Today, i took my camaro into the dealership to get a coolant flush. I checked in at about 1:15. About THREE HOURS later, the finally pulled my car around front and the tech took my keys to the service writer lady or whatever. The tech told me that my "distributor is going to need replaced soon. Your car will not start much longer so i left it running for you" ***WTF MY CAR WAS JUST FINE*** I go out to my car and the tach is jumping all over the place and the car is sputtering and missing like crazy... OPTIIIIIIIIIII... I go back inside and i inform them of what i am now positive has happened (The dude that worked on my car definitely had moistened up the opti with coolant or water or something). After conversing with the head tech dude (the service manager apparently wasnt there) he says that the kid that flushed my coolant sprayed down the front of my engine to clean it off (AHHHHH WTF). The guy said tht he will keep my car for the night and try to dry it out in the morning and give me a call then and go from there. MY QUESTION IS: If my car will run right in the morning, should i still demand a new opti or something? Once the opti is wet, is the damage irreparable even if it seems ok at the moment? Could it run ok in the morning and then leave me stranded in a week? ANY and ALL help/advice/guidance will be greatly appreciated. I'm at a loss and carless at the moment lol. Thank you all in advance.

 

I'd be ripping some *** and demanding a new Opti, don't back down on that obvious carelessness. They screwed up your car and are going to fix it...and hopefully not screw anything else up. This is why I do my own work.

 

What I'm concerned with is if one of them turns a heat gun on the opti to dry it out. You should know they will not take it off on their dime. You may get lucky and it starts the next day, but usually what needs to happen is it needs to be removed, taken apart and dried out. The thing is dealerships don't really know the quirks of these cars anymore so they may apply their own techniques, which may in turn make the problem worse. If an opti gets wet it doesn't mean it is ruined. There is absolutely no reason for the front of the engine to be sprayed down, either. What I believe happened is the "tech" who allegedly did the flush didn't know what they were doing, ended up forcing air into the system, engine got warm and the radiator spewed coolant everywhere, so then the tech washed the engine bay down to get the coolant off. OR they knew spraying down the opti would cause it to malfunction, and then try to nail you for the ~$600.00 opti and then ~$800.00 of labor on top of that. They were smart in trying to disclaim themselves by stating you may need a new opti. If you try and argue they will come back with that and blame the opti for being faulty.
If you want to keep a car as old as these are you really need to learn how to do the basics yourself instead of relying on a dealership.
Whether the car starts or not, I would not advise them to work on the car. If it doesn't run, get it towed to your house. It'd be cheaper than what they'd charge you.

www.shbox.com is a great reference site for you to get the info you need to take the opti off and dry it out.

 

You should be doing coolant flushes yourself. Just drain the petcock, pour in distilled water, run it, drain again, more distilled water, run it, drain it, over and over until it comes out clear. Then drain it again and add straight coolant, and the 50% left in the hoses and block plus the new coolant is your 50/50 mix. I dont trust ANYONE to touch my car, nobody knows **** about the LTs anymore.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I should hopefully be hearing from them in the next couple hours or so. I'll keep you updated!The VAST majority of the time, no one touches my car except myself and a trusted friend of mine. I just figured that I would take it to have the coolant flushed with a machine or whatever they use. I figured that I could trust the guys at a CHEVY dealership lol. Lesson learned I guess... I'll definitely be doing it myself next time.

 

yup!!

 

That's the problem. You go in with a hostile attitude they have no reason care whether or not the job gets done correctly. While my car was under warranty with 30K on the odometer the opti rotor screws loosened. Dealer told me the engine needed a complete rebuild, that they had completed a compression test on bank one and there was no cylinder above 90psi and to give them a credit card number. I refused, had the car towed to another garage who found the problem and corrected it. When I went back to kindly ask them to reimburse me for the fabricated charges they told me I was lucky my "entire warranty wasn't voided." I sought legal action and two months later they settled. I was lucky enough to find an attorney who just passed the Bar and was hungry to get his name out there so my charges were a fraction of what I received from the dealer. He relentlessly went after the dealer with phone calls and letters until a service manager admitted over the phone that the aftermarket components were not the reason for the opti failure. Point being dealers will not take anyone seriously if they know they can get away with it.

 

I never took my car to a dealer but i used to work for one. Truly i say, they do not care unless they are selling a car to someone. Anyone that works on my car, I know personally. Too bad there aren't more people like SS RRR who would go after the dealer like that...

OP: i hope the Opti wasn't permanently damaged, let us know what happened ya?

 

I was lucky. The lawyer I used charged me next to nothing and offered a contingency. If I would not of had this opportunity I would have still towed the car elsewhere since I knew they were entirely full of ****, but I would have ended up eating all the cost. It was a very small victory because I know they'd turn around and do it to the next customer if they could get away with it. Dealers know it's much less expensive to get fucked over by them than it is to get fucked over and then have to pay attorney fees on top of that, wait for a court date, take time off work to go to court and hope to have enough evidence to win your case. The only setback we had was the attorney wanted to go after Lingenfelter since I had their heads on the engine. Didn't have a cam yet so nothing had been touched opti wise. I refused since I knew the issue was most likely ignition or fuel related.

Anyone in the DFW area reading this, avoid Frank Parra Chev, if it's even still around. I went there first to order my SS and was confronted by some douchy Vette sales person. I told him I was ready to talk about ordering the SS and he laughed and walked away. I said "**** you very much" and walked out. I guess he was offended by my shorts and t-shirt attire. Why did I go back to get the car fixed? Because it was a half mile from my house and the nearest dealer from that was 30 miles away. They probably remembered me from that encounter. I also went to get the 1LE driveshaft TSB honored and it took me at least 30min to convince them I was entitled to it since the car was still under warranty, even when I had the TSB and number in hand for them to read for themselves. They said I was lucky and the only way I did so was because I had an SS. They initially told me they didn't have to honor it because the vibration didn't start until after the legally posted speed limit. I have a strong dislike service writers.

 

OP

very likely tech pissed coolant all over the opti while trying to bleed it after flush and then tried to clean coolant off front of motor which pissed more into the Opti.

If you let them "dry" it they will only likely just use shop air through the vent hose in a vain attempt to dry it out.

Coolant is sticky stuff when it dries so the only real way of cleaning and keeping the Opti good is to remove, take apart and clean it carefully. Dealerships don't take parts apart to fix them, they just replace them. Based on the actions of the tech you should insist they replace the Opti...which they will certainly argue from the sounds of it instead of manning up for a "workmanship" mistake

the moisture or oil that ges in a opti gets slung to the outside when opti is rotating then when you shut off car it drips/migrates and often into the optical sensor or one/several of the 360 small slots in optical wheel and that is when the stumble/sputter happens

even if they replace opti based on the crap work they already did My $ is on they will FU the WP drive seal and you will have a leak by the time the car get home

As mentioned you really need to do your own work. A properly done radiator flust and you would not be having this problem

good luck

 

Sorry i haven't updated this thread. The tech said that he blew it out with some air and let it sit inside that night. I picked my car up the following morning and all seemed to be well. I have driven it quite a bit since then and everything is fine so far (except the scary noises that my rear end has been making for a bit now but thats another story lol). Thank you all for your advice!

 

Glad to hear that so far, it's worked out for you. HOWEVER, the tech openly admitted that he got the Opti all wet, and that caused your problems. Therefore, I strongly suggest that you keep the paperwork from this job, in case you have problems in the near future.

 

I had them type up a separate service order that clearly stated everything!

 

Excellent!!

 

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