Engine swap gone wrong.. Options

[SiriusVirus]

So in june of last year I decided to bring my celica back by paying to swap an engine in because of rod knock. 1500$ all together to have the car back and running. In september I was driving to school and my car died and began having rod knock sounds again... I called and chewed out the shop demanding they swap another engine. I drove with my friend to pick up my car and first i noticed my over drive was flickering on and off (I had my family mechanic fix it just a plug not put in all the way) probably a warning sign they did a crap job. I drove this car all the way up until now and then I realized in my garage I had oil dripping on the floor. I took my car to my family mechanic right away. Hes been with the car all week and told me there is oil all over the engine bay and he has to power wash the whole thing to figure out where its coming from. I spoke to him today and he told me the engine was never properly sealed its almost as though they went to a junk yard and just dropped it in and never even cleaned the engine bay. Those mechanics are claiming the warranty on their work is up after 3 months. Paying to get a rebuilt engine and it only lasting for 1 oil change is ridiculous! Im wondering should I take them to small claims court if they keep refusing to repair this for free? My mechanic told me it would cost him 800$ at the least to seal the engine its leaking from the block and cylinders.

So I have had a total of 3 engines in this car. Let me know what you guys think is the best course of action

Thanks in advance.

[DEATH]

Sounds like they gave you a junkyard motor and didnt reseal it. Which, for $1500 is about normal. It's not something I would have done to you but it is very common. Did they express in writing that they were going to do anything other than that? What is the wording in their work order? Rebuilt engine, etc. You weren't under the impression that you were getting a NEW engine right? Because that's not going to happen.
As for the oil leak - do you ever check your oil level or are you a start it and go kind of driver? These engines def leak from a few known places if certain sealing tricks aren't done [IE. the valve cover needs copious amounts of Toyota FIPG in the corners or it WILL leak all over the back of the engine, steering rack and pretty much everything else down there].

This post has been edited by DEATH: Mar 28, 2013 - 3:39 PM

[SiriusVirus]

I knew it would be a junk yard motor i just figured they would seal it. My car still does run. I check my oil about once a week i learned my lesson after the first swap. What they gave me is basically a sheet of computer paper print saying nothing but a price.. "customer satisfaction is our #1 priority" my ass lol. Any ways what should I do for the mean time just check my oil and top it off?? I was planning on doing a ton of body work and painting but that is probably a dumb thing to do if i have an oil leak this bad.

This post has been edited by SiriusVirus: Mar 28, 2013 - 3:26 PM

[DEATH]

1st thing I would do is to look up the how-to on here on replacing the Valve Cover Gasket and be sure to follow the instructions as to where to put Toyota FIPG. Be sure to use a Toyota genuine gasket and FIPG. They will cost you a few dollars extra but it really makes a difference. You can EASILY do this in your garage with minimal tools. Then I would clean everything I could behind the motor and see if a leak develops after a day or two.
Then report back to us and we can help you from there. Good luck

Edit: Oh yeah - in the meantime keep you a few extra quarts of oil and check it often. It might help us determine the cause if we knew how much oil was leaking [You can tell this by how much/often you have to replace it]
And just so we're clear here - is it a 2.2L [5S-FE] or a 1.8L [7A-FE]?

This post has been edited by DEATH: Mar 28, 2013 - 3:41 PM

[SiriusVirus]

What my mechanic told me when i picked it up he said from the valve cover down it was leaking. He replaced the valve gasket for free. I have the 5sfe engine. What its looking like at this point is im gonna have to just top it off for the mean time I do have the money to pay to get it sealed but I just feel its not worth it on this car.

[DEATH]

It might just be the VCG - its the most common leak point on the 5S-FE and it will leak a ton of oil all over the back of the engine making it look like you have multiple leaks. Keep your eye on the level and see if it continues to drop, cross your fingers cause you might have just fixed the problem. You might also ask him if he sealed the corners tho - In my considerable experience it will still leak if not.
Good luck dude.

This post has been edited by DEATH: Mar 28, 2013 - 4:14 PM

[SiriusVirus]

Thanks man. He told me it looked like a lot of leaks and he most likely hasnt worked on a lot of celicas so he might not know this. I hope that gasket does the trick.

[Box]

If they said "rebuilt engine" that'd imply an engine that was torn down and rebuilt with new bearings, rings, seals, etc... This is why I do all of my work myself, for so many "professionals" to be working at these places there seems to be a lot of amateur work. Hopefully it was just that gasket and no damage has incurred from having the oil level drop so low.

[SiriusVirus]

I caught it well before my oil got low thankfully.

[lagos]

I knew it would be a junk yard motor i just figured they would seal it. My car still does run. I check my oil about once a week i learned my lesson after the first swap. What they gave me is basically a sheet of computer paper print saying nothing but a price.. "customer satisfaction is our #1 priority" my ass lol. Any ways what should I do for the mean time just check my oil and top it off?? I was planning on doing a ton of body work and painting but that is probably a dumb thing to do if i have an oil leak this bad.

A complete gasket set costs something like 300$, plus their time to tear everything down and rebuild (your mechanic probably added 500$ labor to that cost).
A used motor at a junk yard is probably in the ball park of 800$. That would be about 1100 in parts alone. I doubt they would do something like that and still charge you only 1,500 total.

You got what you paid for and you knew your were getting a used motor, not a rebuild. However they should have test driven the car to make sure that the car is road worthy before giving it back to you and addressed any major leaks. You should have brought the car back to them and showed them what the problem is. Explain that you were expecting a running car that is road worthy after the swap, and that they should address the major leak (probably just a simple valve cover gasket).

There is really nothing any court will do for you. You wanted a used engine put in, and thats what they gave you. But as a business, they should have made sure that everything was in good shape before giving it back to you.

[soulshadow]

They should have known and told you that the replacement motor will need to be rebuilt or have parts replaced for reliability and given you the options if you want to go ahead and do those replacement for extra money, or they will not give you any warranty. It is also your responsibility to check over your car when they are done to ensure that they have properly fulfilled what you paid them for.

Some questions I don't quite understand:

Why did you even take it to the shop when your family mechanic could have done the swap?

Did it ever occur to you that you should have taken all your problems with the car back to the shop that did the swap instead of the family mechanic?

[SiriusVirus]

Didnt know this mechanic at the time. And the valve cover gasket stopped the leak and I had my friend seal the cover for me last night. And I plan on buying a 240sx or 300zx in a year. I just need this celica to run until then. What the shop manager said was "Its not under warranty but we'll fix it for as cheap as possible" Would you take your car to a shop that said that?

This post has been edited by SiriusVirus: Mar 29, 2013 - 10:47 AM

[njccmd2002]

No, I'd do it myself

[SiriusVirus]

What can I say. I chose the learn computers not cars oops?

[Box]

Cars have computers though.

[soulshadow]

What can I say. I chose the learn computers not cars oops?

I tend to broaden my horizon and learn everything......

[lagos]

Didnt know this mechanic at the time. And the valve cover gasket stopped the leak and I had my friend seal the cover for me last night. And I plan on buying a 240sx or 300zx in a year. I just need this celica to run until then. What the shop manager said was "Its not under warranty but we'll fix it for as cheap as possible" Would you take your car to a shop that said that?

Yes I would.
I don't mean to sound offensive, but you are acting like they owe you a brand new motor with a 5yr warranty but you only want to pay about 1500 bucks parts AND labor? Thats probably a lot of money to you, but its not a lot when it comes to the cost of engines.

You realize that a rebuild motor with warranty costs 2-3,000 (not including labor), right? You would be looking at about a 4,000 bill if you went with this.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-REMAN-TOYOTA-C...e8a&vxp=mtr

[saleenvic]

You have to be very careful when it comes to repair shops. Most of them try to feed you nonsense so its important that you try to learn how to work on your car if possible. Example - I normally do most of the work on cars myself , but just in case I got 2 trusted mechanics that have worked on previous car's I've owned in the past. Usually I slip them a few $$ extra once the car is done and believe me it helps because thats how they remember you and thats how you build the relationship - they take care of me, I take care of them. So stick with 1 shop and 1 mechanic if you can. Hopefully you're able to resolve the situation.

[njccmd2002]

What can I say. I chose the learn computers not cars oops?

and hence you can see the results.


I never chose to repair cars, but after seeing lessons learned by other people, it just makes more sense now...

[boostordie]

It breaks my heart when I see stuff like this happening to guys. Yes, that is an extremely cheap price for an engine replacement but apparently many shops glaze over all of the details. When we swap a customer car I give them an estimate before hand of what it would cost with no other issues and then when the car is done I go over all of the little things that typically need to be addressed that were replaced line by line. I live on customer satisfaction and repeat customers so I try to do it right the first time. Hope you find a good solution OP.