I feel like expressing my feelings about what is going on with my car at the moment and how this does not help me like car dealerships in general.
It all happened back in the summer time when there was a huge thunderstorm and I was at my cousins house in Pendleton IN. There were reports of funnel clouds and flooding all over the county so I decided to go home before it got any worse. When I left I drove maybe two miles to a stop light where I was going to turn left, but when I spotted a patrol car and a work truck with it's emergency lights on in the middle of the road, I decided to go straight instead.
By this time the rain was coming down so hard that I had to drive extremely slow to avoid not seeing anything. From what I could see, the road ahead looked fine, so I moved on. The next thing I knew I was wheelwell deep in water and the car is dying. I removed my shoes and socks, and walked in knee deep water across the street to a house where I found someone to help me move the car out of the road and to drive me home.
We parked the car across the street in a bank's parking lot where I figured by morning, or at the latest two days it would dry out.
I checked at random times over the next two days to see if it had dried out yet but with no luck. On the third day, I had my cousin's husband tow my car back home with his truck and a tow strap. This time I called the insurance company and explained to them what happened. They sent an insurance adjuster over to check it out. He ended up having the car towed to Peyton Wells Dodge in Anderson IN to find out what was wrong and possibly fix it based on what the insurance company says to do.
The dealership told me that they had two cars ahead of mine and that they would look at it the next day. Three days passed, so I called to see what was going on. The service manager told me that the technician assigned to my car was sick at home with the stomach flu and they went ahead and worked on other peoples cars that had been there after mine. An entire week passed before they got to my car. By that time the insurance company is calling me asking what is going on. The dealership discovers that my engine was hydrolocked* and that it would need to be replaced. What I found out later was the entire engine was not to be replaced, just the shortblock, i.e. pistons, crank, bottom end components. No head or valves were replaced which is curious since they told me that there was an inch of standing water in the combustion chambers. I'd think that since the valves are exposed to the same water as the pistons, and thereby the same pressure that was preasent the moment the engine was running before it died, they wold need replaced also.
Anyway, back to the story.
The insurance company agreed to replace the engine, and water damaged headlights, which by the way cost 350some bucks, and creeped me ever closer to the insurance spending limit that would declare my car totalled.
No kidding, a month later I finally got a call to go pick up my car. I had to go to the bank in Greenwood, so I went directly to the interstate from the dealership. About one mile before my exit, I gunned it to pass someone and lost all upper RPM power. The engine started to make a funny noise like something small and metal rattling around in there.
The car was still drivable so I exited and found Tom O'Brian's Chrysler Plymouth. I pulled in and asked the service manager to look at it for me. I explained to him what happened and told him of my trouble with Peyton Wells, he told me to wait and he was gone. A few minutes later he returned and told me that there was o transmission fluid. I bought four quarts and put it all in, the noise remained.
I went to a gas station to fill up and discovered that there was hardly any oil in the car as well. I bought two quarts of oil. When I went to add it, the oil cap came apart in my hand. The spring loaded threads stayed in the crankcase and the handle was in my hand, so I had no way to add any oil.
I limped the car all the way back to Peyton Wells and told them what happened. The service manager said that they would look at it while I was there.
A few minutes later he returnd telling me that a piston pin had failed, the new engine was defective and that they would order a new one and install it the next week. He also said that the defective engine was ok to drive on until the new engine came in.
Two days later, I went to get gas and the car wouldn't start up again. I had to get a jump from someone to get me home and all the way home the guages were going haywire. I shut the car off and tried to start it again, nothing, it was dead.
I called Peyton Wells, they sent a flatbed and said that they would hold it until the new motor arrived in two days. He also said that the problem I experienced was the circuit board for the guages was faulty and in need of replacement. My mom went apeshit and said that there was nothing wrong with the guages before. She yelled at the service manager telling him that it has been nothing but a hassle from day one with them, and they need to replace the circuit board free. After they hung up, the service manager and the manager of the deaership called back on speaker phone and a yellng match insued. A one point the manager of the dealership agreed to pay for the circuit board and battery IF my mom signed a contract stating that she would never set foot in that dealership for any reason. My mom declined and another bout of yelling insued. Finally the manager of the dealership agreed to replace the circuit board and battery for free under the threat of lawsuit. They hung up and a few minutes later the manager called back saying nevermind, he wasn't going to replace it, they didn't break it, do what you have to do. Mom yelled some more and called the insurance company back. She told them what had happened and told them that they needed to re-adjust the car for damages they maybe missed. The insurance company told her that the car should have been totalled to begin with and it was a mistake they made. They gave her options, either take the salvage price of 3400 dollars and keep the car, or let them pay off the loan and they keep the car. Mom took the salvage and kept the car since by that time it had the new motor installed. We figured since the car motor wise was as good as new, we could keep the car and use the money to fix the door. We told Payton Wells and they agreed to send the car to Wiedner Chevrolet for the door repairs. The door was busted at the latch causing the door not to shut at all and causing drain to the battery. My mom thought she remembered a car she had previously doing the same thing with the guages when it's battery was going dead. She figured that a replacement battery would solve that problem. Payton Wells had previously agreed to install a new battery, so we would later see that indeed the new battery solved the problem of the guages, all the while the dealership is trying to sell us a new circuit board.
A whole month again passed before the car was released from the Chevy dealership with a new door. (which by the way took all of the 3400 bucks to repair) My cousin went with us to pick up the car so she could do a little Christmas shopping afterward. The car was perfectly cleaned and the new door was paint matched prefectly. The car looked brand new. It started up perfectly and purred all the way to the mall with no problem. My mom and I dropped my cousin off at Karma and we waited outside. The car was making a very faint clicking noise that I at first thought was the antenna moving back and forth. I scratched that thought when I grabbed the antenna and the noise was still there.
I figured that if there was anything wrong with the engine it would be repaired under warrenty and plus I didn't want to be without a car anymore so I forgot about it.
About 2 weeks later the noise had grown louder, so I took it back to Payton Wells to check it out.
Since I was there before, the service manager had been fired because of numerous complaints, me being one of them. I sat in the waiting room ten minutes before the mechaic who had previously worked on the car appeared saying that the flywheel was cracked. I asked him how that would have happened and he replied smugly "I dunno, you drive it, you tell me.".
I could have smashed his face right there.
Again, nothing was wrong with the "flywheel" before but now there is and they are saying it's not there fault.
He quotes a price of 400 dollars to fix it and we leave.
About a month later the noise has gotten worse and I'm still driving the car to work every day.
One day on my lunch break, I leave to get something to eat. After I eat I go to the bank and cash my paycheck. When I leave the bank, I notice that the flywheel is clicking unusually loud. I try to take it easy on the accelerator to get back to work. About 15 feet from the entrance to work the flywheel gives out and the car behaves like it's in neutral. I coast on into the parking lot and shut it off.
The car is now in the shop for hopefully the last day because I have already missed three days of work and am on the verge of losing my job or having severely cut hours.
The shop I sent it to this time is a small peformance shop called Speedtech and they specialize in hotrod Hondas and serious engine work, they are a good shop.
Speedtech says he will fix the flexplate for 300 bucks and have it done by monday at the very latest, it's wednesday now. Sounds like a good deal. Speedtech even agrees to let me pay 200 of it when I pick it up and the remainder when I get paid again on wednesday.
Monday:
It is now 5:45 pm and Speedtech has said it would be done in an hour give or take, that was about 45 minutes ago.
I have found some interesting things abot what they did or didn't do at Payton Wells.
First, Speedtech said that it is IMPOSSIBLE to tell a flywheel is cracked just by looking through the service plate like they did when I took it in to see what the noise was, so they had to know it was cracked when they installed the new engine. Why didn't they at least tell me it was damaged when they installed the engine? Probably because they overtightened the bolts or even left some loose on accident. More soon!
