Ok, 2 months ago I had some issues with the idling of my car, check engine light was on and it was going through oil and gas mileage was getting worse so I took it in to a mechanic. Mechanic did diagnostic and stated it was turbo sensor and the turbo was bad as it was leaking oil internally. I proceeded to get a used turbo and paid for job to be completed.

Fast forward 1 month. Was driving up a small mountain pass and I heard a loud pop in the engine and pulled over. Looked under hood and didn't see anything bad (I know nothing about cars, but am not stupid either) or smell anything bad after the initial pop in which I smelled oil. Car was still running so I completed the drive down the pass into my families town. After I got there and stopped the car, it would start up again but not hold the idle or drive forward or in reverse. Towed the car back to San Diego and dropped off at the shop that did my turbo. They looked at it and said it was the catalytic converter. I have an "acquaintance" at church who has his own shop and asked me to look at it. Next day I had a tow truck meet me at the shop to get the car to take to my church friends shop and the car started right up and drove over to friends shop.

Next day, my friend called me and told me to come down to look at the issue. He showed me spark plugs were drowning in oil as there was a crack in valve cover gasket so I was not getting proper spark so that was why my car was shutting down. He quoted me verbally that they need to change the valve cover gasket, spark plugs, seals and gaskets, and oil. While they were in there, he recommended changing timing kit and water pump as well since they are opening it up. He does not have the proper tool to open up the valve cover gasket so he has a colleague in other shop across the street who will do it for him. Mind you I had lights replaced and brakes done as well by him and he said he wouldn't charge me labor since the valve cover gasket job is expensive ($640 for parts, $600 for labor). I thought I was being well taken care of and felt very happy even though another mechanic friend of mine said $600 was 2 jobs, so I figured he was getting some $ out of that for my brakes, lights, etc.

Fast forward 1 month again. I had noticed my car was losing oil again but wasn't acting up badly and we were going to go back over the pass to in-laws for the weekend. I put 1 quart of oil in and started making the drive up the pass again. Well half way up the pass, my car started acting up and check engine light started flashing so I made sure to turn around on next exit and drive back down to home. Did so and car was still acting up. Got off freeway on my exit and came to a stop and the car was shaking badly and sounded like it wanted to give out. Called friend and told him I think it was the same problem and he said to bring it in on the 5th.

Took it in on 5th, next day he calls me and said my 3rd valve was bent and bad and I need a valve job now! I explained all of this to my brother who has worked on a ton of cars in his life and he said it sounded like when they did the timing kit, the valve was torqued down too much and that's why this happened. I explained this to my friend and he said that was not the issue, that the valve went bad because the ignition coil went out and so my valve went bad. He said he can do the job for me for around $1000 but I feel that I am being taken and that the cause of the valve going bad was from bad work done on the car 1 month prior. Please let me know what you think as I want this to be taken care of by the person who did this with no money out of my pocket due to negligence. BTW, I have not received any paperwork stating what was done on cover, timing kit, water pump job.

Jake

 

it looks like you needed to take it to the dealer and get it fixed the first time ive seen this happened tons of times.the tensioner not set properly or the timing not set properly.what vehicle do you have?

 

It sounds like your mechanics are not skilled to work on Volvos.

 

Save a dollar using cheap mechanics, lose a thousand doing it again.

 

2002 S60. So the tensioner or the timing would have caused this right?

 

first off i dont think your valve cover was leaking most of the time it is the clamp that holds the oil trap hose or the oil cap seal that causes oil to appear on top of the motor.i think it was caused from timing issue.

 

Oil in the spark plug chambers is not good. That oil had to come from somewhere. A valve cover gasket leak would not be far fetched.

I believe the timing is adjusted by the computer. So it should not have gotten out of timing. As for the timing being set wrong, I doubt you would have been able to drive the car for a month before seeing a problem with the timing belt install. I have seen people install timing belts without doing the rollers and tensioner which could cause problems down the line. You may want to ask them if they replace the rollers and tensioner when they did the last timing belt job. If the car jumps timing, due to a bad tensioner or something like that it will bend a valve or destroy the motor. I will say that I am NOT a certified mechanic so I am lost as to why these things happen sometimes. You would have been better off replacing the rollers, idler, tensioner than the water pump. I don't know why people are so quick to replace a water pump that is in good condition when the tensioner is more important and does damage with little or no warning. At least a water pump will leak before it goes bad.

How many miles do you have on the car? Have you been checking oil regularly?

As for your brother's comment, I don't think they would have needed to torque any valves. These cars have cams that have to be installed properly to allow the car to start. If the car runs for a day it should run for 5 years. Removing the valve cover should not have required removing the head. Two different things.

I agree with a few of the other guys... Have a Volvo mechanic do your work. Either the dealer or an independant Volvo shop.

Rewind the the POP you heard a couple of months ago... Ask the mechanic if there is a chance that you have a bad motor. Maybe you cracked the block or something and all this other work is a waste of time. Did the car ever overheat?

 

As all of the mechanics if they have done a compression test. If not, have that done before anything else is done.