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Just venting, with a couple of questions.

Here's the story, A friend asked me to look at the brakes on her 96 Escort, 1.9L, Auto Trans. I had told her recently it needed front pads and rotors and possibly calipers (135,000 miles, pad backing was becoming one with the rotors). She is in financial straits and I told her to get the parts and buy me lunch for the labor. She had someone else slam pads on it. She was getting noise and vibration, of course, and asked if I could fix it properly. At first I refused, then my soft heart got the better of me. She dropped the car off and I started on a couple of hours later. When I cranked the engine to move the car into the bay it would not start and sounded like the timing belt had let go, you know the sound. It eventually fired and ran on ~3 cylinders and had a steady tapping. (I can vouch that it was running ok when she dropped it off, therein lies the rub). I pushed it clear of the shop and called her. I never even looked at the brakes. I "think" her engine dropped a valve seat, as I've seen this on a couple of Escort\Tracers.Although, not enough for this to be a "common" concern. If anyone has seen this, is there usually any indication beforehand? Is it pretty common? I always see this kind of thing after the failure. Of course she thinks I "did something" to her car. She wouldn't let me check it out closer than I had. Not that I wanted to do a free diag of this sort of concern. She's having it towed somewhere to have a "professional" look at it.(I was a Ford Master Tech until I blew my back out, so she can bite me for that comment). I feel bad that the car died at my doorstep. But I feel worse that a friend thinks I sabotaged her car. Can anyone offer suggestions on how to handle this situation? I'm tempted to file this in the "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" file and tell her to go F___ herself, but I don't really want to do that, I'm not that way usually. Any input is appreciated, Tom

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no matter what happens or happened to the car she is gonna blame it on you... you can take the car back and do a complete brake job and then fix the timing belt and the valve?? and one week later the starter might go out and she will blame you... if you are a mech or used to be one you should be used to that..... the last one who had it when it ran right is the one we blame when something goes bad.... never in a million years are you gonna get this person to say to themself that this car is junk and i never took care of it so that is the reason i have the problems with this car...

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dbird

Reply to
Remo von Dach

no matter what happens or happened to the car she is gonna blame it on you... you can take the car back and do a complete brake job and then fix the timing belt and the valve?? and one week later the starter might go out and she will blame you... if you are a mech or used to be one you should be used to that..... the last one who had it when it ran right is the one we blame when something goes bad....

-------------- ain't it the truth........ i got cured of helping friends and others for free with i was 19. i was very good at what i did in mechanical work at the time. (long before the hi tech that's on cars now) all cars were basically the same. i did a friend a favor and gave his 59 chevy with a 348 a tune up. it was just plugs and points. he ripped out the rear end the following week and guess was getting the blame for it??

the final cure came from my own brother and his wife. his car, 1969 ford 302, needed a tune up really bad and they were going to drive it back home - a 1000 mile trip. so, good old me, did a great job, and my brother even helped me put the parts in.............only to have the car develop a crack in a cast iron intake manifold two weeks later. guess who got blamed for cracking their manifold.

and it just doesn't stop there. i owned a video store. i've had them come back telling me, that my tape ate their VCR.....huh? or it was my video tape that caused their tv to go bad because the video was playing on the tv when it went out.

and i owned a coined laundry. they put 18 pairs of very dirty blue jeans in one washer, put one small box of soap in, and guess who gets blamed because the clothes didn't come clean. or put reds and whites together and blame my washer because they have pink whites.

the list goes on, and on. but the best one was when they called the emergency number to report the washer was on fire. they had put 22 pairs of jeans, some shirts and other clothes in one washer and overloaded it big time. the belt was slipping and causing the smoke. they thought the washer was on fire and were highly upset because they were afraid their clothes were going to caught on fire. hello.........the clothes are wet and in water..........here's your sign........

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional "Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."

Reply to
c palmer

I have a '95 Escort with a 1.9 liter. It cracked the #1 intake valve seat last year at 143,000. Really was my wife's car. It became mine when the valve seat broke and she bought a new car. Cost $110, at the local machine shop, to fix. The new timing belt is a stright forward job once the plastic, inner fender is removed from the passenger side wheel well. You need to support the engine with an extra scissors jack while you remove the passenger side engine mount. It's a real good idea to replace the water pump now, with that kind of milage. I got mine on ebay. Was new, in the box for $15. A remanufactured pump is $24 at Autozone but it doesn't have the idler pulley for the timing belt with it. I had another '95 Escort wear that pulley out and burned up it's timing belt. The idler pulley is a dealer item and will cost $90 !! Oop's, might as well change the radiator hoses and heater core hoses as long as the water pump is off. The lower hose is a bitch to replace unless you're already in there. The job just gets bigger and bigger. Maybe a new thermostat too. It's kind of a bitch too, under the ignition coils. Be very careful with those tiny 4mm screws for the thermostat housing. They have been in that aluminum head for years and they DON'T want to come out. Have 174,000 on the car now. Think it is worth it. I also have two daughters with matching Ford Probes. You get used to getting blamed for fixes that don't go just right.

Scott snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

Reply to
SSaund9084

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