- Jurisdiction
- Ohio
Can I sue an automobile repair shop for expenses and turmoil due to negligence by an employee of the shop and misdiagnosis of the resulting problem by the shops top mechanic?
Here are the details
The shops negligence caused extreme and immediate overheating of the engine.
Misdiagnosis of the overheating led to extensive time and money to discover and repair the actual cause of the overheating.
A new/used truck was purchased due to the overheating/misdiagnosis on my truck. Had I not had the new truck, I would not have been able to identify the damage to the old truck as I needed a vehicle to get to auto parts stores to get parts and other materials used in chasing down the real problem. The new truck was also key in my being able to meet people in parts stores who eventually lead me to the repair shop that in the end found and fixed the problem.
Had I not purchased the new truck, my old truck would be sitting in a junkyard today. I came within 10 minutes of calling Pick a Part and having the truck towed away. In the end I decided to keep the appointment at the garage to have "one last" look at it, where it was discovered that the shipping cap to the radiator had never been taken off when the new radiator had been installed by All Around Auto.
Negligence: Mechanic failed to remove the shipping cover on the radiator's output port. The lower hose was put onto the output port OVER the top of the shipping cover and the hose clamped down.
Result of Negligence: The engine's coolant flow was blocked and the engine overheated immediately at extreme high temperature.
Misdiagnosis by the auto shops head mechanic: "Catastrophic" engine failure – blown head gasket – extremely hot exhaust gases in the coolant.
Estimate of repair to replace the head gasket was $850 plus parts, with no guarantee that replacing the head gasket would fix the problem. No guarantee that a new head gasket wouldn't fail within the first few minutes of operation unless the cause of the head gasket failure was identified.
3 weeks of turmoil and stress not to mention the purchase of a 12K truck, that I did NOT need to purchase.
Here are the details
The shops negligence caused extreme and immediate overheating of the engine.
Misdiagnosis of the overheating led to extensive time and money to discover and repair the actual cause of the overheating.
A new/used truck was purchased due to the overheating/misdiagnosis on my truck. Had I not had the new truck, I would not have been able to identify the damage to the old truck as I needed a vehicle to get to auto parts stores to get parts and other materials used in chasing down the real problem. The new truck was also key in my being able to meet people in parts stores who eventually lead me to the repair shop that in the end found and fixed the problem.
Had I not purchased the new truck, my old truck would be sitting in a junkyard today. I came within 10 minutes of calling Pick a Part and having the truck towed away. In the end I decided to keep the appointment at the garage to have "one last" look at it, where it was discovered that the shipping cap to the radiator had never been taken off when the new radiator had been installed by All Around Auto.
Negligence: Mechanic failed to remove the shipping cover on the radiator's output port. The lower hose was put onto the output port OVER the top of the shipping cover and the hose clamped down.
Result of Negligence: The engine's coolant flow was blocked and the engine overheated immediately at extreme high temperature.
Misdiagnosis by the auto shops head mechanic: "Catastrophic" engine failure – blown head gasket – extremely hot exhaust gases in the coolant.
Estimate of repair to replace the head gasket was $850 plus parts, with no guarantee that replacing the head gasket would fix the problem. No guarantee that a new head gasket wouldn't fail within the first few minutes of operation unless the cause of the head gasket failure was identified.
3 weeks of turmoil and stress not to mention the purchase of a 12K truck, that I did NOT need to purchase.