ufcrusher
01-24-2001, 03:28 PM
Well, as many of you know, I had the damn Ford Probe GT that blew up and that the Fockers at Ford wouldnt fix, even though it was their fault. So I went out and got a "deal" on my car being fixed after it being a planter for close to two years. A friend of mine who had friends who worked on engines and owned junkyards, put in a call to find me another engine. It was supposed to be a really simple and cheap fix. One '96 Probe GT engine for another, with just switching over all of the parts that hadnt been messed up when the engine decided it was a grenade. Well, that easy fix, turned into one massive headache after another.
The junkyard sent the wrong engine, so it had to be sent back. Then they send a 1996 Mazda MX-6 V6 engine, which they say is the same thing. I start arguing with them, that according to both Ford and Mazda, although the cars are originally from the same design, the modifications made to each engine, in terms of mounting, intakes, etc. render the Mazda engine unusable for me. The junkyard dealer tells me that I am full of crap, and that I dont know what I am talking about, the mechanic is sitting there siding with me, until he is finally "convinced" by the junkyard dealer that it can be retrofitted at a large cost to me. The entire deal was supposed to run me $2000 flat out the door, and that was the only reason I had agreed to it, but the mechanic suddenly wanted to charge me an extra $500 in labor, or if I backed out of it, $500 for his time. I call foul, and the junkyard dealer calls and talks to the mechanic who agrees not to charge me any extra.
A few days later, I get a call telling me that my Y-pipe is full of holes and my pre cats are clogged, total cost to replace those two "unknown incidentials" would have been $900 per precat and $500 for the y-pipe. The mechanic then tells me that is why the car blew up, so I went and confronted ford again. Their response was that is impossible, the car wouldnt have even worked if the pre-cats were clogged, and I would have noticed a problem long before the engine detonated. They tell me to bring my car intact to them, where they will rip it apart for an additional $500, to determine if that is the cause. But they tell me point blank that they already know the answer to the question so it wasnt worth the effort. Deciding between spending an additional $500 for an answer which I already know wouldnt justify the expenditure, and just paying for the parts, I decided to pay for the parts, which the junkyard dealer had nicely enough procurred for me at a substantially diminished cost ($500 for everything) was easy. Unfortunately, the parts came in and were unusable, because my car wasnt from California, and these were from California cars. I am once again looking at an additional outlay of over $2000 for those parts, since he cant find them. Fortunately he located them in Pennsylvania and had them shipped out for only an additional $50. So I figure this will be the end of the saga. All the parts are ostensibly there, and my ordeal should be over. Unfortunately, I get a call from the mechanic who informs me that all four O2 sensors are shot, and need to be replaced, I say ok, go ahead. A few days later he tells me that the car is ready to be picked up, so I go to get it. There were about another $500 in incidentials including 1 O2 sensor. I asked what about the rest, and he says, well i figured since you are selling it, you wouldnt want to fix them all, it will work fine, but the new sensors run about $240 each! Figuring that the mechanic should know what he is talking about, I say ok. He then tells me that the idle is a bit high, but that should fix itself in 500 miles because the computer needs to recalibrate itself to the slight variance in the engine. This seemed somewhat logical, but he said come back after 500 miles for a free realignment of the car.
So then I go have all the fun with the CA DMV that any one person is entitled to, originally $1600 worth of fun,but they dropped it to $640 worth of fun, because they are a bunch of focking idiots.
Thus I now have a "working" car, that is currently registered. But the idle is about three times what it should be, it seems to be eating oil, and is making all sorts of weird noises. Well yesterday morning I filled up the Windshield washer fluid, because it wasnt working, and checked all my other fluids were ok. The car had been making a groaning noise whenever I turned slowly, so I checked the power steering fluid too, but everything looked ok, other than the high idle. So when I was parallel parking the car this morning it made all sorts of noises, that sounded sort of like a drill bit being shoved into a metal socket without any lubrication. I had my girlfriend get out of the car to look and she said it looked like the car was bleeding out. Sure enough, its lost ALL of the power steering fluid, and the windshield washer fluid since yesterday morning.
I am so happy that I spent all of that money to be able to spend alot more money, to the point where the car isnt going to be right side up anymore (the whole point of getting it fixed) At this point I am going to severely maim someone or something, once I figure out who and what to do it too. I am hoping some idiot steals the car or hits it, so I can get insurance to pay for everything.
Man do I hate Ford. If anything else goes wrong with this car, i am going to park it at the border with the keys in it, for somebody to steal! Now that may be the ticket.
The junkyard sent the wrong engine, so it had to be sent back. Then they send a 1996 Mazda MX-6 V6 engine, which they say is the same thing. I start arguing with them, that according to both Ford and Mazda, although the cars are originally from the same design, the modifications made to each engine, in terms of mounting, intakes, etc. render the Mazda engine unusable for me. The junkyard dealer tells me that I am full of crap, and that I dont know what I am talking about, the mechanic is sitting there siding with me, until he is finally "convinced" by the junkyard dealer that it can be retrofitted at a large cost to me. The entire deal was supposed to run me $2000 flat out the door, and that was the only reason I had agreed to it, but the mechanic suddenly wanted to charge me an extra $500 in labor, or if I backed out of it, $500 for his time. I call foul, and the junkyard dealer calls and talks to the mechanic who agrees not to charge me any extra.
A few days later, I get a call telling me that my Y-pipe is full of holes and my pre cats are clogged, total cost to replace those two "unknown incidentials" would have been $900 per precat and $500 for the y-pipe. The mechanic then tells me that is why the car blew up, so I went and confronted ford again. Their response was that is impossible, the car wouldnt have even worked if the pre-cats were clogged, and I would have noticed a problem long before the engine detonated. They tell me to bring my car intact to them, where they will rip it apart for an additional $500, to determine if that is the cause. But they tell me point blank that they already know the answer to the question so it wasnt worth the effort. Deciding between spending an additional $500 for an answer which I already know wouldnt justify the expenditure, and just paying for the parts, I decided to pay for the parts, which the junkyard dealer had nicely enough procurred for me at a substantially diminished cost ($500 for everything) was easy. Unfortunately, the parts came in and were unusable, because my car wasnt from California, and these were from California cars. I am once again looking at an additional outlay of over $2000 for those parts, since he cant find them. Fortunately he located them in Pennsylvania and had them shipped out for only an additional $50. So I figure this will be the end of the saga. All the parts are ostensibly there, and my ordeal should be over. Unfortunately, I get a call from the mechanic who informs me that all four O2 sensors are shot, and need to be replaced, I say ok, go ahead. A few days later he tells me that the car is ready to be picked up, so I go to get it. There were about another $500 in incidentials including 1 O2 sensor. I asked what about the rest, and he says, well i figured since you are selling it, you wouldnt want to fix them all, it will work fine, but the new sensors run about $240 each! Figuring that the mechanic should know what he is talking about, I say ok. He then tells me that the idle is a bit high, but that should fix itself in 500 miles because the computer needs to recalibrate itself to the slight variance in the engine. This seemed somewhat logical, but he said come back after 500 miles for a free realignment of the car.
So then I go have all the fun with the CA DMV that any one person is entitled to, originally $1600 worth of fun,but they dropped it to $640 worth of fun, because they are a bunch of focking idiots.
Thus I now have a "working" car, that is currently registered. But the idle is about three times what it should be, it seems to be eating oil, and is making all sorts of weird noises. Well yesterday morning I filled up the Windshield washer fluid, because it wasnt working, and checked all my other fluids were ok. The car had been making a groaning noise whenever I turned slowly, so I checked the power steering fluid too, but everything looked ok, other than the high idle. So when I was parallel parking the car this morning it made all sorts of noises, that sounded sort of like a drill bit being shoved into a metal socket without any lubrication. I had my girlfriend get out of the car to look and she said it looked like the car was bleeding out. Sure enough, its lost ALL of the power steering fluid, and the windshield washer fluid since yesterday morning.
I am so happy that I spent all of that money to be able to spend alot more money, to the point where the car isnt going to be right side up anymore (the whole point of getting it fixed) At this point I am going to severely maim someone or something, once I figure out who and what to do it too. I am hoping some idiot steals the car or hits it, so I can get insurance to pay for everything.
Man do I hate Ford. If anything else goes wrong with this car, i am going to park it at the border with the keys in it, for somebody to steal! Now that may be the ticket.