possible blown engine & Court is an issue
 

I took my car to this place crankin audio (first mistake..should of done it myself) to have my system put in. I have never had a problem with the car starting or anything. I go to pick it up at like 10pm from this place. The guy was giving me an attitude because he sed it was annoying to work with because of all the wire for example the boost contr. and what not.....which from what i see were not even in his way. Be that as it may i went to start it up and it just made the ignition sound......it wouldnt show any sign of starting......finally after 20 mins with a battery hooked up trying to start it kiked up and started blowing gray smoke like a crop duster. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. I was like what did you guys do to the car.they obvsly. said nothing and then they gave ME an attitude and told me to take the smoke box out of their garage. AS soon as i did they shut there doors and left out the front of the store with out me even knowing......i drove it home and saw these problems....already...stock tachometer and autometer tach would stick at 3 thousand rpms then jump drastically....but engine sounded ok....for now..my 500$ boost controler hand piece has no power to it AKA being broke. so now i cant set boost. But where im at rite now it doesnt matter. See the next morning i went to start it up because i was going to have a friend of the family who works on it with me take a look and as soon as i turn it on...the altnator belt blows knocking water pump lines off...i was not aware of this right away because i went back into my house to let it warm up......so now my engine was not being cooled.....by by seals i think ....SOOO i have it trailered to a place with a lift and on the bottom of the car in the floor i saw 2 3-4ft cuts in the bed i guess its called.......this car was taking out and beatin by them and they ran over maybe pipes or something cuting these holes. Bad enough if it rains i wud have prob felt water coming up if i wasnt wearing shoes....my down pipe had scrapes all over it. They will be hearing from me in small claims. But im just not sure if the engine is toast.is there a way for sure for me to know.....it does still run...but smokes like a mother.

Compression check. Search how to do it. Its really easy. You want atleast above 80 on both rotors.

Okay well as far as the coolant hoses go, chances are you did not actually overheat the car unless you were in the house for around 20 minutes.

You can run a car without a liquid cooling system until it hits the stage of overheating. Before that, the engine doesn't know the difference. In fact when under 85C, the thermostat is closed, not allowing any circulation of coolant anyways.

If you let it totally heat up to the point of hot, then yes, damage may have occured.

I would be more concerned about the underbody damage. Are we talking actual holes in floor?

If so, they're going to need to be welded closed.

However, I do not see a way they could even generate this level of damage unless they took the wheels off the car and put it into reverse with the front rotors on the ground. Although driving over a curb could do it, i.e. spinning out and hitting an island in the middle of the road.

For now, definitely sue them.

Document everything, establish witnesses (you will most definitely need them), and take them to small claims. Don't sit on it.

yes i have many witnesses..........they saw it smoking when i picked it up...many people are willing to testify for me because they know how badly i was screwed....I am going to put pictures on here showing the damage to the body. It will most likely need to be welded like you said. (what it looks like) Put your car on the lift........stand at the rear and walk under look up......the metal body to the left and right of the exhaust from just about where the downpipe meets the rest of the exhaust there are on each side a slice about 2 inches wide and 3 feet long from the front to the rear......honestly i think they ran over a fence that was down or something or an island divider......there is also a nasty scrape on the downpipe.......when they did this i also noticed an exhaust leak....i`will update soon

small claims has a $$ limit...check up on that

bring your motor to me phil, we can freshen it :)

did they document your mileage when bringing it in? usually it's procedure to do that, and when you sign you sign saying you verify the milage as being the same as when you dropped it off

Take their asses to court.

do you know the mileage before you took it in? any proof of this?

Only way they would blow the motor is if they went joyriding. Any signs of this??

The above story is why I would never leave my car somewhere to be worked on (other than my mechanic or a GOOD body shop). I would NEVER leave my car at some stereo shop, that's for sure.

Sorry to hear about your troubles Redline, I hope you get your car straightened out and that the stereo shop is held liable. Good luck.

thank you all for your support.....the mileage idea is good....but they are such a half ass shop that they wouldnt record that. I should have realized this before i left it there and also should have recorded my mileage. Even if i asked for records or milage or even survilance tapes of the work space they would most likely laugh at me and tell me to take a hike.

sorry, wrong post

WOW..... That totaly blows. Dude it goes to show what happens when someone gets behind the wheel of someting they know nothing about. I would never leave my car someplace where the only thing there is air and oppertunity. Sorry to hear it, wish you the best. The unfortunate thing is your car will never be the same. I hope you own that shop after your done.

SVT,

Don't slam the guy's morale with "your car will never be the same."

Come on. Of course it will be the same after it's fixed. Welding and patching the slices in the underbody is about the best one could do to fix it - it's not going to have long-term issues.

damn man that sucks. I would definately take these guys down, cause obviously they think they can get away with it. Take them down for everyone, please.

I think 3 or 4 times I dropped my car off at places to have work done and every time they would take my car out for a little test drive...and of course everyone knows what goes on in those test drives. I would actually tell the guys at the shops...I've had problems with people taking my car out and beating the hell out of it in the past...Do not do this. I would come back and they would be like "Damn thats a fast car!" abd the engine would be scolding hot. People just can't help themselves. I no longer have anyone but myself touch the car.

man, if some shop guy told me that. . . id punch him in the face!!!! . . . and maybe shit in his mouth after that.

paul

Yea I would feel better fixing the car myself and just going into the shop and beatin some heads together... Sorry to here about that man, ive got a similar story with my FC getting an alarm put in at best buy, Came back to pick it up and a 1/2tank of gas was gone and it wouldnt start because it was so flooded

do they flood easily?..wat is the biggest cause of flooding?........can the car flood if the engine is off?

Your car isn't flooded. If you have had it running since (very well or not), then you can rule that out. Go get a compression check done as was suggested. Only way to know where you stand.

It's stories like these that have driven me to do everything I can myself, down to the paint job I'm doing now.

I had my first fd at a body shop for a few months. When I picked it up it was flooded like hell. Then the thermostat stuck on the way home and it overheated. Coolant seal let go a few weeks later. On top of that, the paint sucked but I couldn't prove anything.

sucks, dude..take them to court for real!

ouch man, that really sucks, and to top it off they where giving you a shitty attitude about it! Two words SUE EM!

Ma n this makes me think twice about getting my car painted. im gonna check the mileage when i drop it off. any more good suggestions?

i could mount a camera. might be expensive though

Limit your boost to like 5psi with a boost controller. And take a picture of your odometer and make sure a date is in the corner.

How about yank the fuel relay? They can push it to move it if they need to.