[Mikaeldarer]

Hello all,

I sent the following email to my attorney this morning but have yet to receive a response. I am omitting the names of the parties involved for now.

"Good Morning "",

I was in a car accident on 9/29/17 which resulted in mechanical/body damage to my 2011 BMW 335i. The mechanical damage was to an auxiliary oil cooler which caused a major engine oil leak. It should be noted that I did not start or operate my vehicle at all after the accident. I had car towed by AAA from accident to party 1 for repairs. On either 9/30/17 or 10/2/17, I contacted service advisor at party 1 to get update on car and to make sure they understood vehicle was inoperable. The following details were all attained through dashcam footage, which I can readily supply. On 10/3/17, a technician at party 1 inspected broken oil cooler while car was RUNNING, then DROVE my car from the tow lot into their garage. While in the garage, the technicians repeatedly bottomed out my vehicle on their lift which I suspect caused additional damage. On 10/4/17, vehicle was inspected by my insurance company, Geico. Geico provided party 1 and I with estimate for repairs, which included the oil cooler. On 10/5/17, I made arrangements with Geico for all repairs including oil cooler to be done at party 2(they do all body work for party 1). Once again, a party 1 employee started my vehicle and drove it off their lot and onto bed of tow truck. Vehicle was started again while taking it off tow truck at party 2 and once more while sitting in their lot on 10/5/17. This is the last recorded dashcam footage as camera was disabled by employee at party 2 without my consent. My vehicle then sat for almost two weeks at party 2 without them even performing an initial inspection(I called or emailed almost every business day for update). On Monday 10/9/17, I spoke to "" at party 2 and was informed they were having an issue “getting my vehicle started”. At the time I didn’t think anything of the comment and assumed she meant they had not started working on car. On 10/12/17, vehicle had still not been inspected by party 2 so I had car towed to party 3. On 11/7/17, "" at party 3 called to inform me vehicle was still not starting after repairing oil cooler and adding oil. We then had vehicle towed to party 4 to have further testing done. I contacted them today 11/8/17 and was told engine had multiple codes coming up on scanner, including oil pressure and VANOS. They also did a compression test on all cylinders and there is no compression(not good). There is a possibility clearing the codes will resolve the issue but do not want to do anything yet if it will affect liability. I would like to hold party 1 responsible for any damages sustained to my vehicle AFTER the accident. If by chance the engine does not need to be replaced, I would like party 1 to provide me with an extended warranty that will fully cover all future repairs that can be directly related to damage caused by their negligence. Also, the repairs may be performed by shop of my choosing. Please let me know what you think and how we should proceed. Thanks!"

Do I have a case and if so should I involve party 2?

[Mikaeldarer]

Also, is it okay to have party 4 clear codes to see if that resolves issue? They have codes saved.

[Turbod]

Not nearly the same as your case but I have heard the service techs talking about my tune and then one of them took it for a joy ride. At the time I was running the JB4 on map 0 so it wasn't fast at all. I pulled the footage and kept it in my pocket in case the dealership gave me grief on any future visits.

[Mikaeldarer]

Originally Posted by Turbod

Not nearly the same as your case but I have heard the service techs talking about my tune and then one of them took it for a joy ride. At the time I was running the JB4 on map 0 so it wasn't fast at all. I pulled the footage and kept it in my pocket in case the dealership gave me grief on any future visits.

Hopefully you don’t ever have to use it but glad to see someone else prepared for the worst lol. I’ve actually had issues with this shop in the past so shame on me for thinking things would be different this time

[rich_mane]

I'm no lawyer at all so my opinion means little to nothing but I can't see how the shop could get away with that one. Starting a motor multiple times after it's towed in with no oil from a major leak is just stupid.

But when party 4 says the motor has no compression, do they mean 0psi on any cylinder? That's definitely a bit strange. They must have let that thing run for a while with no oil pressure at all? Burned up every single piston ring? Even then I would imagine it would show a little bit of compression... I'm curious to know what's causing that.

And not to rub salt in the wound but this is why I've never let anyone else work on my cars... Body damage getting repaired is a bit of a different story though. Sucks you're going through this, but I have to imagine with your dashcam evidence and the fact that the car was running before the shop did their "repairs", you should be able to get it handled.

[Mikaeldarer]

Originally Posted by rich_mane

I'm no lawyer at all so my opinion means little to nothing but I can't see how the shop could get away with that one. Starting a motor multiple times after it's towed in with no oil from a major leak is just stupid.

But when party 4 says the motor has no compression, do they mean 0psi on any cylinder? That's definitely a bit strange. They must have let that thing run for a while with no oil pressure at all? Burned up every single piston ring? Even then I would imagine it would show a little bit of compression... I'm curious to know what's causing that.

And not to rub salt in the wound but this is why I've never let anyone else work on my cars... Body damage getting repaired is a bit of a different story though. Sucks you're going through this, but I have to imagine with your dashcam evidence and the fact that the car was running before the shop did their "repairs", you should be able to get it handled.

I am guessing the dme is not allowing the engine to turn over because of the codes its throwing. Which would explain the 0 psi readings. The car sounded horrible in the videos so definitely not ruling out damage to valvetrain.

If insurance hadn't been involved I would of at least taken care of the oil cooler myself. Only other time I've had the car at a shop was for stuff covered by warranty/recall. Most frustrating part about all this is 6 weeks later and I still don't have my car back!

[JETmn]

And this is the reason I do all of my own repairs!

[Supra2k6]

compression test could be done wrong they need to do a leak down test very similar just tells you more and no code will give you a 0 reading since it's a physical test not a computer check test.

[Mikaeldarer]

Originally Posted by Supra2k6

compression test could be done wrong they need to do a leak down test very similar just tells you more and no code will give you a 0 reading since it's a physical test not a computer check test.

I'll ask them to perform leak down when they call this afternoon. I confirmed this morning that engine is cranking but still no compression.

[juld0zer]

Isn't there any privacy laws? Something along the lines of unauthorised surveillance/recording?