I have a 1984 Chevy celebrity a car that I loved and had over 30 years and I always gave it the best care and never use cheap parts. Six months ago, I had an issue that when you turn off the engine it still dripped fuel through the throat of the carburetor. It was determined that we should replace the carburetor. This is when my nightmare started.
The replacement carburetor was not the exact replacement, and he tried to make it work which resulted in changing where the transmission shifts, because the throttle linkage was different and changed out the hose to the PCV valve, was ultimately choking off the PCV valve causing oil to be blown through the seals. It turned out that the TPS was not working properly and he put in another carburetor, this time the correct one. Should have done that in the first place.
Unfortunately, this carburetor had the exact same problem but worse. Ultimately in wearing out the starter. I took it to another shop and they said that an "O" ring was bad in the fuel metering pump and that this "rebuilt" was a used carb and worn out. it even looks like it came from a junkyard. I bought another one directly from the remanufacturing company and that solved all my carb problems. (I should have done that in the first place)
During all this, the water pump went and I always use Castrol full synthetic oil and I want to be sure that they didn't put any cheap oil in it so I provided the oil which comes in a 5-quart container. The crankcase holds four quarts and they put the whole 5 quarts in thus overfilling the crankcase.
(There is more but I'm only highlighting the good stuff)
When they changed the water pump, they didn't change the bottom radiator hose which burst on the freeway there by warping the head. And now I have a blown head gasket and thousands of dollars of repair and was forced to borrow from my sister to get another car.
Before all this happened, the engine was perfectly healthy. Did not use or leak any oil, compression was good and I'm left with a car that I can't use.
I'm thinking about taking them the small claims but I'm wondering if I have any other recourse because ultimately this was just bad workmanship from day one.
In the end, a car that I loved, and never used cheep parts on is now dead from not changing a $35 part
It is getting more and more difficult to find mechanics that aren't totally reliant on code readers. You need to find an old guy who remembers how to work on these old cars. I gave up going to anybody with my 1981 Toyota 4x4 pickup because they all had no idea what a distributor was, let alone a carburetor. So I learned to do everything myself. As far as going after whoever did the work, I am reminded of the 5th century BC philosopher Confucius who said -
"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."
Would a 'No win no fee' laywer be an option?
There's not enough money in the value of an old Chevy Celebrity to interest an attorney. (Not every old car that's escaped the scrapheap is worth a fortune.) Litigation is very expensive and labor-intensive, and there has to be the possibility of enough return to make it worthwhile - unless you can find a lawyer sufficiently outraged by the situation who'll take on the case pro bono.
It comes with the territory of old cars. Do your own work, or get something newer.
You could try Small Claims Court and represent yourself.
This may be a long shot but see if you can contact your local Legal Aid Society for some help with this. Good luck!
Damn that's sad. Seriously. We've got all this technology today and it's never used to benefit citizens. Politicians just want us driving EVs and all the old, reliable cars off the road. Or they'd make a law that mechanics have to film their work.
Would a 'No win no fee' laywer be an option? If other mechanics were to supply evidence of poor workmanship and summarise that to the lawyer...
Technology is expensive. Somebody or some thing has to pay for it.
Politicians want to endorse whatever get them re-elected.