On October 14, Mozart's Garage began working on my 1984 BMW.instead of rebuilding the old engine, I decided to have Mozart's Garage place a new engine in the car for a price of $2500. I was eventually charged $3500 for unexpected issues, which I was not informed of until after the fact. However, I was content, because Mr. Clarke ensured me I was getting a great engine by stating, this engine will pull this car down the road for years.
Not long after having the completed car, I noticed a small pool of oil forming under the car. I returned the car to Mr. Clarke and he assured me everything was fine. "Perhaps you parked over an oil spot, " was the explanation I received over the phone.
I then drove the car to Flagstaff, AZ. On the return trip, the oil dipstick was completely dry and I added roughly 2 quarts of oil. Upon return I dropped the car off to service the brakes which were now shot. I again mentioned the problem with the oil, because the car was again leaking. I also mentioned that another fluid from the front of the car was leaking, as my brother had noticed in Flagstaff. My brother suspected it to be brake fluid, which was perhaps why I was having trouble with the brakes. This time, I was told the car was leaking because there were 8 quarts of oil in the car, but there were no other leaks. (Please note that I have a receipt from another customer of Mozart's Garage, where she was charged by Mr. Clarke for 6 quarts of oil for a car than needed only 4.)
Perhaps 50 miles later (the new engine had roughly 2500 miles on it at this point), the engine began to seize up on the way to the airport. Mr. Clarke asked for an opportunity to look at the car. I had the car towed back to Mozart's Garage by Jay's Roadrunner Towing of Albuquerque. The car was in Mr. Clarke's possession for at least three weeks without any communication on his part pertaining to the car. I then sent a demand letter to Mr. Clarke and he responded immediately stating he would find out what the problem was. However, he had a problem that needed to be addressed first. He didn't know where the key to the car was. He thought maybe an old mechanic had taken the key. Since I didn't have a spare, Mr. Clarke told me he would purchase and install a new ignition for the car if the key didn't turn up really soon.
Then there was silence from Mr. Clarke until I received an email which contained this explanation:
"It is relevant to note that this situation is basically the same as caused the vehicle to come in the very first time for the complete engine replacement due to bent valves _and_ broken rocker arms for cylinder #1. While the location of the damaged cylinder is probably completely coincidental, the fact of bent valves is probably not."
Here I must note that I purchased the car with this problem, a fact that I had previously shared with Mr. Clarke, but he failed to recall while drafting his response. I have a statement from the previous owner confirming this fact.
"What caused this situation to occur is only due to one reason (if the timing belt has not failed, which it has not). It is caused by the rising piston of that cylinder hitting the exposed portion of the valve which has not had time to retreat out of the way. On this engine, the valves and the pistons occupy in closely controlled alternate fashion the same space in the combustion space. (The piston motion is controlled by the crankshaft, the valve position by the camshaft and the synchronization between them by the timing belt). If the timing belt fails or if the engine rotation speed is too fast and the valve springs cannot pull the valve up out of the way fast enough, the piston will hit the valve, bend it, and that cylinder sometimes multiple cylinders will cease to contribute to the engine operation.
It is this last sequence of events which has occurred in your vehicle's engine. While frequently the impact of piston on valve is severe enough to cause breakage of that valve's rocker arm, this is not always the case. A small amount of bendage is enough to cause complete loss of sealing, and hence compression.
Additionally, there are two situations in which this set of events occurs, and both involve operator error. One is a missed shift: the driver upshifts out of one gear into the next, gets on the gas pedal but the shift has only gone into neutral, not into the next gear. Without the load on the drivetrain, the engine revs past redline and piston hits valve. The other is similar: the driver shifts up into the next gear but instead of
shifting up into the next taller gear, the shift is botched and the next _lower_ gear is misselected, with an identical result: bent valve."
This is not the case. I do enjoy driving 90 on the expressway, but I have no need to hot-rod my car and I did not miss a shift. So we found ourselves at a standstill. What I remember being several months later, Mr. Clarke left me a message stating that I remove my car from his property or he would dispose of the car himself.
I then called AAA and arranged for a driver to meet me at Mozart's Garage. I walked into the garage and asked Mr. Clarke for the key. He proceeded to tell me that I would have to sign a paper stating our business relationship was concluded before I was getting the key to my car. Because of my state of displeasure and complete shock at the entire situation I signed the paper, at which point Mr. Clarke informed me he didn't have the key. He said the last tow-truck driver from Jay's Towing had broken the key off in the ignition! I have since called Jay's and the driver confirmed that he handed the key to a mechanic at Mozart's Garage. I then went to the car to help the tower with my car, which is when I noticed that Mr. Clarke was nice enough to take off the steering column of the car and not put it back.
Looking for a second opinion and not realizing how stupid it was to sign his paper, I took my car to another reputable garage in Santa Fe.in their report they stated the engine had an air hose that did not properly fit, the spark plugs had been removed, the engine belt was cracking, the coolant was empty, transmission and differential fluid was seeping, the battery was dead (same as the first time I had dropped the car off to check on the first oil leak), the front brakes were at 50, the back at 70 (note I took my car in for brakes after the Flagstaff trip), and some brake hoses were cracking a little. The report also stated that there was a possibility of oil starvation resulting to the connecting rod breaking. When Mr. Clarke was informed of this possibility, he expressed extreme doubt. He didn't understand how someone could reach that conclusion without taking the engine entirely apart, something Mr. Clarke was unwilling to do himself during his assessment, even though his engine, the engine that would pull the car down the road for years, failed to even run for 3000 miles.
I contacted a lawyer and was advised that my brash actions of signing a "release" would most likely keep me from winning anything in court. However, it does not pertain to my freedom of speech.
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