stupid mechanic

[Ganja Man]

ok i just got a tuneup and oil change last week and yesterday im driving around and my oil light comes on so as im pulling to the side of the road the car jump a little and then just dies on me. got it towed to my mechanic and find out that the drain plug fell out. so i go in there this morning and he says that my engine seized up. they are going to fix it free of charge. is a seized engine fixable or does it just need to be replaced? the damn thing only had 26k miles on it.

 

[IMMORTALSPYDER]

I would DEMAND a new engine. If it just gets fixed you're more likely to have internal problems down the line. Plus it could have done some severe damage.

 

[Ganja Man]

ok im going to go talk to him tomorrow and just tell him i want a new engine. im going to have a mitsu dealership do the swap because obviously this guy sucks but im going to be buying some upgrades soon and if i get them before the egine comes i can have the dealership isntall them wehn they do the swap and just pay for that part. think thats a good idea?

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by Ganja Man
ok im going to go talk to him tomorrow and just tell him i want a new engine. im going to have a mitsu dealership do the swap because obviously this guy sucks but im going to be buying some upgrades soon and if i get them before the egine comes i can have the dealership isntall them wehn they do the swap and just pay for that part. think thats a good idea?

I don't think you are going to get a new engine out of this. They are responsible for "making you whole" again which means the condition the engine was in before the oil change. You will have to prove all the things that were done to the engine and fair use of 26k for what could have been reasonably expected.

If you are lucky you might get a new crank, rods and pistons but that isn't a certainty. They can argue that would be betterment and offer to reqrind your crank which then requires undersize bearings. Same for cylinders/pistons which you could get a free bore if you were considering on that. They won't be too happy with you asking for performance modifications.

As for the dealer, chances are they won't be willing to make too many mods for there are too many problems associated with them. My policy was to stay away from doing any, what I did on my own cars is one thing, what I did on customer cars was another. If something goes wrong, customer abuse, they come in screaming and I don't like screaming customers with hard feelings. Just not worth the effort or the problems for they are in every week with this that and the other. The dealership usually is a licensed smog station and they could loose their license for a few hundred dollars in mods... just not going to happen if managment catches wind of it. I've seen mechanics get fired for doing them. An independent doesn't have as much to loose, they don't have the factory looking over their shoulder but then you don't have a place to hang your hat like you do from a dealership should something go wrong.

Cheers,
GTM