Help- 2000 Eclipse GT- shop ruined my engine!!
 

I took my car in for a tune up (has 103k miles), the technician dropped an injector clip into my engine and ruined it. The shop (not a dealer) replaced my motor (I should not have let them do this, and if I hadn't been in shock would never have agreed to it). I got the car back and it ran for 2 days, then refused to start (dead battery), they replaced battery. 2 days later check engine light comes on and car runs awful; they say spark plugs fouled and replaced plugs. 1 day later check engine light comes on and same symptoms return (rough idle, stalling), now they say it's throwing a code for the cat. They want to replace cat with aftermarket one and tell me it has nothing to do with anything they are responsible for, so I have to pay.

My feelings are: I never had problems with my car before they touched it. Fouled spark plugs can cause cat failure, and the spark plugs that misfired were the ones on the replacement engine that they put in my car. They have lowered value of my car by ruining original engine.

I am going to take it to Mitsu and take the shop to small claims court.
Does this seem reasonable to you? Are they trying to screw me??

Does anyone know of a good Mitsu mechanic in Maryland (baltimore or frederick areas)?
Help would be greatly appreciate!!

i would take it to a dealer and have them analyse the problems and if there are issues with the work they did, then you have a good case. I mean either way whatever is wrong with it has to be their fault. sorry to hear about that. Thats sucks, this is why i do my own work on my cars

Thanks for the advice. I just called a dealer, and the mechanic there said that although the cat may be bad, the symptoms just don't sound consistent with cat failure, and there is probably still a problem in the engine- I am going to have them go over the belts, sparks, idle and timing...basically check the work the crappy shop did to it...and not concern myself with the cat at this point...until everything else is looked over. This has been very trying!!

On the good side, I now know more about how cars work than I ever have before!

Any other ideas on what to check over: symptoms are rough idle (idles around 1000 rpm, falls to almost 0, surges back up- whole car vibrates), occasional stalling either at startup, stops, or very slow driving (like when turning or approaching a stop), and engine 'hiccuping' at speeds below about 50. High speeds the car runs great.

take em to court, and make them replace ur car with a EVO!!!!! lol, yeah dude, they ****ed ya, ****em back

Id prefer them to replace the entire engine rather then removing the headers, valvs, and fishing the item out of the cyclenders if it was me... not to menchion them replacing your engine, means all new everything... basically like a new car almost...