scenario. lets say the fan system is fine and a coolant hose busted during the wreck, transit, etc or came loose leaked out a BUNCH of coolant over the month it was sitting at their shop (which could have easily been the case if it truly ran 10-15 mins only)

Whose fault is it now? Theres no way the owner could possibly know if the coolant hoses are busted or if it leaked out a gallon of coolant while it was sitting outside their shop.

So shop starts it up and its running a gallon low with a busted hose and inadequate circulation and it overheats within 10min fans/no fans

Bottom line is I told them the rear end was damaged from the wreck and needed to be repaired and I have no idea what else may be wrong with the car...drive shaft, diff, tranny, etc check it out and let me know what needs to be replaced

YOu would think the shop would look over the coolant system and check the oil level etc before cranking the car and not let it sit forever

 

Wait wait time out dude, now you're switching up your words.

This is part of your original post

You said you hit a curb and you need suspension work done. I dont know about you but curbs are in average 3 inches tall with the exception of some roads, especially around here with uneven corners that can have 5 inch tall curbs, highly unlikely the ones you hit. Now all of a sudden your hoses might have busted due to this accident?

And i dont know about you but if i smacked into something, i would inspect the car MYSELF so i can have reference of it rather than just to say, "**** i hit the curb, tow the car to the shop asap". No i would inspect everything so i know what generally needs to be replaced. I mean you wouldnt want the shop to take advantage of this accident right? By replacing a bunch of **** you didnt see or looked at after the accident because you just brought your car there.

Im not saying you're lying by the things you're saying but if you were to fight it in court, even in your words alone, not even going by the actual story, you'll lose because it doesnt even match.

 

Alright,

I finally got the car back. Suspension is tighter than it was before. Spoke to the guy who owned the shop he block tested it without me there and said it turned out fine. He said it did not register any exhaust gas from the coolant neck although he didn't know how warm/cold the car was when he did the test.

The car did smoke a ton when I cranked it. It was black/blue/white and smelled like pure gasoline. No smell of antifreeze.

Engine turned over SLOW because the dying battery and it fired right up...it felt like the rotors were not firing together and was very v8 sounding till it hit 140F but its always done that to an extent. I think its just some kind of RICH quirck when cold.

Engine maintained 180F perfectly with fans running

Am I really safe or should I expect the life of my seals to no be severely shortened?

 

only time will tell.

 

1. May have a sticking injector
2. Same as #1
3. If damage were done, I would expect to have seen some sign of it already. However, that is no guarantee that it will last forever - coolant seals can go any time.

Good luck - hope it lasts for a LONG time!

 

Wow this thread has been going on for a long time.

So ill put my 2cents in finally, in my opinion you took the car there for suspension work and seeing as you first of all drove the car to the shop it was therefore deemed by you to have been roadworthy... a car that cant simply idle for an indefinate amount of time without either running out of gas or is otherwise shut off, is by most accounts including D.O.T. is not road worthy. if you had any doubts about the condition or the effectiveness of the cooling system whatsoever continuing to drive the vehicle would automatically discount that.

Lord knows i would love to be on the side of the owner as i am pretty vocal when it comes to shitty service and shops but i really have to side with the shop on this one.

Again in my opinion if the vehicle was unfit to be running you should have made this perfectly clear by both towing the vehicle in and telling them under no circumstance is the car fit to be started. if i drove my car to have a car stereo installed is it their job to also check the oil? thats kind of the way i see it your paying them to do a certain job on your car and most shops would assume when you do this the keys are handed over in faith that no other pre-existing or catastrophic issues that might be avoided are present.

You drove a car to a suspension repair shop that was unfit to be running in the first place. what you should have done is had any personal doubts about your cooling system put away first. Reasonable people can assume a car that drives into a repair shop ought to be able to idle with no ill effect.

Im glad you got your car back in one piece and i hope the best for you and it in the long run but you cant really blame the shop if an issue should arise later on.

Good luck and keep an eye on the temp gauge

 

Exactly! You know my Fd hit red three times from various coolant leaks, and the engine never failed. Keeping tap water out of your cooling system greatly increases the coolant seals life span (less corrosion). My original engine lasted over 108k.

 

Actually, I meant a leaking injector... That would cause rich starts, rough running on startup, etc.

Dave

 

Glad everything is OK. Like I said earlier, I don't think you did much damage at idle. There is an another own in Bham that had similar situation and he called me after his coolant line exploded. I told him the same thing.. Don't worry too much about it And he's car is fine.

I also agree with DaveW, if there is any damage, it would of been seen already. The whole "time will tell" statement.. well, that applies to New, Used, rebuilt, on practically anything.. YOu can't later say it was because of this singular incident. Well, thats my 2 cents!

 

learn from this mistake and move it on, its all you can really do with this situation.

 

actually, the car had a cracked subframe and the spare tire was bent 45 degrees under the car...it was towed to a shop from the wreck site...at that shop they did an estimate on the car and DID NOT start it because they told me they didn't know the extent of the damage to the drivetrain until taking apart the car....it was then towed again to the final shop which overheated the car

the car was NOT in any state or driveable condition therefore it had absolutely no reason to be started until the repair was completed

I could see how maybe they could very very slowly drive the car into/out of the shop but besides that it was clearly NOT driveable in any way or fashion...**** was dragging on the ground underneith the rear end

 

O, might I add one more thing to show the negligence of this shop

as soon as I left the shop I went the gas station, as im pumping gas i notice a PORTABLE SHOP LIGHT CONNECTED TO MY SPRING on the rear strut

thankyou everyone for your opinions and advice. I hope the car works fine when its done at the body shop!