Now I understand that my rants about dealerships is on the heavy side…but I make no apologies for the repair bills and quotes that I have seen from the Stealers. Some of them no most of them make me absolutely sick. Of course not all dealers go to this extreme, but I’d have to say its over 85% of them that DO… Its a simple fact, I dont like it and I dont like to tell it…but if it were different I tell it that way. The didnt earn the title of “Stealerships” from me…that was coined LONG LONG ago… I wonder why… No because of me thats for sure… Im just a small fish in a big pond…but I know what I have seen…and it hasnt been good. If it were I would be happy to tell you about that… Alas…I cannot
I’ve said from the start this is likely a case of mechanical ignorance rather than outright fraud and still think that way. The end result is the same; the customer’s bank account was unnecessarily depleted.
Cash money says the mechanics in that shop have an average age of 23 and not a one of them owns any spark plug thread repair tools, or a set of micrometers, or a precision straightedge, or the ability to use them.
Combined with clueless service writers things like what happened with the OP will happen. It’s nothing new and it happens all of the time.
There have been many, many posts on this forum where someone has been mistakenly advised that a head or engine will have to be replaced because of a blown or stripped plug hole.
I seldom attack anyone, much less as strongly as I did in this case. If there’s any question as to why I did then I suggest going back and reading responses very carefully.
There is no more proof the situation you claim exists that my claim that there are two 15 year olds laughing out loud because they got you to bite so hard on this one. stuck onthesideoftheRODE sure bet.
BOOOOOOOOOM! That was a SHOTGUN BLAST to the head of this thread… May it rest in peace
Not really, and while I’d be surprised to get a straight answer let me pose a story that happened a few years back. Weigh this storyline against the one by the OP.
A lady’s car engine seized up on her while on the road not too far from home. Her father diagnosed it as an engine seizure and had the car towed to me. The note with the car stated the engine was seized, rebuild it, and hang the cost. A followup phone call about the car’s history led to more of the same; rebuild or replace the engine and if it runs 3 grand then so be it. If it runs more then that’s fine also. KA-CHING!
A look at the car shows the engine was seized but not due to lack of oil or an internal fault. This person took the first estimate (mine) without getting another, wanted the work performed as they stated, and it would have sure helped my bottom line.
So there were 2 options.
Option A. Do the 10 minute fix and charge the customer 3 grand or more with them being none the wiser. (Believe me, it would have been bone simple to do.)
Option B. Do the 10 minute fix and charge them 25 bucks total parts and labor.
I chose Option B. If one goes by what some would recommend then Option A would be considered perfectly acceptable; replace the engine because of a minor hiccup.
Hi All!
I am the poster. I sincerely appreciate all of your comments. I was stuck on the side of the highway 120 miles from home on my way to see a sick family member. I have learned a lot from all of you. I allowed myself to be taken advantage of to the tune of $4400. Watch out if you are ever in Alcoa, Tenn. I have learned my lesson. Thanks so much!
You did, definitely, get scammed. Have read all previous postings (!)
So, you’re out $4400.
Have you thought about small claims court?
You got had and had big time. While a court claim is possible it could be 50/50 as to whether you win or not. The fly in the ointment is that their bogus repair procedure could be considered “their way of looking at it” and the fact you authorized this repair.
I would say that it’s winnable but will need to do some homework on this issue along with gathering opinions from other mechanics and whatnot. You can safely bet that a low watt service manager would be the one to appear in court on their behalf and you can also safely bet that he will babble a lot of nonsense that a non-mechanically minded judge would eat up.
OP, here is what should be in any half decent mechanic’s tool box. This tool (and the cheap inserts that it uses) will cure those blown spark plug problems.
http://www.timesert.com/html/sparkplug.html
Two things I would be curious about.
- If anybody in the shop even owns a tool like that.
- An explanation from that dealer as to why they did not use a tool such as the above.
Just for hoots, you might send the service manager a letter along with a SASE and ask why they did the repair the way they did.
They may ignore the letter, say as little as possible, or provide some real funny ammunition by actually laying out a reason. It’s worth a shot anyway and there’s always the possibility they could put their foot in their mouth.
Just curious- how do you have a minor engine seizure?
I see you mention Fords. While I can’t say if Fords are more prone or less prone to this than average, I can tell you that no mechanic I was able to find could fix the threads in the head of my Escape, and it was cheaper to put in a new engine.
Plus, it seemed to have stressed a rod bearing in ways the engine’s designers could not have anticipated. Just think about it, you have a loose plug in there rattling around. It’s going in and out of the hole in unpredictable ways. Eventually, it bounces back in at the TDC between a compression stroke and power stroke, but since there was no compression, there’s no gas and no chance for ignition; in this case, you end up with a huge amount of vacuum in the cylinder, which causes a large amount of unanticipated tension on the rod bolts. This last part leads to too much clearance between the rod bearing and the crankshaft.
I believe that’s what happened to my Escape. I can’t imagine why this scenario, if it happened, would not apply to other makes of car.
That’s my theory, and I’m sticking with it.
To be brutally honest, I don’t follow any of your mechanical theories at all.
Does it help that I had about 3 separate garages look at it?
Sorry, but my car was definitely producing a noise down in the crankshaft. I looked at it, other mechanics looked at it, and it had a loose rod bearing.
To be brutally honest, that’s what happened. I’m guessing as to why the rod bearing was loose – but it was loose.
Perhaps if we could get our OP back to explain a few things we could compare your situation to hers.