5w33713

My car ran hot a few weeks ago and finally decided to go up in smoke...semi-literally. I had it towed to a mechanics shop that had great reviews. They said I would need to get a coolant flush, new radiator & cap and new thermostat. So when I picked it up the next day I didn't expect to have problems with it. On the way home my bf drove it and said it started to over heat when he'd go idle. Called them and told them we'd drop it off that wed. When we did, they came back and said it looked like my head gasket had a tiny leak and could have been some air bubbles. Well I couldn't afford to fix those. So I figured it would last a bit longer. I was wrong. It kept over heating worse and finally broke down on me a wk later. A friends husband who goes to the nascar inst. looked at it and found 2 holes in the radiator neck. Has anyone seen this before? The shop is trying to tell me that it was something that I did. But I'm thinking their wrong. Some input would be nice.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

looks like melted plastic from overheating to me, and you can see the coolant spilled out as a result. oh now i see what you mean. those holes drilled below where the cap would be. yeah thats not supposed to be there. no wonder there is coolant everywhere and the system cannot pressurize properly, which can lead to overheating.

5w33713

Yep! Those are what I'm talking about. They're trying to say I did that, by the car over-heating...?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

no lol those holes are made with a drill. no idea who would do that unless somehow they thought it would be a ghetto fix when the coolant gets hot and overflows out the holes. makes no sense at all.

i know what those are. i bet the shop drilled them when they were pressure testing the system. you are not supposed to drill the actual radiator tho, only the white plastic overflow tank on the side when you are doing a cooling system pressure test. the overflow tank is not under pressure normally so the holes are fine. but holes in the radiator is not okay. i would say the shop messed up this time.

5w33713

Thanks! That's what we're thinking too. Now let's see if they'll actually admit it. hmmmmm

5w33713

Nope! They won't. Time to go get a 2nd opinion...ugh! They won't replace it unless I have them replace my head gasket.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

definately get another opinion. headgasket might be possible, but not always. there are many checks you can do and im guessing they did none of them except make assumptions. if this is not a honda dealer, i bet they used an aftermarket thermostat and just that alone can cause overheating. so can not properly bleeding the cooling system after a radiator install.

CraigW

iTrader: (1)

I would not trust them to replace a dome light... Any way to get any of your $$ back ??

That is just crazy.

Mr_Plenty

iTrader: (3)

yea those holes are obviously drilled. smh @ shops with good reviews and poor service.