The original mechanic to come out bailed, no showed, and no communication. I called around and couldn’t find another shop to come out but landed on one that sounded like a winner, so I called a tow truck and arranged for it to be dropped off. Tuesday night, 10 hours before the tow truck was to arrive (845am) I put the spark plugs back in after the leak down test, re-attached the intake and whatnot, and then had the car towed to a local shop to diagnose the cylinder 3 misfire. They called on Friday to say that the spark plug is smashed and there is a hole in the piston. It was NOT in this condition when I dropped off the car so now I’m stuck trying to figure out what to do. They are claiming no liability, suggesting that a valve seat fell into the cylinder. I saw the valves when the IM was off earlier and all valves looked fine, though granted I didn’t inspect (can I even see them?) the valve seats. When I started it up after re-installing the IM it idled more or less fine for about 90 seconds before the cylinder 3 misfire started up again, single code. A couple of restarts to check other small fixes and it did the same each time, more or less fine idle for a small bit then the single cylinder misfire would happen. It was a fine, albeit rough (misfiring) running motor when I dropped it off, and now it has a hole in the piston and “smashed” spark plug.
I called another local shop who has done a bunch of work on the car previously and they say the valve seat falling into the cylinder is incredibly unlikely, having to get past the valves before being able to drop into the cylinder. I don’t know enough about this but looking for input.
There are a lot of inconsistencies and issues with their story so far. Such as it sounds they immediately went to trying to drive the car instead of looking at ANYTHING. The car was dropped off without a front bumper, core support minimally installed so it could be winched onto the tow truck. Vice grips clamping a hose closed, wires disconnected and dangling.
Looking for advice before I go back and talk to them further. Currently planning on further explanation, clarity of what their ACTUAL play by play is. I also want to get an actual diagnosis of what was causing the cylinder 3 misfire. They said they think it could be the valve seat that was causing the misfire and then dropped when they took possession and caused the hole in the piston. But they didn’t make it sound like that was their official diagnosis, which is what I paid for, what I contracted them to tell me. So I want them to give me their actual diagnosis of cylinder 3 - do I have a case here for them to do a tear down to find the root cause? Would I trust them? The same shop I’ve used before for work on the car suggested I tow the car home and have a 3rd party mechanic come take a look and do the further diagnosis on what caused the hole in the piston.
Legal action is very unlikely due to the $$ amount. I’ve called insurance to see if they can help at all but not yet heard back.
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