I called an attorney and he said that I would need a knowledgeable person to verify that the work the dealership did is to blame. I have a friend who is a Nissan mechanic and can vouch against their improper work procedures/installation, unethical cover ups, and etc.
-The tech not properly installing the tensioner bolts.
-The tech not noticing or informing me of an (made up) "Oil leak" at the time of the timing belt replacement.
-Tearing the car down behind the point of showing me the actual oil leak and location of it.
-Tearing down my car past what I authorized, twice.

My next point would be to find a local evo mechanic to put the car back together to recreate the leak, maybe? The seal could be fine or it could leak because it has been disturbed from its original installation. I don't know for sure or if that is even my seal. He could of had a bad one laying around the shop, who knows?

My case would be working off of those points and that a massive leak just doesn't appear out of nowhere within 30miles and that their installation directly caused it.

 

I really hope this works it for you. Definitely sounds like dealership messed up and is now covering it up.

 

You've already put yourself way behind by leaving the car there in the first place. They've had plenty of time to cover up anything they may have messed up.

Unless you can get a good lawyer who can nab them for tearing into the car without your permission or there is some law requiring written permission, I'd say you're close to SOL

 

Yeah you guys were right all along. My mechanic buddy told me to contact the MMNA and I thought they would be able to help me, but they did nothing. I believe their initial tear down (above and beyond what was needed) covered up the tech's mistakes, but like any crime scene I think there is enough evidence left over to make a convincing case out of. Only time will tell though and I will keep you guys updated.

Thanks for the help thus far.


I forgot to mention the fresh horizontal line of paint chips missing from my driver's side door. I believe that the tech banged the door off of the lift pillar to leave a line in that direction. There is no other paint (i.e. another car door hitting it, which would leave a vertical line not horizontal) in the area, just chunks of red paint missing (something metal definitely hit it) which is exposing a white covering underneath... Just some more **** done to car that is tough to prove, other than it is very fresh looking and horizontal.

 

I apologize that I didn't have enough time to actually read through all the posts here...but I tried to catch the general idea on the first page. It IS possible that the balance shaft failed...possibly due to over-tightening of the timing belt, but that would be hard, if not impossible to actually PROVE, so to speak. The balance shaft, itself, is one of the leading causes of engine failure in the 4G63 power plant. It certainly SEEMS as if this shop might not know the exact cause of failure and are giving you the run around, tho...BUT, that being said, I don't know that you have enough to make a legitimate case against them or prove it. Certainly there is small claims court, tho. That being said, if we can be of any service or assistance to aid in getting your car back on the road, feel free to shoot me a PM.

 

Did you use a credit card to pay for the work done at the dealership? If so, I would call your credit card provider and have the transaction reversed. That way, you can use the money that they screwed you out of to pay for some of the damages they caused.

 

Another good point!

 

Any way you stack it, you need to get the car out of the dealership quickly. Document the status of the vehicle at the dealership, and get it out of there ASAP.

 

sorry to hear this man, im dealing with something similar myself.. ive gone to court over stuff like this.. its never fun. hopefully they will get their minds right and fix it..

 

You my friend got SCREWED. Hopefully someone will take on the case and not charge until there is damages awarded (And lawyer and court costs covered). I would def. get all your stuff and do a chargeback on your card if you paid with card.

 

Update:

I got it towed out of there to get a second opinion today. They didn't give me any paperwork or ask me about payment for the tear down. Even the tow truck driver was surprised that this happened within 3 days and commented about how laid back they are being about it, like it isn't their fault. He told me that AAA has my back and might be able to provide legal support if that dealer isn't AAA approved.

The new diagnosing Evo tech found the problem rather quickly. Hopefully my terminology is correct with what he said, but he believes their tech loosened up the oil pump gear pulley bolt and didn't retighten it. He is really confused why the tech even touched this bolt. All of the threads except for a few on the end are ground down to nothing. The oil pump seal didn't "Back out" like the dealer keeps telling me, it was the whole bolt had play in it because it wasn't tightened. He said that is why the timing belt came off and that it also caused the oil leak.. Once the pulley pressure/friction ground the threads down it caused the pulley to torque the belt at an angle (And I imagine gave it enough slack to skip timing). There is also a mark on the inside of that metal cover from the oil pump gear hitting it at an angle? (sorry for the lack of technical terminology, I hope you guys can make sense of all of this). There is also a grooved mark along the whole inside of the timing belt, I'm not 100% sure what that is from.

The new diagnosing tech also said that some parts are missing: Lower timing belt cover, oil pump gear pulley, and spark plugs. I went back to the dealership and they said that the they were thrown away by mistake, but he thinks the pulley is somewhere in my boxes of parts. (I'm sure all techs throw away their customers parts even if the customer didn't agree to any repairs, new parts, or prices; right?.......). He said that he would order me new ones though. (Sure bud, do you want to throw away the rest of my car as evidence also?). I met with the owner, with the service manager barking in his ear. They still deny any wrong installation of the parts and believe my car only needs $1000-1500 in parts to get it back to where it was. They said that their tech didn't touch that bolt, even though they didn't ask him, they already knew he didn't touch that bolt... They kept stating that the seal blew and soaked the kevlar belt in oil which, and I quote "Turned it into a wet noddle and caused it to come off the cam gears". At that point I had heard enough BS and just wanted to get out of there. They said that want to work with me and want me to bring my car back in for them to help...

The new diagnosing tech looked at everything for about 10mins and said I would need $5-6k unofficial estimate to get the car back to where it was and that he would try to get me an official estimate within the week.

*Corrections on my end = The service manager told me I put 90 miles on the car instead of 30, within 3 days. I'll verify the mileage Monday so I can keep all the facts as factual.

 

Sounds like you got a great mechanic there. Let him fix it and use him as a witness to testify against this bad dealership. Congrats for getting it out of there.

 

The charge on my card already went through my bank on 12/05/12... At this point I would have to report it as fraud, I believe? I think I should just leave the charge as is and handle all the costs and charges at the end, at court if it comes to that.

This evo mechanic is awesome, he said that a lot of guys who race evos and have failures will bring their car to him to diagnose it. He said that it isn't the type of business (mod-highly modified evos) that he likes to attract to the dealership, but he likes working on evos and has been for 10 years.

I guess I should have done more research on where to take my car. Maybe I should have spent a day driving to all of the local dealerships and interviewing them, instead of just taking my car to the closest one. Live life, get burned, and learn; I guess.

-Side note = I saw my first Subaru BRZ today, it really caught my eye. I'm like, "What is that!?" Of course the 2013 Black Evo X, caught my eye vastly more, but the $40k msrp, not so much... lol.

 

Glad to see that you got it out of the first dealership.

As I work for a car dealership and have been in the business since 1990, I have seen a trend in hiring new guys that have no business being there. Training and experience is key.

Sorry again that this had to happen to you, hopefully you and your lawyer can get you the funds to repair it.

 

wow man. the first paragraph indicates guilt.

the second is 100% proof they screwed up. in 15 years of working on 100s of these engines I have never heard of that nut coming loose. never seen a thread on it either. no other possibility. they left it loose and are the cause of your engine damage.

take them to small claims court. print this thread out. a judge will see the light.