I know it'* not right for them to proceed with repairs until authorized, but if they have it already apart, its going to be difficult to deal with it in transit. Was the price they were going to charge unreasonable?

$3500 for just the timing chain! We got the car back this morning. The service manager continued, "and we'll have to take the head off, and at that point, might as well replace the pistons & rings, bringing it to $5500. It'* an expensive engine, about $10,000!" We returned to our usual preferred shop, turns out timing chains are beyond what they do. So they recommended another shop up in town, we went there, and they were able to start on it this morning! Cost estimate: $1700.

Wow yeah that'* ridiculous!

$1,700.00 seems reasonable to me.

Has anyone gone over the diagnosis? I still haven't heard why the timing chain is condemned.

Well, the DEC guy said one of the guides was broken, but didn't specify. It'* typical, I watched a few videos of damaged engines, there are three guides, one on top, one on the back, and another near the bottom. Plus, the tensioner on the lower front side. And the bolt that hold it can back out, and bugger the threads. And any issues will create a lot of metal shavings. The shop called me this morning, and said there was a lot of shavings on the sensor they pulled. I said I'd just replaced the exhaust side, and he said it was the intake one that had the most. Also very typical, from my research, it ends up collecting on the sensor, seen them pulled out w/a disturbing amount of metal on them! So he was calling to ask if they should continue, in case there were other issues. I felt confident that it was typical for timing issues, and to carry on. It should be done this afternoon, so I'm knocking on wood that this will put us back on the road smoothly!

That'* cool.

Replacing the guides should be a normal part of doing a timing chain on this. They have to touch the guides in the process, so it'* not another $2,000.00 worth of work. It really should only be the cost of parts and then a smidge extra. If the threads are munged up a bit, I could see some extra being required for fixing that, but it should most commonly just be a matter of chasing threads and replacing the related bolts.

Sounds like the shop that'* working on it now is doing right by you though.

They called a couple hours later, and suggested dropping the oil pan, to check for more metal, and there was! I said good idea, go ahead. We picked it up a bit ago, and he showed me pics of the sensor, and the pan. And they recommended another oil change in 500 miles, & make sure all the bits were out. Definitely smart thinking, and I'm so glad they were able to get it done so quickly, on a holiday weekend! My wife drove it home, and said it'* running smoother than when we first bought it! Total on the repairs was just over $2K, I said replace that intake sensor, since there was so much metal on it. I'm happy to have it back!

That'* great news!

Seems like the price was fair.