Cracked Head from exhaust bolt repair!? HELP!

[Steve-O]

Need advice fast! Brought my truck to a local shop to have the notorious broken exhaust bolt problem fixed. I guess there were a couple on the passenger side that were broken and one of the bolts gave them a hard time and somehow the head was supposedly cracked in the process or removing it!

I was quoted $1800 to install a new head. Should I pay this?? They're trying to spin it like this can happen and it isn't rare but I feel if that were the case, I would have been told ahead of time that this is a risk I'm taking. There was no mention that this could happen.

Do I fight this completely? Bite the bullet and take my losses? Or find middle ground.. and this is my middle ground proposal if I shouldn't make them take full responsibility:

I wasn't planning on doing the lifter and MDS delete kit BUT if the head is coming off anyways, I guess I relunctantly can. That way I don't have a lifter go bad down the road and regret not doing it when the head was off. So I was thinking pf proposing that THEY cover the cost of a new head but I will cover the labor for installing the lifter/MDS delete kit. They can put the new head on while they install the kit so they're still bringing some type of money in but also fixing their mistake at the same time.

THOUGHTS?? Sorry for the long post but I'm gonna need to make a decision QUICK so any advice would be appreciated!!

 

[crash68]

not sure how they could crack a head by trying to remove one of the header bolts. It was either cracked before they started working on the engine or they drilled into the water jacket while attempting to remove the bolt. The latter is probably what happened and could be determined by inspection of the head

 

[jws123]

Not sure how they cracked the head not common at all must be inexperience the only way you should remove bolts on these is with a welder and a nut works every time never drill.

 

[Daw14]

Research this forum before having more work of any kind done , you can gain a lot of knowledge and save a lot of headaches and money.

 

[EdGs]

They cracked the head (most likely drilled into the water jacket, IMO), so it's on them. This is why businesses should have insurance to cover.

It should be very easy to tell if they drilled it, too.

 

[Gator Whiskers]

They cracked the head (most likely drilled into the water jacket, IMO), so it's on them. This is why businesses should have insurance to cover.

It should be very easy to tell if they drilled it, too.

100%.
Any competent shop should be able to remove a broken bolt/stud without destroying the head.

They should pay for that portion.

I have no idea what the additional cost of an MDS delete would be from there...

-Bryan

 

[chri5k]

Depends on the nature of the crack. I have seen improper use of EZ-Out type tools cause cracks. The conical shape of the tool exerts outward pressure on the bolt so the flutes can bite into the bolt. Drilling out most of the bolt and using one that is too large for the bolt can put most or all of the pressure on the part containing the bolt.

 

[zrock]

Other than one valid point above about using the wrong size ez out their is no way they cracked a head by removing the bolt, even with the wrong size the ez out would have broke first in most cases before it damaged the head... Also like said above they probably drilled to far so the cost to repair is on them. I would be really interested in seeing some pictures that they should have supplied you or at least let you look at the head to make your own judgment and get pictures.. Not sure if the rules are the same over their but you may be able to pull the veh from that shop and take it to any shop you want and have the repairs done at the original shops expense. I just did that last year when the dealer did brake work and the brakes fell off they tried to fight me on this one until i showed them the law, also did it years ago to a body shop where my grey mazda 3 went in for body work and came out and the paint was pink instead of grey.

 

[Kap1]

Had dealership do broken manifold bolts under warranty. They damaged head when trying to extract the bolt, send it to machine shop to re thread it, finished the job, then two days later it broke again so I brought it back to dealership, they had to replace the head this time... I was without truck for about two months during this back and forth....

Had manifold bolts break again few years later, took it to local experienced mechanic expecting the worst... But he got it repaired and bolts extracted same day for about $500 which I thought was a steal.

So yeah make sure you have experienced mechanic do this work.