PLEASE HELP!!!! Need mechanic in Portland, Oregon area!

[jefftrexler]

Hey there folks. Well....3 months after initially dropping off my Q45 at my mechanics, he has requested that I please get my car out of his shop and he refuses to work on it anymore because I yelled at him for taking so long and generally being a lazy jerk. He shows up at 3:00 in the afternoon and leaves at 5:00 in the afternoon. He has pushed my car behind other projects and has been working on them instead of mine. At one time he did get everything back together, and because he didn't get oil pressure he ended out bending 8 valves and scoring the heads. We havn't even seen what the pistons look like yet. He got a used head from a local shop that had all the valves intact and in good condition and sent it to a machine shop to be broken down, inspected, cleaned and re-assembled. He keeps setting up completion dates and then just blowing them off. He says he is taking care of everything....but is doing absolutly nothing at all. Worse part is, he turned off his cell phone so noone can get in contact with him. The only way you can even talk to him is to either catch him at the shop or at his apartment. I have gone to his house once and asked for a progress report and he got all pissy, but ended out going to the shop to "work on my car". Well that was over a week ago and my car is in the same condition it has been in for almost a month. I went over to his place again today (because yet 2 more completion dates were blown off) and asked him what the hell was goin on. I was not a happy camper at all , then he said all he needs to do is get some money from a sale he recently made to finish the job. I was pissed as hell and stormed off saying a few explatives. He has done nothing but lie to me the whole time and I have lost all trust in him.

The condition of the engine...The front plates are off, the valve covers are off, the guides and chains are off, and the heads are each being held on by 1 allen-head bolt that he managed to strip out. What I need to know is, is there a competant mechanic with Q45 experiance in the Portland, Oregon area? I am willing to spend around $700 just to get my engine back together and running correctly.

Please....I implore you Infiniti folks to help me out. Thank you.

[DAEDALUS]

Wow, that sucks big time. Even if you could find someone to put it back together for $700, the risk is that it won't run right. Who knows what kind of latent damage might exist. Getting those stripped bolts out will be difficult. So many things can go wrong during open heart surgery. Sorry to hear, I hope you didn't pay him anything, and I would seriously consider taking him to small claims court for the cost of a replacement engine. Should be around $4k I think, under most state's limits. I think any court in the country would side with you.

[Touchdown038]

Damn right.... take his lazy arse to court!

[jefftrexler]

The thing about small claims court is that they do not enforce what the judge's decision is. If someone wins a claim for $4,000 the law does nothing to make sure that the person gets his $4,000. Besides....the mechanic is flat broke due to bad business decisions. As the saying goes....you can't get money from a turnip.

[DAEDALUS]

You're saying he doesn't have at least $4000 in tools? That would be one bad decision. Getting a favorable judgement is one step. Enforcing it often takes a lawyer, but it can be worth it. Imagine being able to put a lien on anything he buys in the future. Business, car, house? Try to get free legal advice if you can, just so you know what your options are and to run through all the what-if scenarios. Without knowing what kind of damage is done, I hate for you to have to spend any money to put the engine back together. I'm a little confused by what you said about lack of oil pressure leading to bent valves. What's the tie-in there, or was he making stuff up? If he bent 8 valves, something's up. Usually the engine won't turn past the first 2.

[PalmerWMD]

BBB.

Fred..

[jefftrexler]

He isn't a member of the BBB. As far as the bent valves....what happened is there was no oil pressure when the new quides and tensioners were put in. The hydrollic tensioner had no oil pressure so it didn't take out the slack in the chains. This caused the chains to slip and WHAMO....bent valves. I'm gonna talk to him again on Monday and see if we can get things worked out. Oh...and yes I already gave him some money. $200 for parts....plus me buying the guides and new head gaskets.

[Q45tech]

This was the great mechanic [you got mad when we questioned his competence earlier] -------before he started the project, RIGHT?"I am willing to spend around $700 just to get my engine back together and running correctly"

$700 gets you about 7 hours [of a expert engine technican] if you are lucky.........let's be optimistic and say a full day at an independent in Mississippi, we charge $1000 a day in Atlanta, more if we are correcting someone elses disaster.

Not meaning to sound mean but, you may end up with his tools.

You won't find any one [trustworthy] who will reassemble his great work for less than $3,000 and offer any type of warranty.

I would want to tear the engine down and check rods, crank, and bearings.....from the stress of bending the valves.

[maxnix]

And I recommended Eric at Infiniti of Beaverton. They may be a dealer and want to do things their way so they can warranty their work, but he is a very good and experienced senior Infiniti technician. He maintains a 1994 for his dad. He knows the car and how it's meant to work.

You need someone who is expert, not another bargain in the bush.