@Vovo-V70 You are going way off topic here! I am not encouraging law breaking here my first suggestion was to pay the mechanic and take the vehicle but this has no longer what the poster was asking he said, this mechanic which is not following the proper rules for conducting business. I will no longer go this far off topic Please talk about fixing autos not live styles posts!
The car legally belongs to the OP; no doubt.
However, the OP willingly took it to that shop and authorized repairs; whatever they may be.
This means the shop does not have to give that car up until the bill is paid and no one on Earth can legally go onto a shopās property and take a car; either as an individual or with a tow truck.
After a certain amount of time the shop can legally sell the vehicle in question.
Any disagreements must be sorted through the court system.
Going onto private property and attempting to take something is a good way to face some physical violence.
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Iāll just say we donāt know what transpired between the OP or the mechanic so we really donāt know if it was reasonable or not. All we know is that the engine has not been fixed to the OPās satisfaction. Maybe no one could.
When my car was in for a transmission and after 7 weeks wait I considered getting it out of there. Alas the crook was not stupid. The car was between a couple other ones in his garage and the hood propped open and parts all over and heavy dust. Even if I could have gotten it out of there, the parts would have been in boxes. So I just continued daily visits and took my lumps when he finally finished it. The lumps included $400 at another shop to replace the harness, and an overhaul at another shop a year later. Ef the warranty.
pay the bill save documents. take vehicle to another shop to get it fixed right and save the receipts. then take the first shop to court to get your money back.
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Great response.
Itās too easy for us to forget the times when $1 a sixpack was like a miracle.but even today , whether itās $100 or $1,000,000, it all comes down to ācharacterā.
I sure hope thatās true, as itās been my custom the past six or seven years. The boredom is made possible by two MP3 players, one loaded with podcasts, the other with favorite music.
Iām in my 70s, 5ā8", 155 pounds, and donāt take any meds.
Of course, one of these days I could get run over by a school bus.
Think positive. The bus could be filled with cute teenage cheerleaders whoāll revive you w/mouth to mount ā¦ lol ā¦
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It is directly related to the original post, and not out of context. You gave the OP bad, illegal advice. My intent was to ensure he didnāt try to follow it.
WTF is up with all these people saying to pay the bill with a credit card and then dispute the charges, or to have a towing company break into the shopās secured yard in order to recover this worthless vehicle? Both of these schemes are highly illegal, unlikely to succeed, and not worth the hassle considering that this car is pretty much worthless to its owner. A $4500 car which needs $5k or more of work is useful only to someone who can DIY, and the OP is not such a person.
The OP will need to let this car go, and buy something else, as was discussed several days ago.
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The problem is evidently he does not have credit to buy another, only has the $4000 in cash. Heās gotta make a deal or someone has to give him a car. Wait a minute-you canāt rent a car without a credit card. Is the fish starting to smell?
Maybe itās there in the hundred responses or something but I donāt recall the mechanic refusing to give him the car or locking it up on him. In the old days merchants would tend to extend credit in such cases. I remember accompanying a neighbor kid riding our bikes around town as he made a number of stops paying various merchants after his mother had given him money and a list. As Bruce Williams used to say before he died, his Grandfather said āa fast nickel is better than a slow dimeā.
You are very wise but I really think more is going on here than you and I read! Quite different from the usual post. I prefer to respond only from now on to a car fix. It issues only not lifestyles. I will not go that far off again.
Yes, that is correct Nevada. Prior to writing this Post, the carbon was removed from the engine, that was already solved. I the headgasked was already professionally replaced by the mechanic, and 3rd party machine shop. My question is essentially a financial one. I did not replace the head gasket to solve the engine shaking issue, I replaced it because the mechanic said the original head gasket had failed. The previous non-head gasket repairs did not solve the engine shaking issue, and so this mechanic had to take the car to the Toyota Dealership to reprogram the car computer. Then after they finished with that and they brought it back, the car still did not work, so today the mechanic is again taking the car back to the Toyota Dealership. When will this end?
He has performed $4,300 worth of repairs on the car that he will bill me for, but he may need to perform thousands of dollars of additional repairs to finish the job. If I tell him to stop now, then I will have to pay $4,300 for a dead car. If I let him continue, then I may have to pay more than the car is worth if I bought it new. What is the best choice to make?
Bing, the mechanic has been unable to finish the repair for 1 month. I appreciate your imagination.
After the problem is diagnosed.
You did not describe the problem other than the engine is shaking and it is a dead car.
There is a service bulletin for running rough during light acceleration, the remedy involves replacing the intake manifold.
When youāre in a hole, the first step is to stop digging.
This is only going to get worse, and you still may not have a functioning car.
Iād tell the mechanic to stop any more work on the car. Pay the bill, and decide on your next step from there. No offense, but I think thatās been the same advice from most of us for a while now.
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I have a great amount of sympathy for the OP regarding this problem.
It would be interesting to know what has been done and the reasons for doing it. Forty three hundred dollars worth of work on a well used engine makes me cringe a bit.
The thought of this escapade being caused by something very simple has also crossed my mind a number of times due to seeing problem cars that had everything in the parts inventory thrown at them over nothing more than a blown fuse, faulty relay, loose connection, air leak, or whatever.
THIS is why I will spend four days boiling in the sun drenched in black oil and spend $400 on tools and parts before I deliver my vehicle unto a āmechanicā.
I agree. A reasonable mechanic would have cautioned the customer against attempting such repairs, and suggested to either replace the engine, or buy a different car. They are probably going to end up taking a loss on this job, because it sounds like their chances of getting paid for the unsuccessful repairs are slim to none.
This certainly happens way more often than people would like to admit. And not just in the automotive industry. I work in heating and air conditioning, and I canāt tell you how many times I have worked on equipment which another company had diagnosed as unrepairable or needing very costly repairs, and the problem ended up being something much simpler and cheaper instead. Sometimes, I seriously question if the original diagnosis was due to incompetence, or if the ātechnicianā deliberately diagnosed an expensive problem in order to sell new equipment.