Mad mad mad

[EcNo]

Ok So if anyone read my previous post I informed you all that I was installing a new rack and pinion and outer tierods.. So this weekend I did so with my mechanic. we aligned it best we could but I knew I needed an alignment done. So I set an appointment for 11am at the Goodyear automotive right up the road. I had good standing with them since they hooked me up on a killer deal on 2 new Eagle GT tires. heres where it all goes wrong. (stop reading now if you don't like stories)

Just to inform How my day started... I got a call from some indian lady who could barely speak my name let alone carry a conversation about an insurance claim progressive was trying to stick on me from when an old lady hit my car (I lost it on her since she woke me up at 8am to inform me of this. I even asked her if she had brain damage since she couldn't seem to understand I AM NOT PAYING IT. Mind you I pulled a muscle in my back and only had about 2 hours of sleep) Moving on.

So my day was going poor, but I figured it would feel better once i knew my supra was driving straight. Get to the shop everything is fine, they do the whole your car is broke talk I need new tires this and that blah blah I said no no no just align my car.

So about 45 minutes into waiting i decide to head outside to take a phonecall. (heres where it gets messy) I notice the mechanic backing my car out and I think o, my car is done he is going to pull it around..... I was mistaken. The guy drives my car out of the parking area and onto the main road and is sitting at a light waiting to turn... and i think o well maybe he making sure the car isnt pulling..... but then he turns left and heads around the corner... at this point i lose sight of my car. At that moment my stomach sank. I KNEW that gimmel was taking my car for a beater run.

so about 10 minutes goes by and i see my car heading back towards the shop...... Behind it was a nice ploom of white smoke.As he is still driving up to the shop i walked inside and informed the guy inside "I'm pretty sure your mechanic blew my HG" what what what? he heads into the shop and comes back with a smile ooo yeah its fine it was just burning oil off the engine, if anything is wrong we will talk i said mmmkkk (I was a little shaken and not thinking straight i paid the 80 bux for the alignment and walked out to my car.

I start the car and its just pouring smoke out of my exhaust. Im not happy.... I have no Oil preasure. I turn the car off and pop the hood..... Oil is everywhere its on the hood its on the intake its on the fan. I call my mechanic who just replaced the turbo with a brand new one, redid all the piping preasure washed my entire motor ect. Without hessitation he says" that guy just blew your turbo. i bet if you take off the intercool piping it will be filled with oil. At this point im not asking people anything, im telling.

I tell them to Check my oil "O you are down about half a quart" I answer "Thats odd i just changed my oil last weeked, I bet I know where it went. Put my car on the Lift, NOW!"

guy puts my car on the lift while 4 mechanics and the service guy are looking at me like im crazy. i say" slappy overhere blew my turbo when he took the car for a joy ride" "well thats not true we all saw him take it for a test drive to make sure it wasnt pulling" Long story short i told him to cut the shit im not arguing with you and you are bringing my car to Toyota and replacing my turbo. I inform them that if they take that piping out and there is oil in it.... you blew my turbo. Sure enough.....

He was trying to quickly wipe it up before i could get a picture.

sparing the grim details of me laying waste for 4 grown men with nothing to say other than the GM is out of town for the holiday weekend would you like to take the car home and we can call you when he gets here?

Nope the car is staying right here I'm calling you guys at 8am on monday you better have some news for me or this will not end well. They even tried to tell me the turbo was bad and it was my fault. I gladly dropped off a copy of the reciept from extreme turbo clearly showing the work that was done.

Soooo now I am without a car... Mad as all heck.. almost killed 4 grown men with a tire iron.... and nothing to show for it as of yet.... ughhhhhhh this is why I hate taking my cars to these kinds of places.:icon_evil

 

[Mo87NA]

Wow, I'd be f'in pissed. I would have not let them take my car for a spin without me in the vehicle.

Make sure the pay for EVERYTHING and then some. Show no remorse and get after it. This is why I barely feel comfortable taking my car to get inspected, let alone an alignment done. He beat the piss out of your car and is going to deny everything.

Goodluck and keep us informed.

By the way, add some Cliff Notes for those who don't feel like reading your essay

-Mo

 

[csr ma71]

I know what you mean, I left my car at a shop for something and when I picked it back up, the button for overdrive was pushed in and I never leave push that button on.

 

[shaeff]

That sucks, yes, and I feel for you.

However, assuming your car was relatively warmed up, how do you think they blew the turbo? I mean, we all beat on our cars pretty hard. At least I did when mine was on the road. Turbos don't just blow for no reason, and they're meant to take a beating.

I'm not sure how taking the car for a test drive would cause your turbo to fail. Who installed the turbo, and did they properly prime it? Could it have been coincidence that it failed on the mechanic, rather than on you?

I'm not trying to rain on your already dismal parade, just asking questions.

Edit: Are you sure there were not boost leaks? (think: overspinning the turbo), no crap in the oil? etc..

 

[jetjock]

^ I was wondering the same thing. Assuming he has no boost controller to abuse in what manner could the mechanic have driven the car to "blow" a brand new turbo that would've been different from a manner the owner himself would drive it?

That aside I would have told him to take it up with a lawyer, remove himself and his car from my shop, and called law enforcement if he refused...

 

[Doward]

I think the point the OP is saying, is that under no circumstance is a vehicle alignment check required under wide open throttle.

Unfortunately, how do you prove he ever went WOT?

 

[dumbo]

That sucks, yes, and I feel for you.

However, assuming your car was relatively warmed up, how do you think they blew the turbo? I mean, we all beat on our cars pretty hard. At least I did when mine was on the road. Turbos don't just blow for no reason, and they're meant to take a beating.

I'm not sure how taking the car for a test drive would cause your turbo to fail. Who installed the turbo, and did they properly prime it? Could it have been coincidence that it failed on the mechanic, rather than on you?

I'm not trying to rain on your already dismal parade, just asking questions.

Edit: Are you sure there were not boost leaks? (think: overspinning the turbo), no crap in the oil? etc..

Thats what I was thinking too.

And since the turbo is new, Id be taking it back to where you got it.

 

[EcNo]

The car is NA/T with GE electronics. Ive been babying the car since i installed the turbo and waiting for either all the GTE electronics or purchasing an Safc. i understand that running the car normally should not blow the turbo. But if the guy was really getting on it bad without the car performing normally anyways i would assume something would happen. I left it at the shop because i didnt want them to say i took it home and it happened at home. my guy did mention that the goodyear tech over spun the turbo from beating on it. True or not the guy abused my car and will pay for it.

 

[Satan]

Man I'm sorry. I sooooo understand. There are some things that make us take it to the fools, and as usual.... U R VERY DISAPPOINTED!

I don't spend much ('cause I know better), but everytime I take it for an alignment, tire work, or A/C work, I know they're not doing anything right. It's Fed up that l PAY $$ to them for work I expected, instead I get to pay for screw-ups and work that's not "done right."

 

[shaeff]

You're not going to overspin the turbo without a hefty boost leak.

So your car is N/A->T w/ GE electronics, which means no fuel cut. Sounds to me more like he popped the headgasket than anything. No fuel cut will allow you to overboost the motor easily, and with an GE block/pistons, (higher static CR) that brings the detonation threshold even lower.

High EGT's come with running lean. I don't know man, it's a sticky situation. While I agree that the guy shouldn't be ragging on your car, there's a lot of information that's missing from this situation.

 

[SupaMan]

i deff wouldnt have left the car there. you have a point about them saying you coulda done it but im willing to bet their not gonna treat your car nice now.

 

[RedGT]

I dont believe you will get any kind of compensation for it since you most likely signed a waiver when they wrote the car up on the repair order. I work at a chevrolet dealer and many times corvette owners (the worst kind) get pissed because there is 5 miles on a car with a drivability complaint. Just to let you know, the fine print favors the shop. And since you have your engine modified, thats just more stacked against you.... Sorry for your loss.

 

[benchwarmer]

I dont believe you will get any kind of compensation for it since you most likely signed a waiver when they wrote the car up on the repair order. I work at a chevrolet dealer and many times corvette owners (the worst kind) get pissed because there is 5 miles on a car with a drivability complaint. Just to let you know, the fine print favors the shop. And since you have your engine modified, thats just more stacked against you.... Sorry for your loss.

Those waivers are worth exactly nothing if there is any evidence at all of negligence or abuse on the part of the shop. They are only there to keep the weak minded and easily bullied from taking you to court. State law always trumps a private contract.

 

[EcNo]

I do have a boost leak. Its a hole in my intercooler i was saving to get welded.<<<<<<That Gimmel didn't know that. So i bet 2 things happened.

1) He just Floored it
2) Just held it down when the car wasnt moven as fast as he thought it should.

then Booooommm. Overspun turbo:icon_evil


I thought bhg as soon as i saw the car comming back to the shop.

The car does run super lean when boost started to hit. which was the reason for saving for the safc.

but now... ughhh now its badnews bears.
would i still have oil in my intercooler piping if i blew my hg? and the dude drove the car for like 10 minutes they already told me the car would be pulling a bit due to the wear on my rear tires... i dont think a tech needed to go riding in my car.... isnt there some rule if the car leaves the lot or something? he broke line of sight with the shop.

 

[benchwarmer]

Up and down the block is more than sufficient to test the alignment. If he was out of sight of the shop for longer than it takes to do a u-turn I would be pissed. Even with a boost leak that shouldn't affect the car during a low speed test run. In order for it to play a role the person driving it would have to be boosting which is completely unnecessary. I don't know if BHG would put oil in your intercooler piping but it doesn't seem like it would to me.

 

[RedGT]

BHG wont put oil in the intake, only PCV and turbo will do that. Benchwarmer, I was just saying he will have a really hard time in court if it went that far since he has pre-existing conditions that would cause the failure during the test drive... and the waiver will hold up since there will be NO evidence that they did anything wrong during the test drive. Basicly, unless you saw him race your car you have nothing to fall back on.

1. They dident know there was a boost leak that would cause the turbo to overrev
2. There is no evidence to say that the turbo seal failed as a direct result of the test drive.

 

[Poodles]

Lean condition = melted piston = tons of oil out exhaust and PCV = oil in intercooler pipes

You have an uphill battle on your hands (had a shop bring a lift down on my door when they did a clutch job and they tried to say it was like that when it came to them, never really won that one, though they did knock the price of the clutch job down to pay for the repair, it's not quite right and the clutch job was shit)

 

[EcNo]

compression test work to check that possibility?

 

[Poodles]

Definately...

 

[SC Rydah]

I thought BHG when you said white smoke was billowing out when it came back. But I got an alignment done on a car when I was younger. The guy drove my car kinda fast on the street (but it was a POS Pontiac anyway) and all was well.

But I'm sure the guy said:
OOOOHHH!! A TURBO SUPRA!! I'M GON DRIVE THE SH** OUTA THIS CAR!! And he did...literally. It was unneccesary. That's the bottom line and your argument to win the case. My suggestion, unless you get a GOOD lawyer to fight them with, it's probably a losing battle. I'm sorry about your damage though.