Coincidental Leak?


I recently helped my elderly mother take a 5 yo (Buick LeSabre) car to be state inspected. The car had been serviced by a dealer by my recently deceased father. The inspection turned into a set of shocks and a phone call from the (new) mechanic telling me that there was a little oil around the manifold that may never amount to anything since my mother was driving 3 thousand miles (!) a year. Lo and behold a week later there was coolant all over the garage floor one morning, requiring an expensive repair. My question is, is it possible for a mechanic to see two ladies coming and loosen a gasket to cause this problem?


Possible? Of course it’s possible, but it’s also possible that the two are not connected.

What caused the coolant leak?

How did you choose your current mechanic?


I chose the new mechanic by looking at AAA approved shops only and checking Car Talk. This particular shop had no feedback on Car Talk, but I also chose it because it was easy to drive to for my mother and was not a gas station.

Unfortunately, I had to leave town (there with my mother for my Dad’s funeral) and my brother arranged for the engine to be rebuilt at the dealer. So I did not get the rest of the detail.


How could the mechanic who hypotheticaly “loosened a gasket” be sure the car whould be brought back to him for repair?

In 30+ years in the garage I have never seen anyone do this and have never worked with people would would tolerate this

I have seen techs accidentaly break things and make honest (maybe incompetent) diagnostic errors.


I would very much doubt that they did something to cause a problem, especially because you did what you could to find a good mechanic. This would be extremely unusual.


Thank you, all. It makes me have a bit more faith. I started to wonder when the tappet (sp?) brothers said that a mechanic that doesn’t sell at least a set of shocks should have his boat taken away :wink: