DD15 Engine Seized Soon After Inframe

Hello, I have a nightmare story I wanted to share and see if anyone had something similar happen to them or if anyone has any tips.

We have a 2011 Cascadia that has been pretty solid for us since we got running. Soon after hitting a million miles, it started leaking coolant from the head so we took it to a shop nearby where we had been sending in all our trucks to because they were fair and quicker than the local Freightliner shop.

They say the head is blown and it'll need an in-frame. They quoted us about $10K, we said go for it, and off they went. 8 weeks later, we finally get it out and 2 days on the road, it drops a cylinder. The shop had it towed back and said the new head was the problem. About 8 more weeks go by, we get the truck back, and 2 days on the road, same thing happens. This time, the shop had it towed over 600 miles back to them, they installed a Freightliner kit, which we paid the difference on from the aftermarket kits they quoted us, and got us back on the road in about 6 weeks.

We made sure to pay them for all the work but we we're closer to $20K now since the original quote was much more expensive and we later paid the difference for the Freightliner kit. Not to mention all of the downtime.

So we finally get the truck back on the road on the first of March and made it about 3 weeks before a metal coolant hose behind the head blows and we had to have it towed to a dealer on the road to fix. The part was cheap but it was labor intensive and held us up a week on the road. I didn't bother our local shop with it since we figured it would've been hard to prove it was them and I had to be absolute sure in writting. Even after hearing from the shop mechanic that fixed us that that particular hose should've been replaced when the in-frame was done "if they had a brain" and they had just reused it.

For the final time, we get rolling again and then 3 weeks later, the engine locks up out of nowhere about 1000 miles from home. We had it towed to a Freightliner near there and they told us this afternoon that 2 main bearings spun which caused multiple rod bearings to spin as well. I'm waiting on the official analysis but they are already getting pricing together for a new engine and had ruled out any oil issues since we didn't lose any oil pressure and had only put 20,000 miles on the engine since getting it out of the shop that did the in-frame that final time.

I've notified the shop that originally did the work where we are at and said I'll forward them the quote and analysis as soon as I get it. Obviously, I will not let them touch this truck and I haven't sent anything else into their shop since the second time we had to have it towed in. The shop has a dinky 30 day/4000 mile warranty but I figure they must be on the hook if it officially comes back that they did something wrong again?

I'd hate to ask my lawyer to step in but I've lost over $100K in revenue plus am out a couple of tows and the $20K we paid for the in-frame. I was hoping to get another half million miles out of this engine, not 20K. This shop is a decent sized company so they would have enough resources to fight me if we litigated.

I figured if they could give me a loaner truck and pay Freightliner whatever it takes to get us rolling again, I'll let the lost revenue slide, but am waiting on them to call me back on what they want to do. I should've never taken this into them in the first place and after putting close to $15K down the first time, I was basically forced to stick this one out with them.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

No official word from Freightliner but they expect either debris was introduced when they installed the bearings or they weren't measured correctly on installation. Either way, they're already willing to point the finger at the guys who did the in-frame. We hadn't even made it to the first oil change yet since we only got 20,000 miles down the road.