problems

ok. so heres the scoop. i own an automatic 96 eclipse gsx. ive owned it for coming up on three years now and before january took great care of it. i went to az for two months and left my car with a custom shop to fix my bumper (some hit and ran and left a two foot gash in it for me to pay to fix for). when i got back the car was not working and turns out someone from the shop drove it and put over 200 miles on it.

first question: how much damage could he have caused if he drove it really hard for these 200+ miles?

the car basically sat around for 5/6 months. paid again to get the car running... they had to replace the alternator and battery and some other part that i didnt pay attention to when they told me cause i just wanted my car back. they also said i needed to replace the exhaust soon. i had to pass on doing that right away cause i was flat broke and couldnt afford it.

so i drove the car rarely (for work mainly) and noticed it was running really warm. the entire time ive owned it its never done this.

then one day trying to make it home the car got really hot and before i could get off the road the engine killed and so i got on the shoulder and let it cool off. my friend got it started again and we got it down to his house.

next morning i tried to just drive it to get it home and to get me home. it did the same thing as before only this time i couldnt get it to even start again and had to tow it home. the tow truck driver said it left a ton of oil on the shoulder where it broke down. he guessed the turbo or engine blew. its been two months at least now since this.

second question: what happened?

im broke now and its just sitting and i cant afford to even tow it to a shop. also if theres a way i could get it running for a little bit there is a shop up the street i could get it fixed at.

i use to rely on my friends and the mechanics at the shop. but now i dont trust any of them and i really am weary about trusting getting my car checked out without knowing more about what it could be. im female and ive already delt with bad mechanics who are sexist. i dont know a lot about my car and was hoping that when i bought it i would be able to put money into it and learn at the same time but that didnt work out.

so any opinions, advice would be much appreciated. right now im wanting to get it fixed but if i cant afford to i wil just be selling it off as is.

Usually a very very bad sign when there is a ton of oil left behind :/ you may be looking into a new motor....running a engine out of oil no matter how good the engine is is a very bad bad thing. 99% of the time the motor is ruined.

It not too late to get a lawer involved. Seek a consolodated lawer who works for a percentage of the winnings and won't cost anything if you lose. There is no excuse for their actions. Do you have any proof that one of their guys took it ? If all else fails you can demonstrate out in front of their business with picket signs. That always gets results. Threaten them with exposure to the local papers and radio stations.

You have been wronged and they know it. It's time to get MAD. From now on record your conversations with them. You can easily get the wiring you need to hook up a recorder to a phone line at an electronics store. This will be the best way to get a high quality recording that will stand up in court.

Just remember that bad publicity will end up costing them more than fixing your car. If they are smart, they will take the high road. Now go kick some ass!!!

Since you tried to go into great detail with your first post (very good), I will do my best to explain the situation to you.

First answer: Possibly a lot. Depending on just what the fuck they did to it while they were "joy riding", you could be in a bad place because of it. If I had to guess as to what happened they probably redlined it one too many times and blew the headgasket, which in turn caused your motor to start burning coolant like crazy and caused your overheating problems. This is just speculation on my part but after reading how this type of shit works for a few years this is my best guess. As for the exhaust...did they say what was wrong with it? Probably not....I would say unless it is sounding unusual or try to jack the car up and do a visual inspection to see if there are any holes, etc. I bet it's fine for the time being.

Second answer: Your motor overheated (due to them being retarded from answer 1) and possibly seized. If this is the case, your motor is probably damaged to the point it will be quite expensive to fix because it will require a rebuild. It may also be beyond the point of a rebuild if there was extensive damage done to the block. Only by taking it apart would you know just how bad the internals are...so I suggest you start making friends at a reputable shop who takes care of their customers and knows wtf they are doing. From the sounds of it you may be looking for a different car.

As for the legal end of things, I'm afraid you might be in a tough spot because of your lack of funds. It's going to be hard to gather enough proof that the damage was actually done by them and not the reason you took it into the shop in the first place. Ask around in your family for a good lawyer who will work to get paid only if you win. In your situation I doubt this will be available to you though. Good luck.

thank you so much for the response. im going to try to get out tomorrow and get something to hook up a recorder to a phone.

i already have the recorder. my friends dad actually works for a law firm and i had gotten it from them and got advice about suing the shop or suing the person directly. the person who drove the car did not work there but did do free stuff helping around the shop. he also had been my friend who i had told specifically could not drive my car. he probably talked the other guys into taking my car and didnt tell them i didnt want him driving my car. so i felt bad for the guys at the shop because he took advantage of them.

so i can either sue them, or sue him directly. directly i would need the shop to back me and i think that would be the best route because they benefit as do i since when they repaired the second time they didnt charge me any labor. the went in originally running fine as i said. the tranny was replaced in it when i bought it but was not shifting well possibly because my turbo was starting to go.

so im going to record them admitting he drove it since thats what i need according to my friends dad for going after them since legally they were responsible for it. but then i can fill them in and say either i can come after you or go after the guy specifically.

as for the blown head gasket that sounds about right. also i kept the car VERY clean on the inside as did the guy before me. i never had a person look under the hood without them mentioning how clean it was. when i got back i noticed oil all over in random spots, like on the underside of the hood. was wondering what caused that.

as for the engine i was wondering if it could possibly be crankwalk? i starting reading around on here and the description of it sounds like what happened. i forgot to mention the clicking that happened when it broke down. im guessing i will have to get someone else to take a look at it to tell what happened but if the head gasket was blown could that have caused crankwalk or be related? i would need it to be to get that added onto the charges.

as for the exhaust they said it was causing a lot of back pressure.

Good for you. It sounds like you are heading the right direction.

Under high boost and an ever so slightly cracked valve cover, you will get oil squirting on to the underside of the hood. As for the exhaust, the catalitic converter might be plugged causing the back pressure that you mentioned. Good luck with everything.