originally, what happened the car,, was it driving.? was the clutch slipping, did it drive to the garage, still trying to understand the whole crankshaft problem,,, they showed you the clutch origianlly with scratches on the flywheel,, crankshaft seems to be diagnosed lateron, and it is correct that low oil will cause damage...
You will most likely end up tarding it after this so i would not bother on the recon engine,,,,,
if it drove in with a faulty clutch, how was the crankshaft broken????????
1 - the car started making a chucka chucka noise - I brought it to our garage and they said it sounded like the clutch. When I depressed the clutch pedal it made that noise - it didn't result in slipping or anything else that I was aware of. I brought it to another garage (my husband was keen to try another because he wasn't happy with a wrong diagnosis from our garage about a central locking problem - see earlier post) who gave the same diagnosis and same estimate for replacing (E600, inclu vat & labour).
2 - drove the car in, was called 2 days later to say that flywheel also gone (estimate an additional E600 to solve). I was shown flywheel and 'cracks' were pointed out to me - I couldn't see any...
3 - a few days later was called to say the crank shaft was also broken/in trouble. They had worked on the clutch & flywheel and yet when they drove the car again it still made noise. They explained further that because I hadn't put oil in regularly (guilty!) this had ruined the crankshaft. (about 3 times in the year I had the experience that when I had driven for a long while, and on hotter days that the gears got stuck out of gear - happened to me while driving in traffic, scary - had brought it to the garage twice over it and they had no clue what it could be).
4 - they said that rather than replace the crank shaft they wanted to put in a different engine 'cos cost of parts & labour etc would pretty much be the same price.
5 - they came back with a quote of E2,800 for: a 2nd hand engine block from a supplier they have never had problems with(E1,200), a new clutch (clutch assembly), a flywheel (E525), oil, labour (E460) & vat - would also check it meets NCT.
I called another garage and was offered the following: clutch E170, flywheel (says he has a spare one knocking around, so free), reconditioned engine E1,650, towing of my car to and from the house.
When I called my own garage and told them the competing price (ok, it's not like for like but for me it's 'whatever it takes to get the car roadworthy) he said 'go for the other offer, we can't match it' but could do it for E2,600 instead. He went on to say that he hasn't seen the engine yet that they have for my car but that it has a clutch with it - and if it's good it would reduce my bill by a good E300-E400.... he'll only know when he sees the engine... So the final bill could be around E2,200....
He's to tell me on Tues what I would owe for work to date if I was to take the car back now and stop works. Last time I saw the car the clutch and flywheel were on the ground - so they're not installed.
BTW I phoned a third garage told him my story and he said 'I thought I'd heard them all'....
My gut instinct is that the folks in the garage are decent and honest fellas. His first reaction when I told him of comparative prices was a surprised 'go with them' - not in a nasty fashion but genuinly surprised and helpful.
They also seemed flumoxed by problems with the car. I do feel that I've had a load of bad luck....maybe I'm naive....?