Thread: Coolant leaks or major block damage?

I bet he removed parts just to zing ya for the whole $1050. I hope he didn't but get your car back and fix it yourself

I'm with Scotty man this is a seriously simple fix. Unless you run into a seriously complex trans rebuild or block swap then there's no reason you can't do elbow replacement yourself let alone any mechanical repair on these cars there are a million videos to watch if ur feelin a lil sketch about it

This is my last update here, and I hope that this was a hard lesson for me and those who will read this in the future who are even less experienced than me...DON'T EVER SPEND MORE THAN WHAT'S IN YOUR POCKET...and ALWAYS SHOP AROUND AND TAKE YOUR TIME. If you have to use the car to get to work, then either get a rental ($200/week for a fancy new something) or have a work buddy take you with him/her provided you pay their gas, just DON'T RUSH AND AUTHORIZE THE FIRST M**RF**R YOU FIND TO MESS WITH YOUR CAR FOR A GIGANTIC FEE. It never rains cash anywhere.

OK, so last thing was that I found this smaller shop with an experienced person in a smaller neighboring town who would've charged me $55/hr if it was true that it wasn't just the elbow tubes, so I went at 6am (couldn't sleep all night) FRI morning to the fancy garage that I authorized to work on it at the end of the day last WED. They started showing up at 8 and the owner came at 9. I talked to them at 8 and asked them to stop whatever they were doing because I don't have that kind of money, but they said that they finished the work and are just putting the last few things together and test drive it, so there was no escape from paying them what they wanted. About not having the money, they told me that I can talk to the owner when he shows up (but that they never release a car without full payment).

I asked to see the work at 8 and then the owner volunteered to show me again when he came at 9. The first thing I noticed was the NEW METAL ELBOWS that they had greased and ready to put on the side of the car. The guy explained to me that those tubes were leaking A LITTLE BIT but the main leak was coming from the time case gasket that they opened (it was obvious that they did open it because of the RV sealant that was around the timing cover) but DID NOT REPLACE because it was "intact", so they only removed the cover, cleaned the surfaces and resealed the same old gasket to SAVE ME MONEY!!!!!

Then, they showed me that they replaced the gasket of the oil pan that was leaking (That, I know but it wasn't that much and I could've done it myself!!!) BECAUSE THEY HAD TO TAKE THE OIL PAN OFF TO BE ABLE TO REMOVE THE TIMING CASE COVER. When the owner was showing me at 9, he said (they probably talked to him before he met me) that he apologizes that they were wrong when he told me on the phone that my car does not have the elbow tubes but they are now replacing them for me as a FU**ING BONUS!!!!

Anyhow, about the money, he asked me to return my rental the same day at the hour I rented so they don't charge me for another day (it was the same because i rented at a weekly rate which is the same as 4 days at a daily rate) and he would send someone to the airport to pick me up in my car if i can pay him 60% of the $1054 and write him a check with the rest that he will keep for 29 days and to go to him Monday morning (the day that I was later laid off from my only part time job) to do another check for leaks. I borrowed $400 and paid him the 60% and handed him a check with the rest.

After all those upper-cased lies and outrageous things, what's really really killing me the most, is that I just changed my oil at home less than a week before that and put the fanciest "high-milage" synthetic oil in the market, and he replaced it with regular oil when he messed up with the oil pan!!!

I can't do anything now or officially accuse him of anything, but all I can say is that this is the hardest way to learn a lesson in this field and I wanted to thank the cool members here who helped me alot and hopefully at least one reader one day will find this thread and learn the lesson without paying the big $$$$

This was the first time in my whole life that I was struggling with a 1000 because i just bought my first house and had to spend all my emergency savings,and probably the first and last time I was laughed like that

wow. the oil pan job is not exactly a small job. its a pita really. so with that done at least you got some harder repair work out the way.

and to clear up the shops new lie, the cover comes off with out removing the oil pan.