Need mechanics advice, and maybe a lawyer...

[Gottasmilealot]

If it was vandalism because someone put a bolt in the oil fill, you might be able to file a valid claim with your car insurance company who will investigate. Let the insurance company and dealer fight it out. If the insurance company has to pay the big claim and finds out it was a mechanic playing games, then they'll go after the mechanic.

Watch them squirm!

[Hill Cruiser]

Call your State Attorney General and give them the details. They can get a dealers attention better than anyone else. Can you imagine anything worse than having to deal with Govt. lawyers?

[bobs turbo pt]

i agree with hill try that route !!

[340x]

I have seen a sheet metal screw get dropped down an intake and get sucked from one cylinder to another. It was on a V8 with a dual plane intake. It got 4 of the plugs. When we pulled the heads the screw was sticking out of the piston. The vacuum pulses of the intake sucked the screw through all of the cylinders knocking out the plugs. The other 4 cylinders that weren't affected kept the car running to make things worse and worse. I would request to see the engine in person and the head and the screw. Make sure it is the engine for that car also and take a camera. The pistons will be beat up on top along with the head. If it was a small screw, more than likely it didn't do too much damage. You could probably change plugs, put the head back on a go again. I have also seen objects get wedged between the valve and the valve seat because they could not pass through the opening. The continuous beating of the valve finally beats the part, head of a screw, down to where it will pass by the valve. Once it is past the valve it can get broken into pieces and sucked into the other cylinders. Usually the car starts running poorly so the driver starts revving it up and driving it harder which only makes matters worse to the point all the plugs get broken and it won't run.

Boyfriends/girlfriends are bad influences on cars. Maybe her boyfriend decided to help her out a little, good or bad. That is just my guess. Dropping a screw down the intake on the way to pick her up would have done it. That is just my guess.

I suppose if someone put a new air filter in they could have placed a screw on top of the new air filter and forgot to remove it before putting the housing back on. Since the filter lays flat, that would be easy to do. It could have laid there for years until it got driven hard enough to create enough vacuum to lift the screw off of the air filter. Boyfriends are kind of know for driving the girls nice car hard while she's at work. It all sounds kind of fishy to me. I would suspect someone other than the dealership. It may be the last person that did maintenence on it.

I would say, get the car, find a motor at a salvage yard for $800-$1500 depending on what you want and find a local mechanic to install it. For $2000-$3000 you can be up and running. Layer fees and time off of work will eat all of that up plus. Maybe get the car lot she bought it from to pay half or something. Just my .02 worth.

[StreetDeacon]

Thanks again for everyone that posted. I forgot about this thread.

Well, I'm not sure the details, but somehow, the insurance company decided to fix it. I think it's BS, cuz in that situation, the mechanic still wins. My sister is just glad that it's being fixed, and that she doesn't have to pay out of pocket, unless her rates go up.

It was kind of a waste of time for me to post this, cuz she didn't even try a single suggestion from this thread.

Anyway, this is over now. Is it possible for this thread to be locked, or better yet deleted.

[Hooligan]

Thanks for the "rest of the story". At least you came back and let us know, many are not the considerate. Glad she was able to get it repaired, no matter whose fault it was.

[PurplePTGirl]

Originally Posted by Cathy06PT

Wow I kinda wish I read this earlier because my post is late but I really do think that the dealers are trying to get one over on you guys and you knwo what they will do that to her and you know why? Because she's a girl...a lot of times they think women know nothing and will believe whatever they tell her.

Well in this case, she pretty much proved that she did know nothing and believed whatever she was told.

I, on the other hand, am a dealer's worst nightmare! I may be a woman but I am a bulldog latched onto their ankle when it comes to car repairs--while not an expert, I am not clueless nor stupid.

The best thing women can do is to educate themselves and participate in forums like this one.