Annihilator_Pro
10-05-2004, 11:41 PM
My car is in a local body shop where during the course of repairs the radiator and heat exchanger were replaced. I instructed the shop manager to call me when it was time to fill them with coolant and told him that I would bring coolant and distilled water and either fill them or explain the process in detail. He agreed.
However, he did not notify me prior to attempting to fill the radiator. He filled only the reservoir of the radiator and did not fill the rest of the cooling system through the crossover tube. He then ran the car for "maybe 5 minutes." The temp gauge never came off of the coldest setting, indicating that no warm coolant ever came in contact with the sensor and that there was little or no coolant in the block/heads.
The Ford Shop Manual is very emphatic about the fact that if the cooling system is not filled using the outlined procedure the engine will overheat.
My concern is that tomorrow I am supposed to pick up the car, how can I determine if any damage has been done to the engine, other than a leak-down test and possibly having a dealer "Boroscope" the cylinders? Shouldn't the shop be responsible for the diagnostics to see if they damaged the engine?
They already have potentially cost me a bundle by failing to understand my other instruction about not ordering a stock radiator replacement - but, instead, letting me know when they were ready and I would get them the part numbers for a Fluidyne aftermarket radiator and heat exchanger. The manager admits he misunderstood me, he thought the heat exchanger was "the radiator" I was referring to and ordered a stock replacement. When I asked him to return the stock unit he said he couldn't because he threw out the box. So now they have stuck me with a stock radiator when I could have just as easily had a higher performance Fluidyne replacement. If I need the Fluidyne in the future it would cost me for both parts and labor.
I feel that they need to compensate me in some fashion for this mistake which they admit making.
However, he did not notify me prior to attempting to fill the radiator. He filled only the reservoir of the radiator and did not fill the rest of the cooling system through the crossover tube. He then ran the car for "maybe 5 minutes." The temp gauge never came off of the coldest setting, indicating that no warm coolant ever came in contact with the sensor and that there was little or no coolant in the block/heads.
The Ford Shop Manual is very emphatic about the fact that if the cooling system is not filled using the outlined procedure the engine will overheat.
My concern is that tomorrow I am supposed to pick up the car, how can I determine if any damage has been done to the engine, other than a leak-down test and possibly having a dealer "Boroscope" the cylinders? Shouldn't the shop be responsible for the diagnostics to see if they damaged the engine?
They already have potentially cost me a bundle by failing to understand my other instruction about not ordering a stock radiator replacement - but, instead, letting me know when they were ready and I would get them the part numbers for a Fluidyne aftermarket radiator and heat exchanger. The manager admits he misunderstood me, he thought the heat exchanger was "the radiator" I was referring to and ordered a stock replacement. When I asked him to return the stock unit he said he couldn't because he threw out the box. So now they have stuck me with a stock radiator when I could have just as easily had a higher performance Fluidyne replacement. If I need the Fluidyne in the future it would cost me for both parts and labor.
I feel that they need to compensate me in some fashion for this mistake which they admit making.