do not need.

Independent, all makes, and answerable to the person whose name is on the door.

The shop was started by the current owner’s father, and it has been on El Cajon Blvd for over forty years. He has run it since. That is not a marketing line — it is the reason the answers you get here are the same on a Tuesday as they were the last time you came in.

Everything under one roof, which is rarer than it sounds

Repair, auto body and a full machine shop, on one site. Most shops send body work out and send machine work out again, and a job needing both ends up bouncing between three businesses with a margin added at every hop. Here it does not leave the building.

Forty years in one neighborhood is its own accountability

A shop that trades in North Park for four decades cannot afford a customer who feels cheated — they live here, and so do we. That is the whole business model, and it is why the repair order tells you what we found and what we decided not to sell you.

What we will always do

  • Give you the estimate in writing before anything is touched.
  • Show you the measurement and the spec it missed, not just the price.
  • Hand back the old part if you want it.
  • Tell you when a repair is not worth doing on the car you have.
Two technicians reading live data from a scan tool and a laptop over an open engine bay
Diagnosis before partsThe code is read, then the circuit is tested. Nothing is quoted off a code alone.
A technician working under the open hood of a car on the shop floor
Repair and body, one siteMechanical, collision and machine work happen in the same building, on one repair order.

ReadThe code names a circuit, not a partthen tested

ShownBoth numbers go on your repair orderevery job

On siteHeads, decks and presses — not sent outin house

TurnaroundNo third-party queue to wait behindours

MeasuredAgainst the discard spec cast into the partmm

In specWe say so and charge you nothing$0.00

Book a slot

Tell us the symptom. We will tell you the next opening.

The chat narrows the symptom down with you so the call is short and the desk knows what to pull before you arrive. It will not diagnose your car in a chat window, and it does not book for you — the last step is a phone call, to a person.

Call (619) 640-4606

Where we are

3400 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92104

Mon–Fri · 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM

Get directions

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