Hi
I recently had a "family friend" do a tuneup on my car (asked him for 150k service, he did a whole tuneup), and he used aftermarket parts (I found out after my check engine light came on and I took to the REAL repair shop, and they attributed it to the aftermarket parts--no serious problems detected, smoke test ok, etc).
My question is, how dangerous is it for me to ride around on these parts and is there anything I can do in my driving to avoid problems until I can afford to get replacement parts. I dont typically drive until weekends, daily I only take the kids to and from school (about 5 miles roundtrip). Weekends, though I drive long distances, maybe 75 mi RT on Sat and 50 RT on sunday.
I understand I can get catalyc converter issues or oxygen sensor can burn out etc, but perhaps you guys have some tips for how to avoid until I can get right parts in there.

PS Getting money back from "family friend" is not an option as he's jerked the whole family and everyone's mad at him, so now he's hiding out.

 

The

 

No, It's not the service light, it's check engine. And, it's been reset and keeps popping back. The codes are misfires, and they have to do with the whole distriutor cap, plugs system.
I trust the mechanics at the shop, they are a really good shop, recommended to me by nearly everyone in Atlanta when I got my transmission done last year, they have tons of "thank you" letters from customers on the wall, and overall I get a honest feeling from them. I also got the codes checked at another place before I went to them, and they reported the same codes, so I know that's correct as well.

 

I would get it fixed soon or it could cause Damage to the engine.

 

first time poster.
I have pretty extensive experience with bmws, wife got an 01 v70 awd xc, 60k miles. seems to be a good car,
on the first road trip, 2k miles round trip.
burns oil, about 1 qt per 1k miles.
the smell is significant, can see a genral smokyness when you open the hood.
when we bought it a couple months ago the car was very low on oil, at least a couple qrts.
there is a small puddle of oil on top of the head that I clean up and it keeps reappearing.
then the check engine light went on with no codes from the obd.
any thought?
thanks in advance

 

PCV system might be clogged.
Your scanner might not read that system.

 

Out of curiosity, what aftermarket parts were used?