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| Joined: | 07-15-2013 |
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I see so many issues here it is hard to know where to start. For one, I don't see how valve shims could have been the cause of your problem. To cause the car to not even run, the shims would have to have been so thick that the valves would not close which would cause low compression in the cylinders. I don't see how that could have happened so suddenly.
Second, from what I have read, grinding the shims is a major no-no: they supposedly have a hardened surface without which they can deform or break. Sounds like they may have removed the cam towers to try to find the problem and had to grind the shims because they used a thinner gasket material when they reinstalled them.
I agree with noomg that it sounds like they were floundering around with no clear idea of what was wrong. The total cost of the parts they replaced was pretty insignificant, probably $100-$200 max. So almost all the cost was labor. Given the length of time they had it, $2700 may not be excessive if they were actually doing stuff to it. They should have their hourly rate posted. From that you can calculate how many hours they should have spent on it. Another possibility is that they kept it as a back-burner project that they worked on occasionally and did not keep any accurate account of how much time they actually put into it. In which case the final price would be more along the lines of what they thought they could get away with.