I need to share an unfortunate story in the hope that no one will make the same mistake.
I posted my 1994 Land Cruiser for sale about a week ago and then on October 2nd took it to an authorized mechanic for a CA pre-sale smog inspection. In my haste I simply looked up local mechanic X who is authorized to perform smog tests.
About an hour after dropping the cruiser off I returned and, as expected, was handed a pass with no issues. When I got in the cruiser and turned the key I immediately noticed it ran rough and the idle was lower than it should be. Knowing is a typical symptom of something simple like a battery being disconnected and knowing I was late for work I decided to drive away. Other than the rough idle at low rpm's and minor lack of low end power everything was fine. When I got home from work I decided to do some poking around to verify they hadn't left a EGR hose unhooked or something similar so I opened the hood. Everything was hooked up properly but I immediately noticed the coolant overflow tank was full to the top and there was coolant in the engine compartment below the overflow valve. Since it was Friday I decided to let it sit for the weekend.
This issue was eating at me so on Sunday I decided to take it for a short drive and get to diagnosing it again. I adjusted the overflow coolant level and fired it up. It was running even rougher and the check engine light immediately came on. I shut it down and diagnosed codes 25 & 26. On Monday I limped it back to the smog mechanic who proceeded to tell me "its an older vehicle so we didn't open the hood". I, like everyone on this website, know that is complete crap and I asked if the checked the timing, checked the EGR, checked the charcoal canister, checked for aftermarket equipment...? They said yeah but we didn't mess anything up. I finally convinced them to come out and "look" under the hood. The mechanic then proceeded to blame everything on a small crack at the base of the upper ventilation hose and again said they didn't do anything wrong.
I purchased a new hose from the local dealership, installed it, pulled the EFI fuse to reset the ECU and then drove it to my office where we have a team of heavy equipment mechanics on staff. No big surprise that the replacement hose did nothing, the check engine light returned and the cruiser still ran rough. The heavy equipment mechanics quickly diagnosed the #1 cylinder had a sudden/rapid/catastrophic head gasket failure and was full of coolant. I drove the cruiser home and am now faced with replacing the head gasket.
The heavy equipment mechanics asked me where I took the vehicle and then all agreed that I made a big mistake. One of them said he will never take a vehicle to this mechanic because he caught them clamping an upper radiator hose with pliers so they could get the engine up to temperature and make it would pass smog on his Ford Ranger.
Basically its on me now because I know that it doesn't matter what actually happened, it only matters what you can prove.
Whenever possible do your own work and never let anyone you don't know or trust touch your vehicle, even if it is for a simple smog check.
I posted my 1994 Land Cruiser for sale about a week ago and then on October 2nd took it to an authorized mechanic for a CA pre-sale smog inspection. In my haste I simply looked up local mechanic X who is authorized to perform smog tests.
About an hour after dropping the cruiser off I returned and, as expected, was handed a pass with no issues. When I got in the cruiser and turned the key I immediately noticed it ran rough and the idle was lower than it should be. Knowing is a typical symptom of something simple like a battery being disconnected and knowing I was late for work I decided to drive away. Other than the rough idle at low rpm's and minor lack of low end power everything was fine. When I got home from work I decided to do some poking around to verify they hadn't left a EGR hose unhooked or something similar so I opened the hood. Everything was hooked up properly but I immediately noticed the coolant overflow tank was full to the top and there was coolant in the engine compartment below the overflow valve. Since it was Friday I decided to let it sit for the weekend.
This issue was eating at me so on Sunday I decided to take it for a short drive and get to diagnosing it again. I adjusted the overflow coolant level and fired it up. It was running even rougher and the check engine light immediately came on. I shut it down and diagnosed codes 25 & 26. On Monday I limped it back to the smog mechanic who proceeded to tell me "its an older vehicle so we didn't open the hood". I, like everyone on this website, know that is complete crap and I asked if the checked the timing, checked the EGR, checked the charcoal canister, checked for aftermarket equipment...? They said yeah but we didn't mess anything up. I finally convinced them to come out and "look" under the hood. The mechanic then proceeded to blame everything on a small crack at the base of the upper ventilation hose and again said they didn't do anything wrong.
I purchased a new hose from the local dealership, installed it, pulled the EFI fuse to reset the ECU and then drove it to my office where we have a team of heavy equipment mechanics on staff. No big surprise that the replacement hose did nothing, the check engine light returned and the cruiser still ran rough. The heavy equipment mechanics quickly diagnosed the #1 cylinder had a sudden/rapid/catastrophic head gasket failure and was full of coolant. I drove the cruiser home and am now faced with replacing the head gasket.
The heavy equipment mechanics asked me where I took the vehicle and then all agreed that I made a big mistake. One of them said he will never take a vehicle to this mechanic because he caught them clamping an upper radiator hose with pliers so they could get the engine up to temperature and make it would pass smog on his Ford Ranger.
Basically its on me now because I know that it doesn't matter what actually happened, it only matters what you can prove.
Whenever possible do your own work and never let anyone you don't know or trust touch your vehicle, even if it is for a simple smog check.
