My 2002 Toyota Camry overheated the other night. The engine light was already on 1 time before. I thought that it was driving poorly & I tried to return home. (Wrong move) It stalled in traffic & I had it towed to my usual mechanic. He said that my engine burnt up & the radiator burst & I had no coolant in the resovoir but coolant in the heads.
I had an oil change there on 5/11/07. and I had only driven about 125 miles since then. I have another car that I drive primaryily.
Now my decison is to either 1. put a used 19k miles engine in plus a radiator for $3500 or 2. retool the exsisting engine for maybe a little less money but the risk is that it maybe too far damaged to really fix & I may need a new(used)engine anyway.
In the back of my mind, I’m wondering if my car ever got the coolant filled up when I had my oil change. Plus this is a small shop, if they are truly innocent, can they do the work if there is only 2 mechanics?
Please help me make the right decision. Thank you.
First in no way or fashion is this the shops fault. An oil change is completely and utterly unrelated to coolant filling. Cars in proper operating condition do not require coolant fillings unless you specify a change nor topping. You drove 125 miles and nothing occurred then.
IMHO pay up and replace the engine with used.