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Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

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OfflineChaosauzi
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Could anyone help with some overheating/legal car issues?
    #14163827 - 03/22/11 10:25 AM (12 years, 11 months ago)

Long story abbreviated, Sears installed a radiator to small for my engine. (I have a 350 V8 and they installed a radiator for a 305 I believe) Sears already replaced the radiator but I took my car in saying the pressure in the engine has substantially decreased since the installation of the bad radiator. Sears wants me to take it to a dealership to get it diagnosed, I called the dealership and a service technician told me all they could do was survey the damage (Can't sears survey the damage?), and he expressed that they couldn't say if it was caused by the bad radiator, but only because of heat. Sears wants me to pay for the repairs, towing, diagnostic on my own dime. This engine was fairly new and had no damage prior to the radiator being installed. I had taken it into Sears times before the faulty radiator was installed and they never noticed anything wrong with my car. When my car started getting hot after the first radiator was installed, I spent about 1k on trying to figure out the overheating issue in the first place when it was the just their bad work. The bad radiator was installed 5 1/2 months ago. I brought the car in about 4 times afterward to find the overheating problem. about two weeks ago I got them to replace the bad radiator (I had to figure out the problem on my own). Now my car has been in the shop for a week while they throw me around between their managers and are now telling me I have to tow and diagnose it myself. I have been told all the damage could be attributed to overheating. here's a list of what I know so far...
-Exhaust leak (Sears is saying a burned hole in a valve was caused by this, the leak is up by the engine.)
-Bad valve cover gasket
-Intake gasket leak
-Compression is low in the cylinders and varied among cylinders
-Dealership says it sounds like a blown head gasket
The car is an old 86 Monte Carlo SS
I'm just a student, I obviously don't have the $$ to pay for all that engine work. If it's Sears' fault I need them to take care of it pronto. Any advice?

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OfflineChuangTzu
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Re: Could anyone help with some overheating/legal car issues? [Re: Chaosauzi]
    #14163846 - 03/22/11 10:28 AM (12 years, 11 months ago)

It could be from the overheating before the work done by Sears, and I don't know how you'd prove otherwise...  They did fuck up though, so you may have some leverage.

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OfflineChaosauzi
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Re: Could anyone help with some overheating/legal car issues? [Re: ChuangTzu]
    #14163889 - 03/22/11 10:37 AM (12 years, 11 months ago)

There was no overheating before the work by sears, I had to replace my original radiator because of a transmission leak. The overheating started with the installation of the undersized radiator. After they installed the correct radiator I no longer had overheating problems. Although I only ran on the newer/correct radiator for 2 days. The only thing I continued noticed in those two days was the absence of power that had slowly been seeping away.

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OfflineChuangTzu
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Re: Could anyone help with some overheating/legal car issues? [Re: Chaosauzi]
    #14163927 - 03/22/11 10:45 AM (12 years, 11 months ago)

Seems like they don't have a leg to stand on then.

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Invisiblekoraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,691
Re: Could anyone help with some overheating/legal car issues? [Re: Chaosauzi]
    #14163950 - 03/22/11 10:53 AM (12 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

-Dealership says it sounds like a blown head gasket



Loss of compression in combination with known overheating issues makes this a logical conclusion. But not the only possible one. You're losing coolant in some way or another?

Although it is impossible to prove beyond any form of doubt, it is at least likely that meddling with the radiator somehow has to do with your problem. I don't think it's necessarily caused by fitting too small a radiator; it's in my opinion much more likely that Sears didn't vent all the air from the coolant loop, causing bubbles in the system that tend to accumulate at the highest point (usually the cylinder head), leading to local overheating and possibly blowing a head gasket. However, a pre-existing leak in the cooling system can also be a cause, and that would make it difficult to prove that Sears is actually at fault here.

Btw a burned valve is in my opinion usually not caused by overheating of the engine itself, but by bad adjustment (valve clearance). The valve should close properly in order to cool it, so if the valves are badly adjusted and they don't close entirely and long enough, they can burn. So I suspect that is another issue, and I'm not sure if it's related to your overheating problem at all.

In my experience, big, old cars require big bucks to keep running. I'd consider settling for something smaller and cheaper.

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OfflineChaosauzi
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Re: Could anyone help with some overheating/legal car issues? [Re: Chaosauzi]
    #14164027 - 03/22/11 11:15 AM (12 years, 11 months ago)

I brought the car in and told them that my coolant was vaporizing randomly to the point I had to fill the reservoir weekly... My problem is that even if the problem can't be 100% attributed to the radiator shouldn't they have caught whatever the problem might have been when I brought the car in consecutively to try and figure it out. I've taken my car in over 8 times in the past year, and only to Sears. Why is it only now they are figuring all this crap out? Also, only when I'm forcing them by saying that they may be at fault for damaging my car... I need to know whether I should put the smack down on these guys or take the hit.

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Invisiblekoraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,691
Re: Could anyone help with some overheating/legal car issues? [Re: Chaosauzi]
    #14164334 - 03/22/11 12:21 PM (12 years, 11 months ago)

It depends too much on your legal system. I know that in my country, you would have a fairly strong case, and I suspect you will in the US too, but I'm just not too familiar with how things roll on your end of the drink.

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Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order


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