Dear Tom and Ray:

About a year ago, I had the timing belt replaced on my 2003 Subaru Outback. Then, last week, I had the head gasket replaced at a different shop. When they replaced the head gasket, they looked at my timing belt and said I needed a new one! The reason was because they could not see any writing on the belt, and they said if it was replaced last year, there would still be writing visible, as it takes 40,000-50,000 miles to wear the writing off a belt, even an aftermarket one. So, now I am wondering, Did they really replace my timing belt last year, or did they rip me off? — Jim (more…)

Dear Tom and Ray:

My wife had the oil changed in her 2010 Camry at Walmart. One week later, as she was finishing her 25-mile morning commute, she noticed a noise coming from the engine while she parked the car. She called me to report it, and said she also noticed a small amount of oil dripping under the car. Upon restarting the car at lunch, the sound was much worse. So she shut off the car, and had it towed to the dealer where it was purchased. The dealer said that the oil-filter cartridge was installed incorrectly, so the oil ran out and the car’s engine probably is a total loss. I will be going to the dealer and also speaking with a Walmart manager tomorrow. How do I ensure that Walmart will make good on this, and won’t try to weasel out of paying for my new engine? It’s going to cost thousands of dollars. Thanks for your advice. — Tom

TOM: Well, you can’t prevent them from TRYING to weasel out of it, Tom. The manager wouldn’t be worth his salt if he didn’t at least try to claim that the oil was abducted by aliens while you were walking the dog.

RAY: Actually, what they may argue is that your wife shares some responsibility for the engine failure because she had an obligation to notice that the oil light was on. And that once the oil light was on, she should have stopped driving before the engine was ruined completely. If she did drive some distance with the oil light on, that argument has some merit.

TOM: But whether she shares responsibility or not, your job now is to lock down your evidence. So, when you go to the dealer, you want to get his statement, in writing, of what he found, when he found it, what he believes happened and how much your new engine’s going to cost. Take some dated pictures of the incorrectly installed part, if you can, and get the names and phone numbers of the individuals who examined your car. Ask them to agree to testify in small-claims court someday, should that be necessary.

RAY: And by the way, I would ask the dealer to specify a new or remanufactured engine, rather than let Walmart repair your engine. Here’s why: The worst of the damage — to the crankshaft and the bearings — will be obvious when they take apart the engine. But when you run out of oil, there’s subtle damage to every other part that’s supposed to be protected by oil. And that damage may not show up for 50,000 or 75,000 miles, when you start burning oil and belching blue smoke.

TOM: And while that’s not a problem for a car that already has a lot of miles on it, your car is practically brand-new, and you have a right to expect another 100,000 non-oil-burning miles out of it. So ask the dealer to write down that the engine needs to be replaced and cannot be satisfactorily rebuilt.

RAY: Once you have all of your evidence collected — the receipt for the Walmart oil change, the dealer’s statements, the pictures with circles and arrows on them — trundle over to Walmart and calmly lay out your case. Basically, the more you’re able to convince the Walmart manager that resistance is futile, the easier a time you’ll have getting your money from them.

TOM: The good news is that just about all repair shops have what we like to call “bonehead insurance,” which covers us for the stupid things we, or our employees, inevitably do once in a while.

RAY: Well, it covers us for the stupid things we do while working on other people’s cars. It won’t cover me for agreeing to write a newspaper column with my brother, unfortunately.

TOM: But Walmart either has insurance to cover its employees’ mistakes, or it self-insures and covers the cost of the errors itself. Either way, you have to let them know that they’re going to have to make a claim and buy you an engine.

RAY: If they try to give you the runaround, then you have to take them to small-claims court. Or, if the small-claims damage limit in your state isn’t high enough to cover the cost of the engine, you’ll have to pay a lawyer and use the regular court system.

TOM: But in front of a judge, the expert testimony and contemporaneous evidence you collected from the dealership should win the day. And hopefully the Walmart manager, or his or her higher-up, is experienced enough to know that in advance. Good luck, Tom.

In their pamphlet “Should I Buy, Lease, or Steal My Next Car?” Tom and Ray break down the strategies for buying a car, so you can make the most of your money. Send $4.75 (check or money order) to Next Car, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475.

Get more Click and Clack in their new book, “Ask Click and Clack: Answers from Car Talk.” Got a question about cars? Write to Click and Clack in care of this newspaper, or e-mail them by visiting the Car Talk Web site at www.cartalk.com.

Dear Tom and Ray:

My mom is great. I love her, and I need to know how to help her. She has a ‘74 Fiat Spider convertible. It’s adorable and fast, and she loves it. But it’s not running. AGAIN. It’s been parked for about a year or so now, covered with a tarp. The canvas roof has a hole, so it would need to be replaced. The interior has water damage, so that needs to be cleaned or replaced. The clutch (the reason it was parked) needs to be replaced, and now the battery is dead. My dad also thinks the carburetor is shot. My mom literally burst into tears at seeing its accumulated damage, and has despaired over not taking better care of it. My dad and I think we should get her a Mazda Miata. What’s your advice? Do I try to help her keep the Fiat, or is it better to stop fighting it and let it go? — Nora (more…)

Dear Tom and Ray:

My husband and I recently purchased a new car. My husband refuses to run the air conditioning in heavy stop-and-go traffic or if we are sitting in the parked car. When I ask him what the reason is, he says that since the compressor for the air conditioning is belt-driven, if there is no airflow into the engine, the car will overheat. So I’m wondering why I see everyone else sitting in their nice, cool cars with the windows up, but their cars aren’t overheating. He has been this way with all of his vehicles. We have a vacation coming up with a 12-hour drive. I’m worried about long, HOT construction delays. Is he right — should I continue to silently melt in 90-degree weather? Or can we turn on the darn AC? — Katie (more…)

Dear Tom and Ray:

I have a 1998 Chrysler Town and Country Minivan with the six-cylinder engine. Whenever I drive through a puddle, the belt slips off. All of the original undercarriage guards are still present and in factory condition. I have replaced the water pump, idler pulley and tensioner, to no avail. This occurs so often that I must carry a specially modified wrench underneath my driver’s seat so I can stop and put the belt back on. I have become so proficient at this that I can put the belt back on in less than four minutes. The slightest amount of water will cause the belt to slip off. During the winter melt and spring rain, I must navigate the roads as if I am driving through a field of land mines and avoid all pools of water, regardless of size. I have asked numerous mechanics, both shadetree and dealership, but have stumped them all. Can you explain the cause and provide a solution so that I may hang the wrench back up in my garage? — William (more…)

Dear Tom and Ray:

Here’s my challenge, for which I’d welcome help and/or suggestions. Our theater company soon will open its latest production. Almost all of the play takes place in one of two cars, which the actors are sitting in, standing by, etc. The only way into the theater is down steps and through a not-much-larger-than-regular doorway. I thus have to disassemble, then reassemble the front ends of these cars, along with the front doors, on the stage. I also have to remove them and rebuild them every week for five weeks, as there is another show running at the same time. I’d like to do so in less than two hours each time. So, how would you go about this task? Feel like coming out to Colorado to tackle the task firsthand? — Darren (more…)

Dear Tom and Ray:

Last week my fiancee’s father was driving his 1987 Buick from the farm into town. A couple of hundred yards away from the house (and about .1 mile from the highway) on the gravel road, the car caught fire. Her dad, instead of using his cell phone to call the fire department, left the car on the road and walked home to tell his wife. He told her it’d burn itself out. A short while later, they were in the kitchen and were — seriously — surprised to see the fire department outside putting out the blazing car. So, (1) what the heck kind of family am I marrying into? And (2) we know that it’s toxic, in poor taste and dangerous, but would the car actually have pulled a “movie moment” and exploded? Or, like her father says, would it have burned itself out? — Seth (more…)

Dear Tom and Ray:

My neighbor, who does not impress me as having an IQ above that of a Neanderthal, told me the other day that while he didn’t want to be minding my business for me, I am “ruining my car parking it the way I am.” I don’t know whether he has a point or not. It rains a lot where I live. I do not have a garage. A sidewalk leads from the parking lot in front of my apartment right up to my front door. When it rains, the grass also becomes soggy. So, what I sometimes do is drive my car along the sidewalk, with the left-side wheels on the sidewalk and the right wheels on the grass. This allows me to get very close to my front door and get out on the sidewalk. Since the grass is about 2, maybe 3 inches max, below the sidewalk and it squashes when I drive on it, this puts the left-side wheels of my car higher than the right-side wheels when I’m parked this way. Is this “ruining my car”? Or is my neighbor a Neanderthal? — Beverly (more…)