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5 Posts
Hi guys and gals!
I have lurked around here for quite a while, haven't done an intro post yet, but I really need some advice. My apologies for the wall of text, but I feel the background should be known.
Last October I had my Gen1 (2002) X (~135000 mi, bought 3 months previous) into the shop after it had overheated, and like quite a few that have posted before me, the head gasket was blown. I had it at a shop that had always treated me well in the past, however this time, the guy who was working on my vehicle was a dud. He was fired about halfway through working on my truck. The Heads were back on, but none of the hoses, wiring etc. had been finished up yet. The owner of the shop took over blind from what this former employee had left him with, put it back together and charged me about $1600(CAN).
About 2 weeks later, my wife was alone with the kids on a 4 hour drive to her mother's place, when the truck started overheating again. She is oblivious when it comes to vehicles, so she drove for about an hour and a bit on the highway with it overheating.:crying: When she finally pulled over and called me, needless to say I didn't have much hope for my engine. She limped it into town and got a mechanic that was familiar w/ Nissan to have a look at it.
This new mechanic was fully briefed on the situation including how far the vehicle had been driving hot. Told him to take real good notes due to the situation. His invoice noted the following:
After vehicle was dropped off at shop, test-drove while still hot, found to be missing and overheating. Inspecting and found following: Main intake pipe from air box to throttle body not secured w/ screw clamp thus causing the vehicle to misfire, also found multiple vacuum lines to be routed improperly. Repaired all vac lines and secured intake pipe. Vehicle running much better now. Tested cooling system, found to be holding pressure. Compression test on all 6 cyl, equal readings on all. Checked cooling fan, found it to be faulty- replaced viscous fan clutch. Inspected radiator, between Rad and AC condenser was packed full of leaves and gravel, thus not providing air flow across rad. Drained coolant and removed rad, backflushed and cleaned fins, lots of scale. Also cleaned AC condenser. Found dist. cap and rotor to be worn, installed new, set timing to spec. Thermostat was not replaced when head gasket done, was old and seizing. Replaced thermostat.
So, bullet dodged, the engine was not blown, and it was a relatively simple fix, despite the obvious mistakes made during the head gasket replacement. The gasket was changed with no interest whatsoever on the part of the mechanic as to what caused the problem in the first place. No rad flush, no panel cleaning, no new thermostat, not even fresh coolant put in. On top of that the messed up vacuum hoses and air bypassing the air filter. Nice. :clueless:
So during this process I had informed the original mechanic about what was going on, and he ended up refunding me $400 for my troubles. ( Never mind that fixing the problem cost me about 700 , but anyway...)
We drove the X all winter w/ no further problems, and suddenly in the middle of May it started with the "white smoke" from the exhaust. Topped up the coolant and put on about 30 miles over the weekend, planning to take it into the shop on Monday. It suddenly overheated on the last 3 miles to home on Sunday, so I turned off AC, cranked the heater and limped it home slowly. The temp dropped to below half within about 30 seconds, so I figured it shouldn't have caused any damage in that short time. Took it into a new mechanic recommended by some family (I moved since the original head gasket problem) and carefully explained the problems.
He checked it over and told me: definitely blown head gasket!
ullout:
So he pulled the head, noticing when he did, that the head bolts were loose and could pretty much be removed by hand!!! When he sent the head to the machine shop, it was so badly warped that they had to send it off to get some sort of high temp bake treatment to straighten it out again before planing it. I was pretty sure my head was going to explode!
Okay so after all that painful backstory, here is the part where I ask for advice: I have again been in contact with the original mechanic since the beginning of this new chapter and he agreed that if the problem originated from the install of the new head gasket, then he should be the one paying for my current repairs. However (and I quote) "if the new gasket was cooked off from overheating, then I shouldn't have to pay for that."
As far as I can tell, based on the information I have given, the bottom line seems to be that the head bolts were not torqued properly and came loose, causing some serious issues. Since he can't find my invoice from that repair, and the dipstick who was doing the repairs in the first place may not have even used new head bolts, or possibly used the wrong ones; am I fair in feeling that he should definitely be paying for this issue to be taken care of?
Any help or commentary would be helpful guys! I am a patient and reasonable man, but I am nearing the edge here!
I have lurked around here for quite a while, haven't done an intro post yet, but I really need some advice. My apologies for the wall of text, but I feel the background should be known.
Last October I had my Gen1 (2002) X (~135000 mi, bought 3 months previous) into the shop after it had overheated, and like quite a few that have posted before me, the head gasket was blown. I had it at a shop that had always treated me well in the past, however this time, the guy who was working on my vehicle was a dud. He was fired about halfway through working on my truck. The Heads were back on, but none of the hoses, wiring etc. had been finished up yet. The owner of the shop took over blind from what this former employee had left him with, put it back together and charged me about $1600(CAN).
About 2 weeks later, my wife was alone with the kids on a 4 hour drive to her mother's place, when the truck started overheating again. She is oblivious when it comes to vehicles, so she drove for about an hour and a bit on the highway with it overheating.:crying: When she finally pulled over and called me, needless to say I didn't have much hope for my engine. She limped it into town and got a mechanic that was familiar w/ Nissan to have a look at it.
This new mechanic was fully briefed on the situation including how far the vehicle had been driving hot. Told him to take real good notes due to the situation. His invoice noted the following:
After vehicle was dropped off at shop, test-drove while still hot, found to be missing and overheating. Inspecting and found following: Main intake pipe from air box to throttle body not secured w/ screw clamp thus causing the vehicle to misfire, also found multiple vacuum lines to be routed improperly. Repaired all vac lines and secured intake pipe. Vehicle running much better now. Tested cooling system, found to be holding pressure. Compression test on all 6 cyl, equal readings on all. Checked cooling fan, found it to be faulty- replaced viscous fan clutch. Inspected radiator, between Rad and AC condenser was packed full of leaves and gravel, thus not providing air flow across rad. Drained coolant and removed rad, backflushed and cleaned fins, lots of scale. Also cleaned AC condenser. Found dist. cap and rotor to be worn, installed new, set timing to spec. Thermostat was not replaced when head gasket done, was old and seizing. Replaced thermostat.
So, bullet dodged, the engine was not blown, and it was a relatively simple fix, despite the obvious mistakes made during the head gasket replacement. The gasket was changed with no interest whatsoever on the part of the mechanic as to what caused the problem in the first place. No rad flush, no panel cleaning, no new thermostat, not even fresh coolant put in. On top of that the messed up vacuum hoses and air bypassing the air filter. Nice. :clueless:
So during this process I had informed the original mechanic about what was going on, and he ended up refunding me $400 for my troubles. ( Never mind that fixing the problem cost me about 700 , but anyway...)
We drove the X all winter w/ no further problems, and suddenly in the middle of May it started with the "white smoke" from the exhaust. Topped up the coolant and put on about 30 miles over the weekend, planning to take it into the shop on Monday. It suddenly overheated on the last 3 miles to home on Sunday, so I turned off AC, cranked the heater and limped it home slowly. The temp dropped to below half within about 30 seconds, so I figured it shouldn't have caused any damage in that short time. Took it into a new mechanic recommended by some family (I moved since the original head gasket problem) and carefully explained the problems.
He checked it over and told me: definitely blown head gasket!
ullout:So he pulled the head, noticing when he did, that the head bolts were loose and could pretty much be removed by hand!!! When he sent the head to the machine shop, it was so badly warped that they had to send it off to get some sort of high temp bake treatment to straighten it out again before planing it. I was pretty sure my head was going to explode!
Okay so after all that painful backstory, here is the part where I ask for advice: I have again been in contact with the original mechanic since the beginning of this new chapter and he agreed that if the problem originated from the install of the new head gasket, then he should be the one paying for my current repairs. However (and I quote) "if the new gasket was cooked off from overheating, then I shouldn't have to pay for that."
As far as I can tell, based on the information I have given, the bottom line seems to be that the head bolts were not torqued properly and came loose, causing some serious issues. Since he can't find my invoice from that repair, and the dipstick who was doing the repairs in the first place may not have even used new head bolts, or possibly used the wrong ones; am I fair in feeling that he should definitely be paying for this issue to be taken care of?
Any help or commentary would be helpful guys! I am a patient and reasonable man, but I am nearing the edge here!
