Toyota repaired head gasket etc - now major oil leak

[quote:8790caaf66="mominwashington"]2003 Toyota Camry. 105K miles We thought the water pump was going out. Went to a shop guy listened and said it was the alternator. They had to order the part and was going to take a number of days so we scheduled for the next week. Two days later the car died. It was the waterpump and when it went out it overheated. They replaced head gasket, took something to a machine shop, replaced the water pump and put it back together. At this point they had the car for 3 weeks. On that Friday they called and said they put it all together, but it threw oil all over so it wouldn't be ready until the next week. On Wednesday they called and said it was ready. They said it still had a leak, but they put in a sealant and hope it sealed itself. They also replaced the coil (which they didn't tell us about until after the fact). All this cost me $1709. After a few days it was clear this wasn't an oil leak, but an oil GUSH! I am losing 1-2 qtrs of oil a day. I don't think they did anything between Friday and Wed except clean up the car. I don't have any faith in letting them fix it. They returned it to me in this shape. I don't have an extra car and they said they need it for 2 days to "fix it". I don't understand why they didn't fix it right the first time and would like to take it to the Toyota dealer. I can not pay $1700 twice though. Oil is leaking all over and is running into the alternator. Someone said they don't think they put in a timer cover gasket. How much is this going to cost to fix? I'd like my money back. They misrepresented the shape the car was in when we took it back. Basically they were sick of it and wanted the money IMO. I have to have a vehicle and can't go 2 days without. I shouldn't buy a new one now and I can't trade it in in the current condition. I can't find my camera cord to get the picture to the computer, but the oil is pooling on the silver part behind the alternator. It is coming out the seam. They put red stuff all over the seams.

help......[/quote:8790caaf66]

take it back to them, they did something wrong, headgasket on wrong or the head is still warped, where is oil comming from, can you tell?

You wrote: take it back to them, they did something wrong, headgasket on wrong or the head is still warped, where is oil comming from, can you tell?



Thank you for responding. I hadn't considered that something was still warped. Is that fixable? The oil seems to be coming from everywhere. There is a seam that run up and down and it is definitely coming out of there.

Thank you,

The shop it at fault, you must give them one time to fix it, if they can not, you then can call the bureau of automotive repair in your area and they can instruct you further. This is the reason we started 2carpros.com to help people that are engaged with an automotive repair shop that doesn't know what they are going, happens all the time. Please visit us and let us know how it went. Thank you for visiting 2carpros.com :D

Thanks for writing. Honestly, I don't want them working on my car again. They gave it back to me knowing it was in this condition. I took it to the Toyota dealer this morning and had them look at it. They said I shouldn't be driving it (it is just not holding oil). They will charge $574 to fix it and they gave me a car to use. The other shop put the wrong serpentine belt in. It is leaking from the timer gasket (which is what my sister thought) so we aren't sure if they did that right either. Basically they are having to redo a bunch of work the other place did. I stopped payment on the check I paid them with. I am going to deduct what Toyota charges me and send the other shop a check for the difference. Hopefully they won't make a huge issue out of that.

Thanks to everyone who posted. You helped me in my throught process of how to handle this.