X-Posted: Advice Needed on Dealer Service Gone Wrong

Not sure how your friend is gonna make it through this would a hole in his pockets one way or another.

How come your friend was in a rush to repair it? Dealer must have made it sound urgent like end of the world or something.

 

isn’t that what shims are for? /s

 

I'm with you all. Not sure why some people do any of the things at the dealer that they do, especially after hearing about my friend's previous experiences at Findlay that have now come out in conversation. My buddy knows how to do oil changes, too!! I've shown him on several of his vehicles throughout the years! Argh.

I've been pestering for updates, but there's nothing to report. I'll make sure to update here when I hear something. Thanks all for posting.

 

I would be adamant about getting a new engine. The actual techs that work at dealers are very lackluster and don't have a lot of attention to detail (the master techs know their stuff, but they aren't the ones actually doing the dirty work most of the time). I guarantee someone messed up reassembling. Bottom line is that they said they would do the work and get it done by a certain time and it did not happen. Now the truck is not in the same functional condition as it was before. They are required to put it back to the way it was because of their mess up.

 

Here's the copy and pasted text message my buddy sent me this morning:

"Turns out they dropped a little brass clip into the air intake and said they would rebuild the engine. With a one year warranty.
Rebuild head, #5 piston, ring , pin
Rod, rod bearing timing belt, plugs, manifold gasket, other things. I told him I don't trust them to rebuild it.
They said 5-6 months for a refurb. They also don't want to do a refurb because they've done half of the labor already.
No telling when they can get a new or used engine. "

Whatcha all think? Sounds like the cheapest way out to me.

 

was it ever a head gasket?


If it were me, I’d have lost all trust in them and would be asking them to foot the bill for a repair at another shop.

 

All bullshit. Tell your buddy to go there and demand a new engine immediately and make a commotion. Fuck those guys

 

^You're making a lot of assumptions on availability of new longblocks.

Looks like they owned up to their mistake. One-year warranty would also take care of most assembly errors, even though the assembly will likely be done by the same tech who did the headgasket (i.e. he's paying for his own mistake in terms of labor)

 

So if I recall, your buddy is away from home visiting relatives? Keep in mind that the warranty likely doesn't transfer to other dealers, and if he needs to use it he will likely have to return to that dealer. Or maybe I didn't catch that right, didn't go back to read the first post again.

The good thing is that they are owning up to the mistake and offering a warranty. I'd want to know how many rebuilds like this the tech has done, but my trust level would be super low. If done right, it should be just fine, but I'd want an experienced tech and a second pair of eyes checking over the work.

 

Exactly.

 

Thai is not a catastrophic engine failure. I was thinking it shot a rod out of the block. Keep us posted.

 

I'd still be interested to know how they found a HG leak during an oil change.

 

He made it sound catastrophic. Then said tech said it failed at idle in the lot upon completing the test drive. Debris likely bent the rod and smashed the valves but apparently no harm to cylinder wall.

Now dealer is telling him there was coolant in the valley and due to that, both head gaskets need replaced, along with water pump and quoted another $800 ($4300 total) for all the work they've boogered up so far. Idoits. I mentioned the coolant bypass pipe and asked him to ask how they diagnosed a leaky head gasket in the first place. I'll update once I get the info but the Findlay crew isn't apparently all that sharp.

I'll say it once, I'll say it again: buy some tools, buy a Haynes manual, watch the YouTubes, ask some questions on TW and DO THE WORK YOURSELF! A routine oil change turned to this effing mess.