Advice on what to do about a technician who stripped my spark plugs into the head

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Mar 28, 2021
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Hey all, I'm looking for some advice on an unfortunate situation with an automotive repair center

I have a 2009 Honda Civic GX, a rare vehicle that runs on CNG out of the factory, one of the few. It was a family heirloom passed down from my Grandpa and used to save me tons on fuel costs. The car is identical to a normal civic but with a higher compression and a different fuel system
One day I was driving it and everything was fine, I shut the car off and went back to start it again and it would crank easy but no firing at all. This had happened to me before and it was the crankshaft position sensor so I figured it was likely the same culprit again. I did some research for a reputable automotive repair center and found one and had it towed there.

They took a look at my car and called me up. He said the spark plugs in it look pretty bad, as in difficult to remove, and they wanted $275 to change them but that's only if the spark plugs come out easy he said, if they don't then it will be more. I said to him that the car was running fine and then just quit firing at all rather suddenly, and that this had happened before and the culprit was the crankshaft position sensor. I was really skeptical of him changing the spark plugs for this reason because that just didn't seem to be the culprit to me. He said, well the book says that the first thing you start with is making sure you have good spark, so that's what I'm doing. I said yea, but could it really be the spark plugs? Would they all really go bad at once like that all at the same time? He said maybe, if the cold weather over night caused the gap to change or something like that. This seemed really odd to me, but I needed to get my car repaired and on the road, so I said alright, I guess if that's what you have to do then go ahead.

A little bit later I talked to someone and I realized how silly this sounded about the spark plug gap changing from the weather and the whole thing just didn't seem logical at all. I thought shoot, I should call them up and have them cancel this, so I picked up the phone and asked them to stop working on it, but by then the damage was done, he had stripped three of the spark plugs into the cylinder head.

I tried to ask them, why didn't you just spray some penetrant oil or something like that so that they wouldn't get stripped? He gave me a reply that didn't even make sense, he said "Because you called me up and said to stop working on it". At the time I was just really not in the but I should have pushed back on these people harder. I did not feel comfortable having my car worked on by these people so I just had it towed out of there and it's been sitting at my house ever since, not running.

Now I am out a car and I just feel screwed over by these people. I just wanted to get your guys thoughts on what they did, and see if you might have any advice on what I can do about this situation? I feel like it was incredibly dumb of them to go ahead with the plugs, without even spraying some type of penetrant oil in there first to prevent this from happening, and when the culprit didn't even seem to be the spark plugs in the first place. That being said, they claim that it is the original spark plugs with 150,000 miles on the car. I don't know about that because I only recently got the car from my Grandpa, but the whole situation just seems really messed up to me. At no point did he take the time to explain to me that if the spark plugs don't come out right, it was going to require a whole new cylinder head and thousands of dollars more in repairs, I mean that alone might have been a good thing to mention to me on the phone. Also at no point did he change up his methods when the first plug didn't come out right so as to prevent stripping out the others, he just kept right on doing the same thing with each and every spark plug, blindly following the book when the likely culprit wasn't even spark plugs in the first place.
 
Boy, that's painful! What did you have to pay the shop to get your car back and what did they write on the repair ticket? I think I'd be finding a lawyer. It sure doesn't seem like the shop used "best practices."
 
It is a somewhat big name place, It has at least two local locations, it's called Oade's Brothers for what its worth. I don't think it's a franchise though.

They didn't give me a ticket of any kind, I just had it towed out of there. Unfortunately it was a few months ago, I wish I had dealt with this sooner, it's just they make it seem like its your fault and I have had so many other things going on in my life right now. It wasn't until I talked to someone else that they pointed out that this isn't right and I should be pushing back
 
Spraying a them with a penetrant wouldn't do any good. It couldn't have possibly gotten to the threads.
You can have Time-sert, thread repair inserts installed. Searching that brand name will give you an idea of what that is.
Probably not a DIY job.
 
Spraying a them with a penetrant wouldn't do any good. It couldn't have possibly gotten to the threads.
You can have Time-sert, thread repair inserts installed. Searching that brand name will give you an idea of what that is.
Probably not a DIY job.

Okay, thank you for letting me know. What do you think the mechanic should have done in this situation?

And I'm guessing the Time-sert repair inserts would still be a pretty expensive job that requires removing the head?
 
How the hell do you strip out 3 spark plugs on a 4 cylinder?
after 1 you stop.
He use an impact on it or something??!??!?!
First day on the job "oil change guy" promotion?

I would think you should stop after the first one too. I really don't know, he claims it's because the spark plugs were so old
 
also 275 to remove spark plugs if they are easy?
its a 10min job total if its easy.
sounds like a dirtbag place.
Timecerts can be done in place(no disassembly) but its a technical operation.. best done by a pro or someone with experience.
 
Okay, thank you for letting me know. What do you think the mechanic should have done in this situation?

And I'm guessing the Time-sert repair inserts would still be a pretty expensive job that requires removing the head?
You don't remove the head to do a Time-Sert. I mean in a perfect world maybe. Just install them and blow out the cylinders really well.
 
You don't remove the head to do a Time-Sert. I mean in a perfect world maybe. Just install them and blow out the cylinders really well.

Okay, thank you for telling me about this potential solution. Never knew about this. Is it a reliable solution? Will it hold up over the years?
 
Can you help clarify the situation? Did the mechanic damage the cylinder head during spark plug removal?

Or did he install the spark plugs and over torque them and strip out the threads in the head?

Or did he cross thread 3 out of 4 of them?

If it happened during removal, there may not be much one can do about that. Sometimes problems happen and there is no magic work around.
 
Can you help clarify the situation? Did the mechanic damage the cylinder head during spark plug removal?

Or did he install the spark plugs and over torque them and strip out the threads in the head?

Or did he cross thread 3 out of 4 of them?

If it happened during removal, there may not be much one can do about that. Sometimes problems happen and there is no magic work around.


It happened during removal of the spark plugs, I will try to get a picture for you, give me a minute.

Are you saying that the Time-Serts may not work if it happened during removal?
 
Here is a picture:

IMG_6784 (2).webp
 
Spraying a them with a penetrant wouldn't do any good. It couldn't have possibly gotten to the threads.
You can have Time-sert, thread repair inserts installed. Searching that brand name will give you an idea of what that is.
Probably not a DIY job.
The head has to come off to properly do an insert.

Otherwise shavings will get into the cylinder and destroy the engine. Scratched cylinders are not repairable. No matter how much grease is used to try to catch shavings if done on the engine, some will get into the cylinders. Usually a lot more than realized.

Again, the head has to come off. Don't believe otherwise.
 
Wow those are some messed up spark plugs. I’m assuming original plugs? That’s why you use anti seize on them. As for repairing the threads the head doesn’t need to come off there is kits with inserts that you can rethread them with. Time-serts and heli-coils. I’ve done it several times with no issues. It does suck that more than one is messed up though.
 
Spraying a them with a penetrant wouldn't do any good. It couldn't have possibly gotten to the threads.
You can have Time-sert, thread repair inserts installed. Searching that brand name will give you an idea of what that is.
Probably not a DIY job.
As explained to me by a shop and the O2 sensors, yes they do spray penetrant. I asked how would that work, if penetrant can get in, wouldn’t exhaust leak? They said they crack it ever so slightly, spray, and wait.

I stripped a plug on my parents’ 1984 Camry. They took it to the dealer who fixed it. I had assumed they rethreaded it somehow but today maybe heli Coil? If I attempted that myself I’d be afraid of slivers falling into the cylinder…
 
You don't remove the head to do a Time-Sert. I mean in a perfect world maybe. Just install them and blow out the cylinders really well.
What lube is usually put on the the tap/cutter when doing this?
Blow it out? So, after the repair, leave the plug out & crank it?
Vacuuming the cylinder won't help?
 
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