Ever taken a mechanic to small claims?

[OlDirtyBroox]

My dilemma: I recently (use that term loosely since it took 8 weeks to finish) had timing chains, adjusters, clutch, manifold spacers, crank pulley, short shifte by a "used to be" reputable shop. $10k, messed up shifter install and 600 miles/ 3 quarts of oil later I was told that my head gaskets are leaking,. Quoted me on work, another 2k, but yet they can perform the service since they have no staff to complete the tasks. I have gotten a second opinion and will be getting a 3rd. But no one wants to touch the car unless they look over all previous work done which is quite costly. So I am curious what I should do next? I am sure the leak was there before service but they adamantly deny and say I just happened within the 600 miles I've drove it. I'm starting to reach the bottom of the funds and would like to be able to actually drive my car since with all the goodies installed since the service started in October and here it is march... any advice/suggestions would be great.

[pearlwhite]

Never have but a word of advice always pay with credit card. You alteast have some recourse if the job wasent preformed correctly. If a shop dosent take CC and you don't trust them take your business elsewhere.

[q_dubz]

Answer these questions:

Is there coolant in the oil? (white milky look to the oil) Drain oil to find out or maybe if it's bad enough you'll see it on the dipstick.
Is there oil in the coolant? Brown colored coolant reservoir.
Was a LEAKDOWN test performed? Where are the results? Did you view them yourself?
Does the engine run rough?


If these questions are no, your headgaskets are not leaking....

[OlDirtyBroox]

This shop has been so shady lately. Asked for them to take pictures while the work was being done so if I ever sold it I would have visuals. Never sent me some and then now they say "nobody takes pics of this type of job and the mechanic left last week" granted I asked for pics from November til now. Oil leak they didn't show me but said it's not bad, another shop said it was so bad they wouldn't drive it. So short answer is no, I'll take a look myself on the oil and such. But when work was done I was told compression was good. But I'm not sure I can trust them. Car doesn't run rough but I haven't drove it since the second opinion

[jr1415us]

Don't know how those services could create head gasket leaks, since they don't need to be removed for those repairs. Are you sure they didn't mean valve cover gaskets, bc they can weep a lot of oil, especially if the covers are warped.

[OlDirtyBroox]

Oh wasn't saying the services caused the leak, my bad. More was pissed that it wasn't brought to my attention even though they had it for months, with the car apart and then came back and charged me $100 to find the leak and want another 2k to fix it. Valve cover gaskets and crankshaft gaskets were replaced with the original service but was told will have to have them replaced again with the head gasket service. I have another referred shop I'm taking to have them look at it this Friday 🤞🏼

[VinnysS4]

2k to do headgaskets??? How much is labor? I'd figure more than that to remove the engine and reinstall it.... but YES! this should have been addressed when the engine was out...

[Concavitor]

No

[0396]

First, good luck with getting your car situation corrected.

My B6 S4 timing service " is in the distant future.
I've been " searching " for an actual honest and competent shop in the SoCal area for this service.
I've read of some recommendationed shops in the SoCal area. Being a gear head, I actually call and " inquire " of the method of the service- pull engine out via the front or drop engine and trans from below ( I remember seeing this done at an Audi dealer). I perfer this method. The other day, I called a shop and they mentioned that unless I also have the timing chains replaced too, they will not do the job, also they mentioned that they will have to bore scope the cylinder too. Now what ever happened to the common sense of- perform the requested work vs trying to sell them another job.. needless to say, the situation with the OP is why I do what I do to see if they are upfront and " are " knowledgeable with the work requested.. I simply don't need someone to " learn " on my car and possibly have issues as I drive out the repair shop.

OP, good luck with your concerns....

[ven0m]

OP, very bad situation you're in. I honestly hope you get it sorted out to the best, but in my opinion the only way here is a legal action (if that is possible); the shop you're dealing with has already proven they are not capable of resolving this in a professional manner, so don't waste your time hoping for them to "turn better".

If they did not provide any pictures of the job (in the world of smartphones) and they did not provide any numbers of the leak-down test but said "it was good" and 600 miles later another shop tells you the numbers are bad... in this case, how can you be sure that they even had the engine out and did anything on the timing chain?

I don't know how things work over in the US but as far as I read your laws a bit, you as consumers are far better protected then us here in Europe. Do you have an invoice where all jobs performed are stated separately? Engine removal.... x-hours; timing job.... x-hours; etc.?

If the above answer is yes, then in your case I would get a lawyer and open a court case stating that you suspect fraudulent service - hence charging you for something they did not do. With the case open you would offer the court that the car is taken to a 3rd party shop, the engine is removed and the timing cover removed. If they find the old broken guides still installed.... well then you know what follows.
Of course before doing that I would dig a bit around the engine and check the mount bolts and connectors if they show signs that they actually were unbolted/disconnected or still show signs they were never touched. Just so you don't go "pissing against the wind" with a court case.


Maybe sounds a bit drastic, but honestly all good manner went out the window when they treated a paying customer like shit and don't stand behind their work. 10k is not a small amount of money!


My 0.02$, cheers OP and best of luck!

[neilpaku]

If I understand this correctly, you're writing that the shop should have noticed the oil leak when they did the original work, not that they caused the problem? If so, I don't know that you have much of a leg to stand on unless you asked them to specifically look for issues. Reason I say that is that I don't think you have the evidence that it was leaking before. If you did, then their lawyer would claim "well, why didn't you ask the shop to fix it, or at least point it out?".
If that's what your lawyer says too, then find another shop. But in any event, 2k sounds like 20 hours at 100/hr and 20 hours sounds like "book hours" to me. Everyone uses the book hours, which is what the manufacturer says it should take - it's often higher than actual, unless they're training the apprentice on your car.... Head gaskets aren't much relatively speaking. Have you considered doing it yourself to save on labor, which in this case is the biggest part of the bill? If they're quoting 20 hours, then that means they're not removing the engine to do the work, at least not by book hours.

This is one of the reasons that I do the "big" jobs myself and leave the simple oil changes to to shop. I can't trust anyone to do the sensible thing. Builders, mechanics, you name it. My latest shop though is proving to be better than all the rest have been so they'll likely get more share of the jobs if they keep doing the right thing. Like they say, if you want it done properly, .....