OT Car repair, car cuts out.

[micky]

Please comment when anything seems worth commenting on.

A plaintiff on a tv court show complains that her car keeps cutting out, turning off without being told to, and she takes it to a garage.

He puts it on the electronic whatever, and there is a code for the oil pressure or the oil pressure switch. He looks and notes that wires going by the oil pan are saturated in oil, so he replaces them and gives her back the car. He also replaces the oil pressure sending switch, either during the first visit or after she brings the car back.

She brings the car back within a day. and the respondent says, "The oil pan gasket was leakiing and obviously it was necessary to r eplace the gasket". He doe that and returns the car, but it cuts out even before she gets home.

The rest of the story is complicated and a distraction but what do you think of the mechanic so far?

[bob haller]

he did ok but should of fixed the oil leak too.

this vehicle didnt happen to be a chevy cobalt with bad ignition switch by chance?

incidently will low oil pressure shut off a engine?

[taxed and spent]

I think he was a fool for going on that TV show.

[Terry Coombs]

snipperooni

cobalt with bad ignition

Some models have a cutoff for the fuel pump that will kill the motor if there's no oil pressure . Had a '78 Pontiac with that feature .

[micky]

Yeah, a lot of people make fools of themselves that way. I wish I knew how much they paid.

[clare]

Well, being a mechanic, I can say I feel for the guy. If the oil sender is leaking, and the car is an oil mess, the first thing to do is replace the sender. When that leak is fixed, and the engine cleaned up, the leaky oil pan gasket becomes evident.. His only mistake was not cleaning it up and then driving it enough to determine if the problem was fixed - and checking for more oil leaks.

However, he has still not determined exactly what is shutting the car down.

And we don't know the make and model - so cannot even make an educated guess.

[clare]

It will on many Chevies - sure would on a Vega!!! The fuel pump circuit is fed by the starter switch and the oil pisser switch. It runs when the engine is cranked, and when the engine has oil pressure.

[Ed Pawlowski]

On some, the winner gets whatever is awarded with a $5000 max and the balance, if any, is split. You can't lose even if you lose.

[taxed and spent]

except the whole world gets to see what a chump you are. Better to keep that more of a secret.

[micky]

Yes, and it shows. The losers are never as unhappy as they would be if they were paying the whole judgment themselves.

That's my plan.

[micky]

This is what I thought when I saw the tv show.

I'm sure beting without oil pressure will ruin the engine, maybe in less than 20 seconds, and damage it in less than 10 or 15. But....

They said the make and model, but I >Please comment when anything seems worth commenting on.

Did the engine cut out when it was on the analyser? Probably not. Sure a lot of things set codes, but not everything. All of the original codes and all of the codes required by law relate to air pollution aiui.and few relate to why the engine doesn't run .

I can't quite imagine wires saturated enough to short out, and even if they're covered in oil, I think they should be wiped off.

Was there a harness? I would expect that there was. Then replace the harness and it's probably pretty clean inside.

If there was no harness, no split tube, one should be put on to keep the recently wiped wires clean.

Okay. That's fine.

If one is fixing all the bad things on the car, the gasket needs replacing, but it's NOT the cause of the engine cutting out. Especially not if the wires have beem cleaned or replaced.

I dont' think Judge Milyan though of all this but more important to her was that there was no proof it broke right after the last time the guy fixed it. The plaintiff said it got towed the next day but had no bill or anything. So the plaintiff got nothing.

[tony944]

Well Gents I have seen the same show, My point of view that Mechanic should not taking Job like that, he should have advised costumer that car is old and could have multitude of problems as it happen to be. On other hand old cars you can fix one item and next item could fail with in seconds of first one being fix. I am not car Mechanic but I did work on my own vehicles, I have log over Million miles and experience many different problems that some never was diagnosed but had remain history. Solution was for some people replacing complete new motor by factory. Some people by junk and expect to make it new with few buck I know that because I was Victim of scum bag on Long Island NY 300 k. Item expect to fixit for couple Hundred.

Please comment when anything seems worth commenting on.

A plaintiff on a tv court show complains that her car keeps cutting out, turning off without being told to, and she takes it to a garage.

He puts it on the electronic whatever, and there is a code for the oil pressure or the oil pressure switch. He looks and notes that wires going by the oil pan are saturated in oil, so he replaces them and gives her back the car. He also replaces the oil pressure sending switch, either during the first visit or after she brings the car back.

She brings the car back within a day. and the respondent says, "The oil pan gasket was leakiing and obviously it was necessary to r eplace the gasket". He doe that and returns the car, but it cuts out even before she gets home.

The rest of the story is complicated and a distraction but what do you think of the mechanic so far?

[Tekkie®]

micky posted for all of us...

It sounds like you were the "mechanic" Did the vehicle have a bathtub?

[Tekkie®]

micky posted for all of us...

If you listened or did ANY kind of research you would know they have a fixed amount say $5000 that the plaintiff (you) and the defendant would split. Part of the split would be the winner of the suit deducts his winnings from the loser.

[Tekkie®]

taxed and spent posted for all of us...

WE already know what mickey is...

[Tekkie®]

[e-mail] posted for all of us...

RIGHT! Prescription without diagnoses is malpractice.

[trader_4]

Not true. There is a wealth of code information beyond the basic codes that you can read out with a basic, cheap, handheld code reader. I have software that is PC based for BMW. It will tell you if there is an occasional misfire on cylinder 3, if the radiator fan is working, if the coolant temp has been running too low, etc. For sure if a low oil pressure situation caused the engine to be shut down, the computer would have that information. And it wouldn't even require the car to be started to read it out.

I've never seen oil on wires being a problem either. Insulation on those wires is almost certainly not susceptible to oil.

[micky]

Yes, I phrased that badly.

That was the first thing the "mechanic" said and it made me very suspicious of him. Some cars have oll all over the place, especially underneath, and they still work fine.

[Ashton Crusher]

I drove one car at least 2 miles with no oil in it and it caused no problems. Shop forgot to put oil in for an oil change. Lifters started clattering a mile out so I called them and they said just to drive it back. This happened when the car had perhaps 50K miles on it and it was still running fine, not burning a drop of oil, when it was sold at 110K. Perhaps some cars would be more sensitive to lack of oil....