A Mechanic Horror Story

Daroxtar

[I have a Volvo S40 1.9d. 2002, 160k on the clock but spotless and tight as could be. 18 months ago the turbo blew on it. Brought it to my local garage and had a nightmare finding a second hand turbo to fit it. According to the mechanic it was a garrett turbo that was pretty rare, most of that model had Mitsubishi or Renault turbos. Anyway after 3 weeks of the car sitting in the garage i bit the bullet and put in a new turbo at substantial cost, made more substantial due to me being a carpenter struggling to find any long term work in these recessed times.

When the mechanic put in the new turbo i noticed that the car seemed to have a lot less power and its oil cosumption was a fair bit higher. Now I know that a car with high mileage will use a bit of oil but I was having to put a litre in every 2000 miles, possibly less. I mentioned it to the mechanic on several occasions and he came to the conclusion that it was probably worn rings and they'd have to be done to settle the problem but seeing as the car was running well apart from that we'd leave it until it became too big an issue to ignore. And after a bit of fiddling around he got the power sorted, not quite perfect but acceptable.

3 months ago the car overheated. I pulled in and realised that there was feck all water in it. Refilled it and it ran fine but a few days later it overheated again and the water level was down again. Brought it to the mechanic, he said it needed a new thermostat and maybe a hose. He was flat out busy but he should have everything sorted inside 3 or 4 days. Now the Nct was coming up too so i told him to give it a once over to have it ready for that. He put in new brake pads, suspension tops and links but when i went to collect the car he said it was still leaking water and that from what he could gather it needed a new head gasket.

Right so said I, do it. 3 days later and he rings me to tell me that the car is not ready, it's still leaking water, we have a hairline crack in the head itself. Now we need a new head. OK says I. Sure now that we're that far into the engine we may as well do the rings and thats the oil consumption sorted too, right? Ya, definitely says he.

3 more days later I finally collect the car. The mechanic says he's driven about a hundred miles testing it and its flying, just like a new car. Great. I'm thinking that its nice and tight now and should be great for thousands of miles. So the next day I had to drive to Cork and back. I thought the car was fairly sluggish, the turbo was't giving me much power utill it got up to about 2500 revs whereas it used to kick in around 18-1900. When i got back from Cork i just decided to check the oil and it was way down. It was like a repeat of the situation after the turbo had been fitted only this time it was worse.

Rang yer man and he says that he wouldnt heed the oil being down, thats just the rings bedding in. Might take a thousand miles before they're right, just top it up and keep an eye on it. What about the low power? No worries, just a bit of fine tuning.

So I brought the car for the Nct and it failed due to the tracking rod end being badly worn and brake lines being corroded. I was gettin a tad vexed at this as he was supposed to have checked these things but I dropped the car back and he fixed the track rod and brake lines and the car passed the Nct.

To cut this very long story short, 3000 miles/5 weeks later I had put a total of 12 litres of oil into the car and rang him 3 times to see if this was normal. He said it sounded a bit high alright but keep it topped up and drop it back to him when I got the chance. On wednesday the turbo shat itself again. I wanted to strangle the bastard mechanic because from my perspective i've spent the best part of a grand and he gave me back the car with something seriously wrong.

To summarise, he had the car for 2 weeks longer than he was supposed to have it,he missed the crack in the head, he didnt spot the worn tracking rod ends, he never saw the worn brake lines, he gave me back the car with no power and it used 12 litres of oil in 3000 miles and then it blew its turbo. I admit i should probably have gotten a second opinion but in the years prior to this he has looked after me fairly well, always kept costs down and got me out of a spot on a few occasions well outside of normal hours so I felt he deserved the benefit of the doubt.


So - does anyone here think he's liable for my car being fúcked? Would i be within my rights to demand he fixes it free of charge?

And what was the actual reason for low power and high oil consumption? I just want to know where the balls up was.

Apologies for the length of the post but i kind of needed to let it all out.

Divorce Referendum

I think you should probably stay away from this chap he doesnt seem to know what he is at. Did he find out why the turbo blew the first time?

It tends to be oil starvation that causes it to blow and if he didnt check the pick up pipe in the sump, oil feed pipe etc it would just blow again.

Daroxtar

If it went through that much oil though would it be considered oil starvation? there is no trace of actual oil leakage anywhere and no real smoke out the exhaust

challengemaster

Divorce Referendum wrote: »

I think you should probably stay away from this chap he doesnt seem to know what he is at. Did he find out why the turbo blew the first time?

It tends to be oil starvation that causes it to blow and if he didnt check the pick up pipe in the sump, oil feed pipe etc it would just blow again.

Wouldn't be surprised if it's the turbo that's spewing out all the oil, oil return like could be blocked?

Your mechanic is an incompetent gnome, not much point trying to chase him really, but your losses and find a decent one.

Divorce Referendum

Daroxtar wrote: »

If it went through that much oil though would it be considered oil starvation? there is no trace of actual oil leakage anywhere and no real smoke out the exhaust

Oh rite was it losing oil for the 18 months before the turbo went the first time?

-Corkie-

Jesus that is a horror story OP sorry to hear this. Your mechanic sounds like a total twat..

Daroxtar

Divorce Referendum wrote: »

Oh rite was it losing oil for the 18 months before the turbo went the first time?

Nothing major. I doubt it went through 2 litres in over 10k miles

Nissan doctor

The title of the thread should be mechanic horror story rather then Volvo one surely.

TBH it sounds like he hadn't a clue what he was doing from the outset. From his descriptions he hasn't got any of the required testing/diagnostic equipment and it seems very unlikely that any cylinder head or ring replacement job was done correctly.....or was even needed in the first place.

Daroxtar

Nissan doctor wrote: »

The title of the thread should be mechanic horror story rather then Volvo one surely.

TBH it sounds like he hadn't a clue what he was doing from the outset. From his descriptions he hasn't got any of the required testing/diagnostic equipment and it seems very unlikely that any cylinder head or ring replacement job was done correctly.....or was even needed in the first place.

Ya, true. Done

galwaytt

Nissan doctor wrote: »

The title of the thread should be mechanic horror story rather then Volvo one surely.

TBH it sounds like he hadn't a clue what he was doing from the outset. From his descriptions he hasn't got any of the required testing/diagnostic equipment and it seems very unlikely that any cylinder head or ring replacement job was done correctly.....or was even needed in the first place.

Unfortunate collection of circumstances, but with older cars, stuff like this is not uncommon.

Realistically, if, on day 1 your mechanic said we need to pull the engine completely, and rebuild it, and the bill will be bigger, you'd probably have baulked and looked for a cheaper mechanic, or maybe even scrapped the car.....but faced with a possible cure for a lot less ......such is the eternal will I / won't I when the car is In that pre-bangernomics age...

Nissan doctor

galwaytt wrote: »

Unfortunate collection of circumstances, but with older cars, stuff like this is not uncommon.

Realistically, if, on day 1 your mechanic said we need to pull the engine completely, and rebuild it, and the bill will be bigger, you'd probably have baulked and looked for a cheaper mechanic, or maybe even scrapped the car.....but faced with a possible cure for a lot less ......such is the eternal will I / won't I when the car is In that pre-bangernomics age...

Trying to take short cuts or do patch up jobs will almost always end in issues like the above though.

However I doubt that trying to save the OP money was the aim in this case as the descriptions given by the mechanic for the various issues all show someone who has a very limited grasp of how an engine works and how various issues cause/effect other issues.

galwaytt

Nissan doctor wrote: »

Trying to take short cuts or do patch up jobs will almost always end in issues like the above though.

However I doubt that trying to save the OP money was the aim in this case as the descriptions given by the mechanic for the various issues all show someone who has a very limited grasp of how an engine works and how various issues cause/effect other issues.

True, but money comes into everything, eventually...

mondeo

Reading that just irritates me, you have been put out of pocket by a fool and his limited knowledge. I'd dump the car back at his place and get him to sort it out, who cares if you knew him for years or he has jumped started your car for free on a cold morning or whatever. When it comes to money cosey little friendships goes out the window.

Nissan doctor

galwaytt wrote: »

True, but money comes into everything, eventually...

Very true but I think that a customer thinking you did a bad job and having lots of trouble with their car after you worked on it is much worse for your reputation then a customer thinking you're a bit expensive.

I think that any mechanic worth his salt will be of the opinion that if a customer is not interested in paying to have a job done properly, then they won't be interested in jeopardising their name by doing a sub-standard repair.

Nissan doctor

mondeo wrote: »

Reading that just irritates it, you have been put out of pocket by a fool and his limited knowledge. I'd dump the car back at his place and get him to sort it out, who cares if you knew him for years or he has jumped started your car for free on a cold morning or whatever. When it comes to money cosey little friendships goes out the window.

The problem with that is...if he hadn't got the know how to sort it properly the first time, why would you think he can fix it properly now?

mondeo

Nissan doctor wrote: »

The problem with that is...if he hadn't got the know how to sort it properly the first time, why would you think he can fix it properly now?

He can pay someone else to fix it

TestTransmission

doctor_t wrote: »

Hi
Had similar story with my s40 2007 first incompetent "friend" mechanic replaced twice alternator and a cause was short circut , then killed my starter and didn't tigten nuts in fr wheel so destroyed alloy when car towed to the other mechanic, generally most mechanics not dealing with volvos try to replace prats or solve problems by play by ear, and sometimes it cost a lot and give no results. Finally found a guy in Scully autocare in Clontarf in Dublin he worked in volvo garage in town previously and knows all about volvo, so if still not sure that car is sorted go to them. I recommend him highly!

You really like that garage don't you?

swhyte027

You say u spend the best part of a grand on your car op.and that was ment to cover new turbo,crack in the head , head gasket set,brake pipes track rod end and brake pads,my ass did he do half of that for that price it's not possible,but even if the turbo went again there should b a year warranty.id look for all the invoices.and c what he was ment to have done.the fact is this garage should warranty there work.like we do in ours and every other garage.so get ur invoices n drop the car back to him don't pay a cent more and tell him he has to cover all the work he has done under warranty.i would say go else where bk feck that u say ur skint .make them fix it