did I get screwed?

[VelmaD]

So, I take my car into the shop yesterday because it started making an intermittent, high whistling noise...on top of the other knock I was hoping to ignore til I could afford a new car but that fell through so I was looking to get the old one fixed. (long story)

Anyway, I get them to do an engine diagnostic and tell them about the whistling noise. They do the diagnositc. Find an oil leak and oil all over my spark plug. We replace plugs, plug wires, the hole where the leak was coming from. They test drive it...figure out the whistling noise. The fan that cools the motor isn't switching on. I hemmorhage more cash to fix that.

And then today I go to pick it up and they tell me (in BIG letters) that the original knock is coming from needing new rod and crank bearings. That they don't do that bit of work and NOT TO DRIVE IT ouit of town until I get the bearings replaced.

So...I'm out about $500 bucks. The original noise I went in for (the knock) is NOT fixed. And I am LIVID because if they had told me about the rod and crank bearing thing FROM THE BEGINNING I wouldn't have had ANY of the other work done. I could have used that $500 bucks as a down payment on a newer car.

The thing I need to know...should they have discovered the rod bearing thing from the engine diagnostic? Because if they did...they didn't bother to tell me about it before I agreed to any of the other work.

Help

[nedbal]

1. hard to fight these type of things... they claim there was a problem with...

the parts they replaced and you gave the ok (not knowing any better and relying on them)


the question to be asked at each stage could have been (hindsight is 20/20) is this problem causing the sound and will replacing this cure the sound.



the only non related to a intermittent, high whistling noise is the part about
"Find an oil leak and oil all over my spark plug. We replace plugs, plug wires, the hole where the leak was coming from. "
but that would have possibly caused the original knock!
it could have been the plugs and wires part for the knock.
on this ONE item on my car I would have fixed the external leak and cleaned off the plug and wires, I'd guess they got you $100-200 for the plugs and wires sub-part.


hey one of my repair stories is I didn't want to deal with it in 10 deg snow weather outside so $800 and 3 weeks later I track the original problem down to a $30 position sensor I then replaced myself, then I go back to them, remind em how much I paid , show the cracked defective part and they claim the engine bearings cracked it and will in time crack it again, it was good for another 4 years till the new one failed in a different failure mode.

[benEzra]

2. Rod or crank bearing knocks...

How old is the car, and what make/model? How loud is the knock with the hood closed?

If it's an older vehicle, I'd just change the oil regularly and drive it gently for as long as it will hold out. Rod/crank bearing knocks result when the bearing is worn a little, so that one part can rattle inside the other a little when the engine is running.

It's always a judgement call on whether it's a near-term failure risk or not. Personally, if you don't drive the car hard, I wouldn't expect it to fail suddenly. Just keep a very good check on the oil level, and use high-quality oil.