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Shop left a drain plug loose.


snowboard419
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So a good friend of mine took her 2010 subaru outback to a local shop to have the oil changed about 2-3 weeks ago, about 300 miles later it fell out while on the highway in the fast lane, she got to a safe place to stop as quick as possible but it was too late. She had it towed to the shop that did the work and called them as soon as they opened the next day. The business owner said he could not see how it could last that long but that they would take care of her.

 

The shop is not taking care of her they are trying to repair as cheap and quick as possible to get her down the road long enough so its not their problem, here is where it gets good.

 

They got a drain plug, installed it and filled it up, said it was making some noise, probably a lifter, they would look into it and call her later.

 

Next day they said its still making noise and it has a problem with the head but they would take care of it, no other details, Here is where I got involved, I asked the owner to call me as soon as they found out what happened and to send me pics of the damage, later that day he sent me a picture of the head and a pic of the cylinders both from ****** angles that did not show any damage at all, also he did not call me or my friend. So I went down to the shop to see for myself (he did not seem to pleased at this) Here is what I found.

 

The RH side camshaft seized so hard it broke in 2 right in the middle causing the valves to hit the pistons. So all he is going to do is replace the cylinder head and camshaft. I told him that I was extremely concerned about the rest of the engine, my friend requested that he inspect the other bearing surfaces, cam, main and rod bearings and cylinder bores, also that much torque on the timing belt may have caused valve damage on the other side not to mention the belt it self. HE FLAT OUT REFUSED TO GO ANY FURTHER and seemed offended that it was requested.

 

My friend also requested the old parts back and he said he could get some but not the head because it had a core charge.So I called the place where he said he purchased the parts from and they informed me there is no core charge. :wtf: So this is going to end ugly and probably in court.

 

Any thoughts?? and sorry for the long post

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My only thought...COMPLETE BS!!! :angry: Don't get off their backs about this, that's a ton of money and they are clearly to blame. There is no way they aren't. Have you heard of anybody else having bad luck with the shop? Have you or your friend used them before? Good luck on the legal side, but I'm sure it will work out fine, just might take a while unfortunately. Again, good luck.

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They have some mixed reviews on line and Im starting to side with a few of the bad ones. She has only had minor service work done here, a few oil changes, brakes perhaps, but has been using them for a while.

 

So you have to pull the engine out to get the heads off, and they wont take the time to pull the oil pan and a few bearing caps. I hope they go to start it after all this and it @!*%s its guts all over their shop floor.

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I have friends that are lawyers that would write a very official letter for free... You should get one of those ASAP. A total engine failure will cost 3k plus if you don't swap it yourself with a used one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well the shop refused to do any further inspection on the engine, simply pull the other valve cover and the oil pan to look for debris. They installed a reman? head and put it back together and handed it back to her. The engine sounds ok and runs good but we are working on racking up some miles quick so we can send off an oil analysis and cut the filter open to see if anything is going on. If we find anything at all they will have a lawsuit on their hands. They may have one anyways. Ill make an update when we get the oil back from the lab but we need a few miles firsts.

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