Dealing with a car garage - Page 2 - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

Proper protocol would have been to call the secondary warranty company and have them give you a location that accepts their warranty then proceed there.

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04-19-2018 , 01:22 PM

#27

madlex

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 17,459

Quote:

Originally Posted by zikzak

That's not really true. If your car overheats because of a leaking radiator/bad water pump/whatever and you keep driving it, there's a decent chance you'll do some engine damage. But there's no reason to suspect this most of the time, because people usually have the good sense to stop driving
[...]You should not be so quick to assume incompetence or bad faith.

We told them that my wife drove the car ~5 miles to the garage after the engine had cooled off enough to restart it.

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Originally Posted by Didace

4) They fixed the most obvious problem and when the engine still didn't function they investigated further.

That would be OK if they told me “look, we can fix the radiator and there’s a really good chance it will work again. Unfortunately, that car is a 200x Jeep Grand Cherokee and Google is full of stories from people with that car whose head gasket blew after overheating the engine” instead of “no biggie, car is good to go again tomorrow”.

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04-19-2018 , 01:22 PM

#28

27offsuit

actions have consequences!

Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 38,535

Dealership repair shops are ALL dens of thieves and should be treated as such.

Once you drop a car off at one of these places and leave it open-ended they have their hooks in you.

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04-19-2018 , 01:35 PM

#29

xnbomb

veteran

Join Date: Jul 2016 Posts: 2,056

Quote:

Originally Posted by foatie

Proper protocol would have been to call the secondary warranty company and have them give you a location that accepts their warranty then proceed there.

tried calling on sunday but warranty place was closed. called monday morning but decided I'd rather pay the $600 out of pocket than go through them and wait additional days. Whoops.

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04-19-2018 , 01:38 PM

#30

LFS

emo gaylord

Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 21,865

Pay them, and see if OD will add it to the insurance claim and reimburse you.

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04-19-2018 , 01:43 PM

#31

foatie

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 5,294

Quote:

Originally Posted by 27offsuit

Dealership repair shops are ALL dens of thieves and should be treated as such.

Once you drop a car off at one of these places and leave it open-ended they have their hooks in you.

Don't forget about the soft handoff to the sales dept after your repair cost is too expensive for you to afford. They give you some trade in value or take the car on a little bit of negative equity to get you into a brand new lease and alleviate all your fears of future repairs by giving you a front to back warranty and the assurance that they'll take care of you until the end of time. When I worked at Nissan, I'd close 3-4 deals a month out of handoffs from the service department.

If you go to a dealership for repair service, bring lube.

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04-19-2018 , 02:03 PM

#32

pig4bill

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 33,821

Quote:

Originally Posted by zikzak

A bad radiator or water pump isn't reason to suspect a blown head gasket or other serious problem, especially on a newer car. It can be a very difficult thing to diagnose sometimes.

Usually blown head gaskets are easy to detect. Just take off the cap where you put oil in and you'll see water mixed in with the oil. If it's gray or brown, or anything but black, there's coolant in the oil.

If it's a tiny head gasket leak, it sometimes only leaks when the engine is cold. Then as it warms up it seals. In that case, the water that made it into the crankcase boils off. So you'll want to start the car when it's cold and then shut it off after a minute, and do the oil check above. If your coolant level is dropping over time, that's another clue.

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04-19-2018 , 02:11 PM

#33

pig4bill

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 33,821

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didace

4) They fixed the most obvious problem and when the engine still didn't function they investigated further.

Engine doesn't need a water pump to function. Outside of the rare circumstance that the water pump seized. In that circumstance a warning light should have told OP that it was overheating long before it seized, and if he continued to drive it anyway... Well, he gets to deal with the consequences.

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04-19-2018 , 02:15 PM

#34

pig4bill

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 33,821

FYI to all - EVERY water cooled engine is prone to blowing a head gasket after overheating. If your engine overheats, do some checks, do a compression test, etc.

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04-19-2018 , 04:28 PM

#35

Tom Ames

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 45,794

Quote:

Originally Posted by pig4bill

IME it is sometimes even easier than that.
Radiator leak: steam coming out from under the hood.
Water pump: overheating; then shutting down. No steam.
Blown head gasket: billowing white steam coming from the exhaust.

I'm no mechanic, but I have had every one of the issues on different vehicles.