Need quick help..Car would not start after a speed bump

[Raindrop]

Hi, Here is the story of my 2006 3.5L Pacifica. -I got a coolant flush from a dealer on Tuesday morning. - On Tuesday night I was travelling on an Interstate my Car's headlights started flickering (never happened in past) which went away after I teruned the lights off & back again. - On Wednesday my car went over a speed bump at 15mph and stopped immediately. It would attempt to crank but engine would not fire up. I have noticed that I have lost the power steering when ignition is switched on. I thought that some wire/ground might have come off loose. So the car was towed to a nearby mechanic who is saying that timing belt has jumped and caused bent valves and therefore I need a engine head job worth $1500. I am not too sure if bent valves would cause the car to lose power and stop right away. So my question is does this sound like timing belt jumping or should I need the car towed to another mechanic/dealer to have it looked it over? Thanks.

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[CHRYSLER TECH]

jump timing will lose power yes did this guy do a compression test ?? that will tell u if valves are bent or not. And yes always let some one else look at it unless U trust those first guy and have had good experiences with him.

[Raindrop]

Well the shop opened it up and said it was broken timing belt . Now I am really excited about the repair bill.

[CHRYSLER TECH]

i take it u are over the 105k mark? U need to read your manual and know when things like that are needed to be changed.

[Raindrop]

yep, I knew about coming spark plug and timing belt replacement since my vehicle had 71,000 miles on it. I thought I could get 20,000 more miles out of it. Oh well. Now the mechanic wants to put Dayco belt & water pump on it and having the vehicle towed all over town to shop to another mechanic is a hassle.

I told mechanic that I can bring my own parts, and he said fine but then I have to bump the labor rate from $80 to $100 per hour. Now I kinda start understanding why do people lease vehicles.

The only thing I am worried more than repair bill is my wife telling me 'I told you so, you should've gotten a Pathfinder or such'.

[ttype]

Originally Posted by Raindrop

I told mechanic that I can bring my own parts, and he said fine but then I have to bump the labor rate from $80 to $100 per hour. Now I kinda start understanding why do people lease vehicles.

That in itself would through up red flags in my books. I would definitely take it elsewhere and get a second opinion. Why would the labor rate change on a timing belt and water pump if you supply the belt and pump? My buddy had that happen to him before in his Chrysler 300M and the mechanic told him it was his timing belt and gave him a price of $1600 to fix.
Being the guy that he is, he always questions everything. Took it to another place and found out it was a faulty wire on his starter. IMO, I would make some calls and inquire elsewhere and get a second opinion. 71,000 miles seems awfully premature for that kind of failure.

[TNtech]

I have been doing 3.5L water pumps and timing belts for years and years. Only ONE time have I run into one with a bent valve. That was because they were running 5K rpm when it failed. It loses power and dies because the cam and crank sensor go out of sync and it stops firing.

Raindrop....that's awesome. Good for you.

[Raindrop]

Originally Posted by TNtech

Raindrop....that's awesome. Good for you.

I am not sure if you are implying that I just have to deal with broken belt and do not have valves bent in there. But this does not seems to be the case. The mechanic is maintaining from the very first day that valves are bent (even before he opened the engine or could do a compression test). So they are going to charge 8 hours of labor to remove the 'head' and send to machine shop to fix the head/cylinders/valves or whatever. I thought that when valves are bent either you have to buy a new head or replace couple of valves which are bent.

When I asked to slap on a new belt and water pump and do a compression test, then they got rude and said that they have 'seen' that valves are already bent and the 'head' need to be sent to a machine shop.

Originally Posted by ttype

That in itself would through up red flags in my books.

ttype, there are bunch of red flags in the story but I could not go to that mechanic's shop during last week and did not want my wife to have car towed all over the town, plus I do not know any better mechanic to take the vehicle to. I am just hoping that they can stop at $1600 and do not attempt to make this into a $4,000 job.

....now that would be awesome.

[TNtech]

Originally Posted by Raindrop

implying that I just have to deal with broken belt .

$1600 is way too much for a timing belt and water pump. I don't know how the heck that can SEE valves without pulling off the valve covers and maybe detecting something. Man, I think I would just have it towed. They were rude because you called them and they're pissed and backtracking. Yeah maybe I could understand if they quoted you a worst case scenario then said probably just timing belt, but for them to jump the gun like that is amature-ish.

Here at the Dealer 3.5 hours labor $315.00
Timing belt $179.00
Water pump $120.00
Compression test 1.0 hour

I've done enough of them can do them in about 1.5 hours...and not cut corners.