**dealership blunders , what to do now head gasket**

[dwc4g63]

Ok so I took my car to satan last week (new rebuild, replaced about everything, timed it myself and car wouldnt start) so they call me up next day and say my ecu is bad and i need new cam seals or itll leak oil. I say ok. I give them a new ecu i had, and get another call the next day saying its all ready to be picked up. I ask "So it starts up normal and runs good then? satan says.."yeah everything looks good it was just a bad ecu, we couldnt take it out on the road because you dont have a plate(true) but we warmed it up and drove it around the lot" me.. "great so how much is it" satan.." "$615.64" Im thinking holy crap thats alot for just stickin in a new ecu and 4 dollars in cam seals but Im not arguing. Its worth it to finally have the car back. I go out and start it up, wont start dead battery..well isnt that nice of them.. I get it jumped and right away its smokin a lil, I thought eh, just some fluid on the pipes, so I drive it around literally 3 minutes, look down temp gauge is pegged! So I shut her off. Its saturday, the only day i have off to get the car so theres no techs there to take a look at it, and the tow truck is waiting...I get it home fire it back up and its just spewing white smoke out the pipe and theres literaly water shooting out too. smoke in the spark wells, smoke in the exhaust, and plenty of coolant in the oil as well..Great so I spend 600 bucks to get my car checked out and running and they give it back like that?!? How is that possible? I have ARP studs i checked they are torqued right..also have a 4 layer mitsu metal head gasket off my old car that has about 1k miles on it, I was under the impression these are re-usable,please tell me if this is the problem.. and both the mating surfaces were machined within spec,also its bored .20 over is a stock size gasket still ok. Even if it is the gasket how can a dealership justify giving it back this way, and what should i do about it?

 

[Dragon TalonTsi]

Take legal matters if need be. That white smoke is coolant, and engine oil and coolant are not a good mix, trust me, and I would be pisses as well if they did that crap to me, so yeah, your gonna need to replace a lot of stuff too, just minor stuff, like your plugs, hoses and what not, just take them to a certified place and have them do it, after you take these guys to court.....

 

[ImJustaGirl]

When you buy a head gasket you must specify the bore size. That could be a reason its leaking. And I would never reuse a head gasket.

 

[dwc4g63]

I've never had to specify bore size before for a head gasket? And this gasket and block are both from my old car so they worked fine in conjunction before. Also machv.com, where I bought the gasket, says right in their ad that this gasket is re-usable..I am well aware that the smoke is coolant, I need advice on what I should do about the dealership, I payed $150.00 in towing costs there and back and spent $600 on the parts and labor, at the dealership just for the piece of mind i would get quality parts and service done right. Now $750 later im right back where I started! How can a dealership check a car out and give it back with a blown head gasket? its just so obvious i cant believe it 3 seconds after you start it youre in the middle of a cloud of smoke. I cant wait to call them on Monday to see what they say, i guess what im looking for from you guys is do i have a right to be upset here and what should/can i do about this? By the way i dont think i mentioned this earlier but im working on the r title for this car therefore i cant drive it on the road and neither can they, this is all happening at idle and drving down the driveway.

 

[femmeDSM]

You do have a right to be upset. I find it hard to believe (not impossible, however) that they weren't at all aware of the hg issue. It's technically true that head gaskets can break at any time, but this seems like a major failure to me - a bit too "major" to have gone by completely unnoticed.

As far as money is concerned, I would consider myself out the $750 you have spent so far. However, the dealership should send a tow truck out to you to pick up the car and deliver it back to them, and should stand behind their work as far as diagnosing the cause of the hg failure. I assume that the hg was in perfect working condition (as far as you knew) when you dropped the car off?

This is one of those unfortunate situations that could really be seen either way. On the one hand, you dropped off the car with a "known good" head gasket; the car was returned with a blown hg, which possibly (likely) led to other problems.
On the other hand...The burden of proof might land on you to prove that the hg was not bad when you sent the car to their service dept. It would be easy enough for them to call this an "unfortunate unrelated incident". Seen it happen many times, some justified, others not.

Good luck in any case. At the very least, they should comp a tow back to the dealership and a diagnostic session. If I were you, I'd take their diagnosis and run, unless they're willing to do the repairs for free.

This is why I am the only person allowed to so much as open the hood of my car. Too many un-trustworthy folk out there.

 

[dwc4g63]

How can a head gasket possibly go out immediatly after starting the car on a brand new rebuild? The poor thing only has .2 miles on it and its already toast. So I know the hg is crap. What else is garbage or needs replaced now because of this?? Also how can there be an argument over them having at least some fault in this, its a brand new motor and they were the first and only ones to touch, start, or drive it.

 

[femmeDSM]

How can a head gasket possibly go out immediatly after starting the car on a brand new rebuild? The poor thing only has .2 miles on it and its already toast. So I know the hg is crap. What else is garbage or needs replaced now because of this?? Also how can there be an argument over them having at least some fault in this, its a brand new motor and they were the first and only ones to touch, start, or drive it.

It's a damn shame. I am with you 100%, however, I was just offering a heads-up that you might be dealing with a service department that will do whatever it takes to avoid doing any "complimentary" repairs to your car.

They obviously made a mistake, and if I was in your position, I would be super pi$$ed as well. They should be willing to work with you to get your problem totally resolved - unfortunately there are some not-very-honest people out there in the world that will make you fight to get what you deserve.

Be polite at first, and explain the problems you're having to the service manager. If that doesn't work, well....use your imagination As tempted as you might be to chew them a new one right off the bat, make sure they deserve it before dishing it out More often than not, service dept. managers are generally decent people who will want to see you satisfied.
Tell them that you would like them to come pick up your car, as you do not want to risk further costly damage to your engine internals due to their oversight.

 

[MyBeatGSX]

The dealer installed my headgasket BACKWARDS. Talk about retarded, gotta love satan's quality service. Lead to the exact same problem as yours.

Actually I reread your post. You did the rebuild and then towed it to them? If they were the first to even start it, how do you know the headgasket was good or installed correctly?

Also make sure they didn't beat the life out of your newly rebuilt engine. I work at a dealer and I know what happens when fast cars come in, I've been on the "test drives" even around the lot.

 

[dwc4g63]

I know the head gasket and related parts were installed correct because I personally installed them. I will defenently give them a chance to make good on the mistake, but from the very second i started it there was smoke they had to have seen it. Im still trying to fathom how all this can happen with .2 miles anyway it just doesnt make sense. Ive heard of people driving miles with no coolant, or boosting 20 psi with a bad gasket and somehow mine blows up at idle? It just doesnt add up.