Have you ever had a car repair this stupid?

While my wife and I were on a visit with family, her car's check engine light came on. Then the low oil pressure light came on. We limped home and called the dealer to schedule a repair, because now the car's leaking oil all over my garage floor. The dealer told us they scheduled a repair for four days from when we called which we weren't happy about. Then, we called them to double-check the date and they actually scheduled the repair for three weeks away, so we had to call another dealership and schedule a repair there for five days away. This is a plug-in hybrid car, so we can only get service at the dealers who are authorized to work with this model of car.

So my wife has to use my car to go to work for the entire week, because I don't want her driving a car leaking oil. Luckily, I'm off this week, so this was possible, but I was stuck home alone without a car for the entire week.

I finally was able to bring the car in for its appointment today, after the dealer tried to cancel the appointment last night because they overbooked for the day. I told them that's not my problem and I am not going to wait longer than a week for the repairs, so get to work. Ends up that when my wife brought the car in for an oil change at the dealer she bought it from, they used some kind of machine to put the oil filter on and they damaged the oil filter and didn't install it properly, which is why it was leaking oil all over the place. The check engine light had come on because there was a bad CAM sensor, which probably got overheated from the engine friction after all the oil leaked out. We're lucky the motor didn't seize up. I'm assuming that I was able to keep the damage to a minimum because it's a plug-in hybrid, so we used the engine less on the drive home from my family's house and didn't use the engine at all driving to the dealer for repairs.

This is a brand new car that we bought only a few months ago.

The CAM sensor was covered under warranty, but we had to pay out-of-pocket for a new oil change and filter. I can't even express how much this pisses me off. I lost an entire week of using my car, an entire day waiting around in a car dealership waiting room for repairs, and $50 of my own money because a dealer's technician doesn't know how to put an oil filter on properly. Idiots.

 

CAM sensor????...WTF is that?

is this Toyota or Ford?...I'd definitely kick this upstairs to corporate

and when you get that survey call about your last service? (you know the one where the Service Writer reminded you to give them 5's?)
mark it zero...NFW should you have to pay for another filter change based on their F'Up!

 

A CAM sensor is a fancy name for a crankshaft sensor that controls timing, etc. like the old distributor did before everything became computerized. When the CAM sensor goes out, you can get a lot of vibration in the engine because things get out of whack.

I'm contacting the dealership about this and I'm going to see what they are going to do about it. They should be able to tell which technician screwed things up.

 

So another name for a crank position sensor (hall effect sensor) for crank fired ignition? Gotcha...yeah dont take that off of them, fight it

 

Repairs are bad enough......but paying for someone else's mistake is so frustrating.

Just spent over a grand on a boat reapair ( B.O.A.T. Break Out Another Thousand) on $28.00 worth of sparkplugs because the Merc tech couldn't read the computer screen at the first dealer we took it to. They changed out fuel filters, drained and replaced 60 gallons of fuel, cleaned injectors, put it in the water and ran the same. Took it to another dealer, put it on the computer, said bad plug #3, threw in four new plugs and ran tip top.

Good grief......first guy did the work so have to pay, plus loss/ cost of 120 gallons of fuel. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

PS.....I had checked the plugs and they looked perfect so lesson learned, the new fuel injected Mercs show no evidence of fouling on plugs.

 

If I had to guess I'd say the gasket on the old filter stuck to the block and they failed to remove it prior to installing the new filter. Will definitely cause a leak eventually if not immediately.

 

You shouldn't have to pay for any of that. I'd take it up with the GM at that dealership. If he doesn't do anything, call their corporate number. If they still don't do anything, post something on their Facebook page. That will probably get a quick response from someone.

 

I agree companies seem to really respond when things start going on social media. I would ask for a new engine. Who knows what wear and tear was put on that engine. It did add wear and tear regardless of if it still functions properly.

 

I'm an automotive tech and I advise you to take your car to someone who won't feed you bullshit like the stealership you're currently going to. Cam sensor is a camshaft position sensor just for clarification. Most newer cars have variable valve timing which is controlled by oil pressure. more than likely you were leaking oil due to them incorrectly putting on the filter (o ring on filter probably wasn't seated properly) and your car thew a timing retarded code (p0015/16). I see this all the time on BMWs and Mercedes that don't do proper oil changes and run low on oil.

A cam sensor doesn't heat up and fail due to lack of oil. Its a magnetic sensor that sends the computer a signal and then the computer matches it up with the crankshaft sensor. I've seen failed cam sensors but its a rare occurance.

Anyway just my 2 cents.

 

In response to the original question. The stupidest car repair I ever had was on a BMW. Got a service engine soon light. Took it in. The fuel door was slightly ajar (I'd closed it but it wasn't sealing correctly).

Now, stopping water getting into fuel is a good thing but the warning was a bit severe!

 

I really don't know the technical details, but it was the only major repair I've ever had to do on my car (Mitsubishi). It started running really rough and the check engine light came on.

The local full-service station/garage (yeah, we still have one) fixed it in less than an hour and about $100 total. Not even worth driving over to the dealership. It was probably covered under warranty but it was worth it to have it fixed then and there.

 

FYI - I don't know if it is the same in the USA but a lot of the time taking a warranty covered car to a non-main dealer will often invalidate the warranty in the UK. Annoyingly.

 

It's a device for sensing the position of the crank and camshafts so that the timing can be kept in check (stopping the engine blowing up if it gets out of whack).

Most manufacturers have a different name for it so you'll hear all sorts of names if you have an interest in cars.