I finally had to be a man and admit, that I got royally screwed on this car by some Ahole Car Salesman on Criag's List. I always bring my Rhino Ramps when I inspect a used car I intend to buy but because it was so cold (-20) I didn't. I broke my own convenants of Never buying a car from a Salesman and never ever buying a used car without inspecting the undercarriage but I DID!!! Now, I am wearing the dunce hat. Sure enough this had a leaky RMS.

Because I don't have a heated garage and didn't want to spend a week in the garage nor I did I want to spend a fortune on a car worth 3k at most. I put it out for bids on Craigslist and had a guy, who assured me had the expertise to do it, offer to do it for $450.00. He told me he was "sick and tired of ripping people off at stealerships and just wanted to do honest work for honest people" I should have know better because the first day he had the car he called and said there would be delay because he couldn't get any Vicodin and couldn't bend over. I told him that I was going to take my car to someone else but he pleaded with me: telling me how much he needed the job. None the less, he did finish the job in seven days, he promised it in three.

After I picked up the car and paid him $460, he wanted an extra ten for coolant. I drove it for a week without too many problems however one day I was driving on the Interstate and pulled into a wayside rest and saw the oil light flicker? I thought, What the ...k?, how can this be? Sure enough, the RMS he installed blew out and I lost all my oil. Fortunately, I have AAA so I didn't have to pay $350 tow bill. I called, the CList mechanic, who said it wasn't his fault because I did not pick up the "heavy duty turbo seal" Actually, both the turbo and the n/a engine use the same seal--there is no "heavy duty turbo seal" Of course, he would give me a refund and only offered to do it the second time for $50 less. I really became suspicious of this dude, so I checked out his crimminal record and found he had at least five DUIs, multiple felonies and had at least a half dozen judgements against him for accidents without insurance and lots of other things like evictions etc. When, I asked for my $ back he denied he ever did the job. Unfortunatly, it was purely cash transaction.

I was so sick of this Volvo and the agnst it was causing me that I decided that I was going to pay a real mechanic whatever it would cost just to end this nightmare. So, I called a reputible shop, with a very honest owner who told me would do it right for less than $1K, it's a lot of work!! so it was a fair price.
He did do a good job and it hasn't leaked.

But look, now I just stuck $1500 in a car $3k at most.

Two days after the competent mecahanic fixed it the tranny light came on and flashed a code about being in the wrong gear!!! I reset the code and it hasn't come back. I did discover the tranny was two quarts low on fluid because neither mechanic knew how to check it with the motor running while the motor is at opearting temperature. The so-called competent mechanic also forgot the all important vacume line that runs from the vacume T to actuator between the air filter and turbo intake. Forgeting this line can actually cause a seal to blow!!!

Now months have passed and I have only had to replace the motor mounts, interlock switch, o2 sensors, cat converter, blower motor, vacume lines, and a few sundry things. I need to get another 100k miles out of this car to recoup my investment.

What did I learn from this:

1. NEVER EVER TRUST A CAR SALESMAN especially some guy from Craigslist who tells you he is not really a salesman but a guy who picks up a few cars on the side. AKA, a "curbstoner"

2. NEVER BUY A CAR WITHOUT LOOKING UNDERNEATH!!!!!!!!!

3. NEVER HIRE A CASH MECHANIC FROM CRAIGLST, unless you really get good references, a written estimate and a recipt. ( If he screws something up really bad, he knows you will never come back nor give him a referral, plus the rework is just extra unpaid work for him , so like in my case , he will just tell you to get screwed and your only recourse is take him to court. Which will take six months and the judge will probably tell you to split the baby, even if you win and get a judgement against him, it's up to you to collect. A lot of these characters operate like this because every time they a real job they get garnished. That's why they solicit cash jobs in the first place.

4. NEVER EVER NEGLECT TO DOUBLE CHECK THE WORK OF EVEN A GOOD MECHANIC, There are hundreds of steps in complex procedures so even the best are going to miss something.

 

Don't even know what to say. At least you learned your lesson.

 

Once again I'm agreeing w/gilber...

Take it for what it is; a life lesson learned and move on. Thanks for sharing; hopefully someone else will learn from your experience too.

 

WOW! Lesson learned.

 

That sucks man, sorry.

 

Overall, I got over it. It's actually more of an existential thing than a mechanical thing. I actually believe, now that some things are jinxed.

What happens is that we make mistakes and get stressed we loose our objectivity and begin to take shortcuts and risks (like craigslsit mechanics) we rationalize that we have already had enough bad luck and our luck will can only improve. This is very similar to a person who has a gambling addiction. They keep thinking that future events will be better because the prior events were negative. However, this is illogical.


I forgot to tell eveyone about the cat on this car. Before, I bought it, I observed a liitle smoke from the rear of the engine. The salesman told me it was just a leaky PVC line and assured me that he fix it before I picked up the car.

Two days later the pipe seperated between the exhaust manifold and the cat. I crawled under there and observed a couple of dribbles of welding wire and a glob of muffler putty. Some fix!!! I called the salesman and started to swear at me saying, I impuned his integrety and I was making it hard to maintain his sobriety. He said he had turned his life around after prison and now was trying to make an honest living by lowballing sellers on Craigs List and putting a few bucks in the cars and reselling them. Needless to say, I wasn't going to get anywhere with him. Cavet Emptor (latin for let the buyer be ware).

Because of the location of the header pipe break, I concluded it was unfixible. I did find an after market cat for $ 250 so I decided to suck it up and buy it. I had a real hard communicating with the vendor "Carparts USA" because the orders were being handled by a call center in the Phillipines. I waited a week for my part and finally after numerous calls to the call center they found it and said I would get it in ten days. It did come but guess what? The wrong part!!!! The flange just did not match up. The call center lady, aka the exahust expert in the Manilla Call, didn't what a flange was because she said she never owned a car.

I was so upset after the ten day wait, twenty contentious calls to the Phillpines that I decided that I just wanted to get the car off the jackstands and out my garage. So I called the Bosal Exhaust Factory in Maryland and spoke directly to an English Speaking CS rep who gave me the right part number. He told me to order it from Autozone and they would direct ship to the outlet closest to me. Autozone did get it for me in two days but I had to pay $530!!!!

I just stuck $530 into a car worth $3000 but I figured S_ _ _ Happens!!

Then after I got the car on the road the RMS thing happened that mentioned earlier.

NOW DO SEE WHY I BELIEVE IN JINXES

What did I learn from this?


YA GET WHAT YA PAY FOR. You are taking a chance when you go with super low price part vendor because there call center people have absolutley no product knowledge. You might get lucky but you are taking a huge chance.

NEVER EVER TRUST A CAR SALESMAN!!!! My father, hated car salesmen. He said they are a pathetic breed. They are not smart enough to do any work that requires intellectual ability like an engineer nor the do they have the perserverence to obtain a degree and be a teacher or lawyer. They also don't like to do hard meaningfull work like being a mechanic or construction worker. Car salesmen are a unique creatures who can be somewhat charming and engaging yet lacking in character so they can do things like not telling buyers about leaky RMS and patched up exhaust systems. In short, they can do things that honest people simply can't. Kind of like a **** star who is willing to do lewd pervertred things on camera for $$$ while other people would rather work the counter at McDonalds and perserve their integrity.

Thank you so much letting me share this with you. These forums restore my faith GOD and Humanity. Diverse people all over the world willing to spend hours of their own personal time helping people they will never meet for no compensation nothing more than the satisfaction of helping others solve their problems

 

Definitely a lesson learned. Thanks for sharing.

Kinda off topic but a little habit I have started when I mess something up on one of my cars. I keep parts that I have screwed up from working on my old VWs, an idiot box of sorts. A bunch of random stuff that I keep as a souvenir to remind myself to NEVER do that again. Thats how I have taught myself to work on cars. Learned from my mistakes.

 

So many red flags in your story that I better not comment...

Anyway... Sucks, but I'm sure you'll be better prepared next time around.

 

I have have a masters degree in psychology and have worked for twenty years as a professional counselor but I also used to auto shop teacher so I have a strange perspective about car repair. There are two important things involved: Technical Skills, how much you know and Judgement: how you apply the knowledge you have.

The failures mentioned in my last threads were failures in judgement.