So Jason at Black Forset called me this afternoon with some bad news. The issues that I have been having with the 540 are due to a bad head gasket. The coolant leaking into cylinder 1 has caused the walls to become scored and therefore loss of compression etc… motor is fucked.
The dealer is offering to replace or rebuild the motor. By NYS Law I also have the recourse of returning the vehicle to them in it’s current condition for a full refund. I will not however get the full value of my trade back as they only have to give me fair auction value which is 1-2K less than what they gave me for it as far as I can estimate.
The options that I have currently to ponder (Let me know if you can think of any others…)
Let them fix the block and hope that there is no collateral damage that will become my responsibility down the road
Let them replace the motor and hope that the motor that goes in is in good working condition with no minor overlooked issues that will snowball and give me another major issue out of my pocket in the future
Give them back the car, suck up my losses on the trade and go buy something new somewhere else.
Give them back the car and try to get something comparable off of their lot as it is obvious that they will stand by the vehicles that they sell. I will probably not find something that is as nice as the 540.
Well, what say you?
UPDATE:
The dealer is being great about this. He has already ordered the motor but will not accept using Jason for the replacement based on cost. His guys are willing to cut him a significant break due to how many times they have had the car.
Shawn is the owner of the company and with service like this I would recommend him to my Mother.
Jason called them direct as I am hoping that they will allow him to do the work vs. their guys. There is no other issues that I can tell. New clutch, shifts cleanly, brakes are good, suspension is good, all electronics function etc…
I’m assuming when you say “dealer is offering” it’s at their expense? If so I’d probably just let the dealer repair it. I really doubt they’re going to cover having someone else do the install as Onyx suggested. Plus I’m more comfortable with repaired motors than randomly acquired used motors.
If at that point you’re not comfortable with it trade the now 100% working 540 in somewhere. This way you’re not taking the trade in hit you would if you just have them buy it back, and you’re not taking the tax hit on the next car since the 540 should have decent trade in value (you only pay sales tax on value after trade).
He recommends replacing simply because it is less hours work and he doesn’t think that he has the tools to do a rebuild due to the VANOS system on the vehicle.
I dont have and never have had those issues.