Customer Impatience Costs Her An Engine

[GreaseMonkey]

This is from my days as a mechanic at a beach area Chevy dealer.

I was checking a coolant leak on a mid-90's Chevy Suburban when I found the problem- the top radiator hose had sagged enough to allow the engine cooling fan to contact and cut it. This was a fairly common problem on this generation of Chevy / GMC full size truck equipped with the optional 7.4 liter / 454 cubic inch engine. This hose is over 2 feet long and bends at an extreme angle where it attaches to the radiator. A TSB ( technical service bulletin ) was issued. A special add-on bracket was made to support the hose in the middle where it sagged.

After replacing the hose I explained the problem to the service writer, and he let the customer know. I also noted on the repair order that without that bracket, this problem would most likely happen again. The customer acknowledged this, but declined the repair, saying she had other things to do and couldn't wait for the part to arrive from the warehouse. She never returned to have the work done.

A few months later it happened again. This time the engine lost all its coolant and stir-fried itself. When it was towed in, its service records were pulled. Everything was there. My ass was off the hook, but the dealership still agreed to pay half the cost of replacing the engine, despite the fact that it was the lady's declining the earlier repair that caused her engine to be ruined.

[Argabarga]

Color me unsurprised, I tow in dozens of these clueless types who have just cost themselves $5,000 to $7,000 for want of a $5 part. And, you have to add in the fact that if she'd just cross-checked her gauges while driving, or noticed the red warning light when the motor started to cook, and just pulled over, it wouldn't have happened either.

Too many folks seem to think that as long as the motor keeps running, you can and SHOULD keep on driving. Or, they think a check engine light means pull over, bail out, and call for a tow truck from a safe distance in case of explosion...

There seems to be no happy middle ground, really.

I knew a guy who hand grenaded his Jeep Wagoneer's engine for lack of oil, because it all leaked out through a $5 valve cover gasket that he knew was bad, but didn't have the time or money to fix....... allegedly. He certainly didn't have the time or money to swap out the motor, so I bought it off him for $500 and put a junkyard 360 in it and it ran happy for many more years.

[BrenDAnn]

Maybe it's just me, but one of the first things I had the fear put into me about when it comes to cars is not frying the engine. No oil = dead car. No coolant = dead car. Not a difficult concept...for people who aren't ignorant SC's, I guess. Wow. Sad part is, she probably won't learn a thing from it, either!

[Gizmo]

or noticed the red warning light when the motor started to cook, and just pulled over, it wouldn't have happened either.

Yeah, we had this the other week with a friends car for exactly the same reason. Got stuck in a 20 minute traffic jam for the first time with this car. We hadn't realised the cooling fan wasn't working.

We heard the engine bubbling and found a way to get off the road (which took about 10 minutes!) and pulled over and called RAC. Some more oil, half an hour cool down and the car was fine.

[Catwoman2965]

I don't get that at all. While I can't actually REPAIR anything on my car, I make it my business to know exactly what needs to be done, oil changes, etc. where to add stuff like ww fluid, and I have a general idea of when I might need other work, brakes, and so on.

I just bought a new car, well, new to me, a 2010 Camry. Love it to pieces, and while it only has 18K miles on, I'm already trying to figure out whether or not it has a timing belt or chain, and if its a belt, when its recommended to have it replaced. Even though that is still years down the road.

This reminds me of my friend and her really really really cheap husband. they bought a townhouse which had the original HVAC unit, so 20-something years old. Inspection found it to be in working condition, but noted they might want to replace it in the near future, i.e. a year or so. Cheapo hubby said, no, it works fine. So rather than do it while both were still working, he chose not to, and it crapped out a year later, during a major heat wave, when they had a 13 month old. Oops.

[suburbandecay]

I just bought a new car, well, new to me, a 2010 Camry. Love it to pieces, and while it only has 18K miles on, I'm already trying to figure out whether or not it has a timing belt or chain, and if its a belt, when its recommended to have it replaced. Even though that is still years down the road.

I'd be willing to bet that it has a timing belt, and they usually get replaced around 100,000 miles. IF you have an parts store nearby, you can generally thumb through a Haynes/Chilton manual and find out. Or you can ask the parts guy what they have listed for your make/model.

[Jim]

My Mom once hit a speed bump too hard, and managed to rip the drain plug out of the oil pan. She made it almost halfway home before the engine seized.

Back when I worked IT for an oil change / tune up company, I came in early to make sure the overnight data collection had ran properly. That meant I had to answer the phones until the main office workers arrived. At least once a week, some idiot in the oil change pits left out a plug, or did not tighten a filter. And I had to deal with the properly irate customer. The company was buying so many engines, they looked into getting them wholesale. That company no longer exists.

[XCashier]

The customer acknowledged this, but declined the repair, saying she had other things to do and couldn't wait for the part to arrive from the warehouse.

What was so important that she couldn't wait for the repair?! She needed her mode of transporation fixed. Most people understand that. "My car's in the shop, I'm going to be a little late." "Okay, no problem!" But she couldn't be bothered to make a cheap repair, so she ends up eating an expensive problem later. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

[Ophbalance]

At least once a week, some idiot in the oil change pits left out a plug, or did not tighten a filter.

And that's one reason that I will never, ever, EVER go to a QuikJiffy place for anything but a registration again. No, it's never happened to me. But those places far over charge for fully synthetic oil plus filter. And they rarely follow instructions (ONLY 3 quarts of oil... no more, no less. Over fill every time). And trying to remove the oil filter they put on? Not without putting a screwdriver through it for leverage.

[Caractacus_Potts]

My old GF's brother bought his wife a shiny new SUV. She was out shopping about twenty miles from their house when the check oil light came on so she figured she should head for home. I have no idea how far she made it before the engine seized. I do know the mfgr refused to honor the warranty since the damage was caused by the driver.

[wolfie]

I just bought a new car, well, new to me, a 2010 Camry. Love it to pieces, and while it only has 18K miles on, I'm already trying to figure out whether or not it has a timing belt or chain, and if its a belt, when its recommended to have it replaced. Even though that is still years down the road.

Actually, not that far down the road. Don't know about Toyota, but both my previous and current cars (Hyundai) had belt replacement intervals in the neighbourhood of 100,000 km (60,000 miles)/4 years, WHICHEVER CAME FIRST. Check the build date (should be part of the info on a panel riveted to either the trailing edge of the driver's door, or the frame the door closes against - also has useful info such as the paint code for touch-up paint).

If Toyota has a similar interval to Hyundai, you're only about 1/3 of the way there on mileage, but depending on the build date you could be anywhere from just over a year to a matter of months before it's due on a time basis. If you don't want to go by the recommended replacement interval, a timing belt is good for around 1/10 of a second less than the life of the engine.

When you get the timing belt done, it would be a good time to replace the water pump (roughly the same service life, and about half the work to get at it is done in the process of changing the timing belt), coolant (extended-life coolant has around a 4 year drain interval, and when the pump is out, you've already opened the cooling system and had to drain the coolant to below the level of the pump), and accessory drive belts (have to take them off to get at the timing belt).

[protege]

If Toyota has a similar interval to Hyundai, you're only about 1/3 of the way there on mileage, but depending on the build date you could be anywhere from just over a year to a matter of months before it's due on a time basis. If you don't want to go by the recommended replacement interval, a timing belt is good for around 1/10 of a second less than the life of the engine.

When I still had my Mazda, the service manual recommended to have the timing belt replaced every 60,000 miles. Not cheap, because it was a pain to get to. A $couple hundred, IIRC. But, I looked at it this way--would I rather spend $couple hundred now...or $couple thousand later?

With that car though...I did have a failure in the timing belt area. Not the *belt* mind you, but its adjuster. Around 122,000 miles, the adjuster suddenly made a bid for freedom. That threw the belt off its pulleys, destroying it. At least it was the belt and not my engine. At least nobody was following too closely when my car suddenly drifted to a halt...

Back on topic, when my "check engine" light comes on, the car gets serviced. I can't see why delaying the inevitable is a good idea. Like I said before, would you rather spend a little now...or a lot later?

The only dashboard light you can ignore, is the alternator one. If that one comes on when driving, get the car to a service station. If you pull over and shut the engine off, it'll be extremely hard to get going again. You may, or may not be able to start the car!

[Cia]

The check engine light comes on every once in a while on my 2003 Jeep Liberty Sport. Our mechanic told me that if the light is steady then I can drive it for a short distance - say from my house to the mechanic's shop - but if the light is blinking then pull over immediately and have it towed in. I do my best to listen to the people who know more than I do about my Jeep.

I love my Jeep but I do wish it had two more inches of leg room on the driver's side.

[Gerrinson]

You know, I've gotta say, I did have the one car that ran fine with no coolant. As in, the radiator cracked and simply gushed fluid mid-winter.

I wasn't looking to fix it, since the money would be better invested in a new non-rustmobile-of-death, but I needed to get to work/school so I kept driving it while shopping for a new car.

With no coolant, I drove that car for another 15 months. I was amazed that it kept running so long. Weirdest damned thing ever, really. I hoped to get through the winter with it and I got 2.

In fact, it wasn't the engine going that ended the car. It was the passenger side front wheel falling off.

[Catwoman2965]

Yup. been there, done that. i figure I can just ask my mechanic when i go in for an oil change. he's good and will let me know what the story is. Not a big deal right at this moment. car was a lease, serviced from front to back, etc before being put up for sale. I also know the guy who did the lease (my friend's dad)