Dealership serviced my car and engine blew up
 

I brought my 97 4Runner to get serviced at a Toyota dealerhip on the weekend, and here's what they did:
-oil change
-lubricated propeller shaft
-replaced transfer case fluid
-replaced front/rear differential fluid
-replaced spark plugs
-transmission fluid flush

I got a call during the service and they tell me there was a situation, so I go back to the dealership and here's what they tell me (and what's written on my service record):

"Engine threw a rod stud end cap after engine was being washed. Bottom end is destroyed and contact between head and piston was inevitable. Needs engine replaced."

Now, I'm not a mechanic but needless to say, this is pretty f*cked up. Do you think the dealership should be paying for my engine replacement?

How many kms were on the engine, how long have you owned the vehicle, and just how hard are you on the thing?

what has the dealership told u they would do about this?

the car is a 97, owned it since new. 144K KM and i dont drive it hard at all.

basically, the dealership told me the 'parts guy' will call and tell me how much a new engine will cost.

im kinda confused what happened. So did the mechanic fuck up ur engine??

It sounds like horseshit to me. Fight it, make them pay.

well of course the mechanic is saying the damage was 'inevitable' but i dont believe them. They definitely could have fucked up during the service but arent admitting to it. ive driven the car 144K km with no problems, they have it for 2 hours and this 'inevitable' blown engine rod happens? i dont buy it.

Im just wondering if you guys think i have a case in fighting them and getting them to pay for my engine replacement.

144k km on a Toyota engine? That's "just ran in"....

my first thought is to tell you to get a lawyer, but i don't know what is applicable here :confused:

this isn't my account but its a friend of mines and i work at that dealership i saw the entire thing, the tech who was working on it is probably the smartest tech at that shop and to have a rod stud end cap blow through the oil pan like it did that day it would have already had to have been broken or damaged severely approx three weeks before that service day from possible driving the shit out of that vehicle for just one moment. the engine wasn't even revd past 3500 rpm that day which is nothing

they should definately pay for it. File a complaint to their head office if you can't get anything from that front desk.

rprime: is it a possible manufacturing defect? i dont drive it hard at all.

is this a regularly serviced vehicle, at this dealership, as in there is service records showing that there hasn't been mechanical issues up to this point?

if the rod cap and bearing were damaged for 3 weeks before, how come the owner didnt notice any odd engine noise? a loose or damaged rod cap would
result in some bad engine noise due to oil clearances for that rod and crank and also, how was your tech able to determine it was 3 weeks ago and not 2 weeks ago or a week ago

my car has always been regularly serviced at toyota dealerships. they acknowledged this themselves.

the dealership has been really kind/accomodating to me...im just very skeptical this happened out of the blue like they say.

Also what do you mean "drive the shit out of it"? If it's filled with oil and coolant ANYWHERE under that redline is "within service limit"....Also an automatic offroader can't even overrev governed by all the electronic nannies...

where i was heading with this was... if it's a car that dosen't see regular maintenance or goes somewhere like jiffy lube and is beat on... then maybe there is reason for doubt that the dealership is at fault. but as the OP said, it's been regularly dealer serviced, has service records, and isn't thrashed... wouldn't a rod cap that is going south make a hell of a racket before grenading if this was something that started weeks ago?

Cars do blow up when they're being serviced. This may or may not be the repair shop's fault, and there's really no way for you to tell who's fault it is. A lot of car owners have no clue their cars are about to die, which is fair because a often times there are very little to no warnings whatsoever.

But of course this is the internet and everyone knows better about what happened sitting behind a desk than the people who are actually involved.

I'd be calling a lawyer and have a outside mechanic inspect the car and look for why this happend. If it was indeed the dealers fault there should be some signs of wrong doing.

the services you got done there, nothing was involved with the bottom end. How can it be the tech's fault? That rod end cap stud was probably on its last breath, who knows why? But at least it happened in the parkinglot where the tech was just being nice and wanted your engine bay to look clean. Imagine that motor throwing the rod while you are on the highway sometime soon down the road, it wouldve been scary wouldnt it, and maybe even a bit dangeous.

I would be pissed my motor blew while being serviced by a dealership too, i understand that, but what can you do about it when its not the dealership's fault?

Its very unlikely that a stock motor would just throw a rod out of the blue, but it happens, and it just happened on you. At least you got a courtesy car to drive around in the meantime.

I dont think you have a case against them thou, im sorry.

Maybe when "cleaning" the engine like the post above me mentioned they hydrolocked the motor?

Motor's don't throw rod end cap studs for no reason. There usually is knocking before anysort of rod malfunction.

Berz out.

If the owner of the car doesn't know what engine troubles sound like they'll probably just turn up the radio and pass the engine noise off as strange road noise.

Doesn't sound like the mechanic was at fault at all. It's also possible the owner of the vehicle hasn't properly maintained the lubrication system; missing one or two oil changes even early in the engines life can severly damage the engine.

did the tech make notes about the car running rough before working on it? if not, then they are screwed

nope there are no engine noises. i often drive without the radio on and i pay quite a bit of attention to engine noises.

i hired a third party inspector and he determined the cause to be a 'faulty bolt'. basically, the bolt was stretched and stressed to the point where it just snapped.

so what does that mean? who's fault is it? :confused: