Zakko
Member
- Joined
- April 28, 2006
- Messages
- 18
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Cedar Rapids, IA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2002 Eddie Bauer
Hoping to get some insight from you guys.
The story so far:
Last fall, I had my 2002 EB up for sale. I took it to fill up the gas tank one evening and it started running very rough.
So the next day, my wife takes it over to a local shop to get it checked out.
A few days later, they get back to me saying it's one of two things. Thing 'A' is a cheaper/faster fix, but they don't have a lot of confidence that it will fix it. Thing 'B' is replace the timing chains, cassettes, etc. IE, pull the engine.
So I have them do the first cheap repair and no luck, no improvement. The symptoms at this point are rough engine performance, lack of power, poor compression on the passenger side, ticking sound from the engine (probably indicating timing chain slap).
He quotes me $1,500 total for the work so far + the timing. Seems like a good deal, so I have him do it. First, it will be 4-6 weeks before he can get the timing tool, second, he got the wrong timing chain kit and has to wait for the new one to come in.
Finally, around February/early March, we're talking on a regular basis and he's saying it will be another week to finish. After a few 'one more weeks' he finally puts it all back together last Friday.
I get a call at about 5pm on Friday, bad news, truck won't start.
The did some diagnostics and checks to try to figure out why it won't start and now the engine has good compression on the passenger side, no compression on the drivers side (all three cylinders) and 95% on a leak down test (bad, but I'm not clear on what the 95% means). Oh, and the oil is now milky, looks like it's got coolant in it.
New estimate, +$440 labor +$300 to $500 parts to get a head gasket kit, which he can't seem to find anywhere except the dealer, and he's not sure how much the parts from the dealer will be just yet.
So I'm looking at about $2,500 at this point and I'm seriously doubting his ability to diagnose and repair broken vehicles. I believe the truck is dead at this point, and he's grasping at whatever excuse he can come up with to explain the problem.
My thoughts...
1. Could be head gasket, but odd for it to be a complete gasket failure on all three cylinders when the engine hasn't even been run since he took it out to do the timing chain work. Could explain compression + milky oil though.
2. Could be he didn't time the engine correctly, as I understand this would cause the compression issue on all three cylinders, but would not explain the milky oil.
3. Bent valves from a jumped timing chain? Could this cause the compression issue? But if this was the problem, wouldn't it have been a problem BEFORE he pulled the engine, given that it hasn't run since then?
If it's #2, I believe I saw a thread here previously where someone had milky oil due to hooking some other part up incorrectly. I don't recall the specifics though. Any other possible explanations on this issue other than head gasket failure on an engine that hasn't been used in 6 months?
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FINALLY, what recourse do I have here? I feel like a chump paying him $1,500 for returning my poorly running truck to me as a now non-running truck which I'll be lucky to sell at all. I'm wary of letting him do more work on it, though I can't seem to find another mechanic in town so far that's willing to look at it given that the repair costs that they estimate are a substantial percentage of the remaining value in the vehicle, and there's a chance it needs a whole new engine rebuild which would pretty much exceed the value of the truck entirely.
I'd prefer to get it back from him and pay nothing at all for breaking my truck. Then have a few mechanic family members take a look at getting the timing corrected. If that doesn't fix it, I'll sell it as-is.
Do I owe the mechanic who made the car worse than when I took it in to him? I have no problem with a mechanic who tells me he's not willing to take on a project like this. But when he says he's pretty confident about what's causing a problem, and then makes things worse? That's pretty ******-up IMO.
The story so far:
Last fall, I had my 2002 EB up for sale. I took it to fill up the gas tank one evening and it started running very rough.
So the next day, my wife takes it over to a local shop to get it checked out.
A few days later, they get back to me saying it's one of two things. Thing 'A' is a cheaper/faster fix, but they don't have a lot of confidence that it will fix it. Thing 'B' is replace the timing chains, cassettes, etc. IE, pull the engine.
So I have them do the first cheap repair and no luck, no improvement. The symptoms at this point are rough engine performance, lack of power, poor compression on the passenger side, ticking sound from the engine (probably indicating timing chain slap).
He quotes me $1,500 total for the work so far + the timing. Seems like a good deal, so I have him do it. First, it will be 4-6 weeks before he can get the timing tool, second, he got the wrong timing chain kit and has to wait for the new one to come in.
Finally, around February/early March, we're talking on a regular basis and he's saying it will be another week to finish. After a few 'one more weeks' he finally puts it all back together last Friday.
I get a call at about 5pm on Friday, bad news, truck won't start.
The did some diagnostics and checks to try to figure out why it won't start and now the engine has good compression on the passenger side, no compression on the drivers side (all three cylinders) and 95% on a leak down test (bad, but I'm not clear on what the 95% means). Oh, and the oil is now milky, looks like it's got coolant in it.
New estimate, +$440 labor +$300 to $500 parts to get a head gasket kit, which he can't seem to find anywhere except the dealer, and he's not sure how much the parts from the dealer will be just yet.
So I'm looking at about $2,500 at this point and I'm seriously doubting his ability to diagnose and repair broken vehicles. I believe the truck is dead at this point, and he's grasping at whatever excuse he can come up with to explain the problem.
My thoughts...
1. Could be head gasket, but odd for it to be a complete gasket failure on all three cylinders when the engine hasn't even been run since he took it out to do the timing chain work. Could explain compression + milky oil though.
2. Could be he didn't time the engine correctly, as I understand this would cause the compression issue on all three cylinders, but would not explain the milky oil.
3. Bent valves from a jumped timing chain? Could this cause the compression issue? But if this was the problem, wouldn't it have been a problem BEFORE he pulled the engine, given that it hasn't run since then?
If it's #2, I believe I saw a thread here previously where someone had milky oil due to hooking some other part up incorrectly. I don't recall the specifics though. Any other possible explanations on this issue other than head gasket failure on an engine that hasn't been used in 6 months?
---
FINALLY, what recourse do I have here? I feel like a chump paying him $1,500 for returning my poorly running truck to me as a now non-running truck which I'll be lucky to sell at all. I'm wary of letting him do more work on it, though I can't seem to find another mechanic in town so far that's willing to look at it given that the repair costs that they estimate are a substantial percentage of the remaining value in the vehicle, and there's a chance it needs a whole new engine rebuild which would pretty much exceed the value of the truck entirely.
I'd prefer to get it back from him and pay nothing at all for breaking my truck. Then have a few mechanic family members take a look at getting the timing corrected. If that doesn't fix it, I'll sell it as-is.
Do I owe the mechanic who made the car worse than when I took it in to him? I have no problem with a mechanic who tells me he's not willing to take on a project like this. But when he says he's pretty confident about what's causing a problem, and then makes things worse? That's pretty ******-up IMO.
