Not a good start to Summer

Reddog1 wrote:

sabconsulting wrote:

Francesca Knowles wrote:

Could be that they were so busy looking for other services to sell you they forgot to tighten something during your thirty dollar oil change- and didn't get back to it during the extra $3500.00 of "necessary work" they were able to upsell you.

x2

Steve.

x3.

I also question the dealer torque converter find. In my opinion, someone will have to convince me you were not ripped of in your entire experience with that dealer. Fact is, my experience is that by far the majority of the dealers of any vehicle are dishonest. Not all, just the majority.

Wayne

Hopefully this isn't a dishonest dealer, but it does ring alarm bells with me.

Years ago I had a diesel car and it started losing coolant. I took it to the main dealer for that make of car (part of a big chain of dealers). They took the cylinder head off and told me that the cylinder head gasket was leaking AND the cylinder head was warped and they would need to fit a new head (probably worth more than the car was at that point). I declined and told them to put it back together and I'd pay them for the work done so far. As a parting comment they said they had also replaced my injectors with "some they had lying around". I found a local independent diesel engine specialist - two old guys in a workshop and they said they could have the cylinder head machined to save the cost of a new one. I collected the car and got half way home before the low coolant light came on (I half expected that). I got road service take the car straight to the independent specialist.

The specialist found the following:

1) Yes the head gasket was leaking and needed replacing.
2) On re-assembly the dealer had torqued the head bolts, but not bothered with the mandatory angle-tightening, hence the head wasn't bolted down correctly, contributing to it breaking down half way home (I reckon the dealer thought I would get a couple of miles then call them to collect the car and do the work).
3) The engine wasn't running on all cylinders. The specialist pulled the injectors and checked them under the microscope. Some had physical damage as if they had been scraped across a metal table. (I reckon the dealer had another vehicle in needing new injectors, assuming I would pay for the whole new cylinder head they swapped my good injectors with the other vehicle and charge the other customer full price).
4) The specialist measured the cylinder head accurately - it was within tolerance - there was absolutely no need for a new cylinder head.

My specialist did a full write-up which I submitted as evidence to court. At the final stage before court the dealer sent me a cheque for the cost of putting it all right.

Hence it is worth getting a specialist 2nd opinion in these cases.

Steve.