Car broke down after mechanic worked on car

[525ibmw2001]

I took my 2001 bmw 525i in to a mechanic to have the valve cover gasket replaced. The mechanic asked if we would like the spark plugs replaced. We asked the price and said that would be fine. When checking on the car, we found the mechanic removing sludge from the engine, which we did not ask him to do. When we came to pick up the car, they were completing an oil change (which we didn't authorized). The service manager drove the car around to me and when I got in the car I noticed the oil light and check engine light were on. I asked the manager why and he said they thought sludge got on the screen and that I should drive it over the weekend to see if the oil would push the sludge out of the screen. He also said the car now had two codes P1349 and a camshaft sensor code. He said they didn't know what the P1349 code but it was ok to drive the car even though the codes were showing up. I left the shop, stopped by the gas station to fill up, and as I was leaving the gas station the car hesitated. Thinking it was probably caused by the oil issue I continued on. The car didn't shift correctly and I had to let off the gas to bring down the idle, then the car shifted. I continued to drive and about 4 miles out of town the engine stopped and I had to coast to the side of the road. I looked up the code P1349 and found that it was a code that the coil to cylinder 4 was bad and it causes engine shut off. I had my husband go pick up a new coil and put it on and the car didn't start. We had to have it towed home. On Monday, we contacted the shop and they said to tow it to them. We said we wouldn't pay for the tow so they had the car towed. They are now saying they won't repair the car, they didn't cause the damage, that the mechanic told us not to drive the car (he never talked with us after we talked with him when we brought the car to him to change the gasket), and they don't want that kind of car in their shop. Do I have any recourse?

 

[mightymoose]

You really shouldn't have driven the car with your oil light and check engine light on. That is a recipe for damage. Every vehicle manual tells you this.
Keep at this for awhile. Insist they fix the car and try to work something out.
However, it sounds like this is an older car, and having "sludge" is an indication of pre existing oil leaks and possibly pre existing damage. The change of soak plugs and writes could have caused the computer to pick up the trouble codes. It isn't necessarily that anyone broke the car.
If you negotiate an agreement to share part of the cost it might be best, but if you want them to pay fir everything and they refuse then you can take the car somewhere else, pay fir full repairs, then try your luck in small claims court for reimbursement from first shop.