Re: Hal's fried engine

["Jay Mackro" <jmackro@domain.elided>]

Hal Taylor <taylor@domain.elided> had written:
\
> ......I'm almost home, and get off the
>freeway, and I'm now seeing HUGE CLOUDS behind me.....
>What about the mechanic's responsibility to me after the rebuild?
>I can't help wondering if he's looking to blame the overheating for the
>headgasket so that the problem is my responsibility, for not tending to
>some (nonexistant, I'm fairly certain) cooling system problem...

Hal:

I think you are going to have a hard time pinning the blame on
your mechanic.  You indicated that the rebuild was done 6 months/
10K miles ago, so apparently it worked pretty well for a long enough
period to validate the quality of his work.  The initial cause for the
failure will be hard to determine after so much damage has been
done.

The fact that the engine was running at normal temperature while
it was smoking implies that the initial failure did occur at the head
gasket.  If something external to the engine - say a hose, or the
radiator - had allowed enough coolant to leak to cause overheating,
which led to a head gasket failure, which led to coolant leaking
into the oil - then you would have observed the temp gauge 
reading high before it sounded like a diesel.  So, OK, maybe a
head gasket failure was the cause.

But, your mechanic could argue that you should have stopped
the engine as soon as any smoke was observed.  The smoke you
saw initially could have been caused by either oil or coolant.

Either way, more extensive damage was probably done as the
engine continued to run, and began to overheat.

Mechanics don't stay in business by doing jobs twice for one
payment. The ones who have been in business for many years 
get awfully good at not accepting responsibility for repairs that
fail, especially ones that fail after 6 mo / 10K miles. If this had 
occurred a week after the work was done, you would have a 
better case.  I will bet that he comes up with an explanation 
that excludes the possibility of any faulty work on his part.  
And, he may be correct - it's pretty hard to diagnose these things 
over e-mail.  In the end, negotiating a discount on the second 
rebuild (which now may involve bearings as well) may be your 
best solution.

You have my sympathy

Jay Mackro

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