This incident happened during the second day of CNY. The owner called to enquire about his car overheated and state he wasn’t able to start the car after much cranking. He says would get back to us if he needs our help. At end of Feb we received a call from the owner asking us to tow the car over to our shop. He mentioned that he didn’t want to let other workshops to do the repair job for him.

Therefore upon much discussion with the owner, the car was towed in from another workshop. The car came with a dead battery, most likely was due to the excessive cranking. We offered the owner that we will try to charge up the battery for him to see if it’s usable, but after charging for 4-5 hours the battery was certified dead. Nonetheless, we use our own battery in order to conduct the testing. After testing, we certify the cylinder head gasket was burnt upon certifying there are no compressions to all cylinders. Jobs to be done and items to be changed are all listed out to the owner before we conduct any job. Spark plug and battery were listed out in the list too, but the owner insisted not to change them. Therefore upon his consent, we started with the job that is quoted.

Finished up with the TOP overhaul job, engine was started up, but engine experience misfiring so we have to change the spark plug. After changing, the engine was able to start well and runs well except the crank case pressure created was too big due to the worn piston rings. We advised that the engine was not usable unless we do the cylinder block overhaul, but the owner did not heed the advice.

The owner started to do his own research, stating that after reading up it might be the PVC spoilt. Insisted us to change it and he requested us to keep the engine started for couples of hours after valve changed., that’s because he read that from somewhere that maybe after running for some time, the engine will be smoothed and the pressure will subside. He kept insisting us to do it despite us telling him that it will only cause more damages to the engine. Therefore after following his instructions, the flywheel oil gave way, causing a leakage due to high pressure at the crank case.

After 3-5 days owner decided to scrap the car. At the time of making payment, the owner still insisted us to take back the battery and spark plugs and even insisted on lowering the price as per agreed based on the quotation before we started with the work. After much negotiation, he then agreed to the fact that we changed the battery and spark plug out of no choice. In the end, we had even lower the total price based on the quotation agreed by him earlier on.