Rep Power: 0

I can't tell if the shop I have taken my car to knows what they are talking about or are trying to scam me out of money. I have a 97 Honda Civic EX with a manual transmission. Here's the situation:

1) almost like clockwork, the oil light would begin 2 flicker on/off when it was time for an oil change which likely meant it was burning or leaking oil (or both). in response, I would add another quart or 2 (depending on how long I thought it would take for me to get an oil change)

2) my battery died over the winter, so I put in a new one. but not before a lot of slow starts, jumps, etc.

3) after the new battery, it would still turn over slowly. it would always start, however. I was told this was probably an issue with the starter or something buy wasn't an immediate concern.

4) wed 5/21, it's about time for an oil change & the oil light is going on/off. I'm driving down the freeway when my battery light turns on. almost immediately, the gas pedal becomes unresponsive, I slow to a stop, and the car turns off & will not start up again. I also notice a small amount of light smoke coming from under the hood.

5) I push the car to a gas station where I add 2 quarts of oil and around 3 or 4 gallons of gas. I try to start the car, but there is no change & I notice a small amount of the smoke again. since the battery light came on & the car won't turn over, I tried to get a jump. while connecting the cables to the terminals, I notice the negative (black) battery cable is melted. I realize then the jump won't help, so I stop trying to start the car.

6) I tow the car to a company I'll call "Tell Buyer" because my step-dad does repeat business with them. it is after hours so I don't talk to anyone until the next morning. when I get there (thurs 5/22), someone is already looking at my car, the hood is up, & the engine is running. he tells me it runs (obviously) but he doesn't want to turn it off because he won't be able to get it started again because it needs a new starter. also, there is some knocking in the engine I should be aware of. but, for now, I just needed a new starter & when that was installed, they could check for any other electrical issues (something caused the battery cable to melt & they didn't think it was solely because of the starter).

7) they don't get the starter until the next day (fri 5/23). they put it in, start the car, & take it for a test drive. they say that halfway around the block, the car died again & they had to push it back to the shop. it's too late that day for them to continue working on it, so they tell me they won't try again until the next day.

8) the next day (sat 5/24) they say they haven't figured it out & probably won't until Tuesday (because of Sunday & Memorial Day). they also remind me about all the other things they recommended I get done (i.e. struts, cv boots, oil change, power steering fluid/flush, etc.).

9) Tuesday rolls around (5/27 today) & they call 1st thing in the morning to tell me they can't start the car. it has seized up & will not move. possibly because it was 1 quart low of oil (their estimate) but they can't be sure because they don't do engine repair work. they also asked if I had any recent work done on my clutch because they basically had to tighten all the bolts on the transmission. the clutch hadn't been changed in years (one of the things about the car I was very pleased with)

sooooo.... what the hey?

does this sounds right?

the system takes 3.5 qts of oil & I put 2 in it before it was towed to Tell Buyer, so how could it only have 2.5 qts in it when it seized up? if there wasn't a catastrophic leak that only happened after it got there, wouldn't it mean the car only had 1/2 a quart in it when I pushed it into the gas station?

why was it running ok when I arrived that Thursday?

they even said they topped off the oil, so how did it lose a full quart without them noticing it to the point where there wasn't enough to keep the car from seizing up (when i was apparently driving it around with much less right beforehand, but then put in 2 qts & then they had it running before the new starter)?

they were supposed to be fixing an electrical issue. how did it turn into my whine seizing up?

is it really just how they are saying it happened? that the engine was knocking & leaking massive amounts of oil which led to the inevitable failure.

or is something fishy? since the only problem they were supposed to fix (& what was supposedly the only thing keeping the car from running) was some unknown electrical issue. but somehow, even though I added 2 qts & Tell Buyer said they topped it off & the car hadn't been leaking that much oil before it got to them, the car possibly lost enough oil to seize up in a matter of days while in their possession.

did they do this or did this just happen? or is it my fault (like, negligence or something)?

whatever the case, is it something I should be on the hook for?

btw, I started to think something was wrong when I got the estimate that Thursday. they were charging:
$230.96 for the starter
$20.68 for the battery cable
$242.44 for the front struts (plus $22.26 for the mounting kits)
$244.80 for the rear struts (plus $22.26 for the kits)
$86.57 for the left cv boot
$81.13 for the right
and that's NOT including labor

(I'm sorry for the long story. I wanted to make sure I didn't leave out anything relevant. also, the car is waiting at Tell Buyer but I only have about a week until I need to make a decision)

 
Rep Power: 243

The constant running it low on oil lead to its destruction, imo. Every time you run an engine low on oil you risk damaging something internally.

The stater was a separate issue, running it so low on oil that the light turns on is the primary reason that you need a new engine.

This is my opinion and I am not a professional, I would wait for some more responses.

Those prices for parts don't look to outrageous to me.

 
Rep Power: 518

I kinda quit reading after this.