Yep that’s pretty common. Those 6 and 8 speed GM automatics are complete junk transmissions.

Jack up your truck and spin the wheels by hand while watching the rim edges. If the wheels are bent, your will see it.

Find a different shop and replace the head gasket on your existing engine. It’s not a big deal to replace a head gasket on a Prius engine, the gas engine is just a regular simple 4 cylinder engine.

You do not want a used Japan import engine. The way the auto market works in Japan is that cars are taxed much more heavily as they age, as a way to strongly incentivize people to replace their cars after only a few model years. One side effect of this is that you end up with a lot of cheap used engines from cars that are more than about 5 years old. A bigger issue here though is that nobody maintains their engines, because they only need to last them a couple years. The Japan used import engines often have never had an oil change! Suffice to say, don’t buy one of if those engines, just get a different shop to change your head gasket. You are right when you say that it’s not a big deal to change a head gasket.

Who forced you to buy the car? If you didn’t want subscription services, don’t support these businesses by purchasing their vehicles.

Subarus typically go through wheel bearings pretty quick, do it would not be surprising to need a wheel bearing. It would not be related to an engine replacement, and most likely not related to a brake job.

The engines in these are very well documented for being complete pieces of junk. These engines burn huge amounts of oil, and also seize up and throw Rods without warning. It does not matter if maintenance was done properly it not, these engines are defective in design and will fail regardless. Your friend might be able to get in touch with Kia to see about recalls which might get your friend a free replacement engine.

Minivan.

If you really need 3 rows, a minivan is far superior in every single way to a 3 row SUV.

Stick with the stock size, 205/55 r16 is a super common size and should be easy to find., The 205/60 will be larger enough that you might run into clearance issues in your wheel wells

Recommendation would be to not buy a Jeep Patriot, they are not very good cars.

Friction fit for critical timing components?!?!? Unbelievable!

Being that this is the case, if the bolt backed out, then your timing is definately out.

It will be fine, the 2.4 usually burns enough oil anyway that this wont be an issue for long.

It will be fine, the 2.4 usually burns enough oil anyway that this wont be an issue for long.

If you have no heat immediately after the thermostat and coolant replacement, there is still air in the system. Take it back to the mechanic that changed the thermostat and have them bleed the air out of the system.

The engines in these cars have major design defects and are prone to major engine failure. They start by burning through huge amounts of oil like your engine is doing. Eventually the engines lock up or throw a connecting rod. Even perfect maintenance will not prevent this from happening on these engines as they are defective designs.

You shouldn’t have signed that as-is no warranty form. The reason for that was undoubtedly the engine. Often Hyundai will replace the engines in these cars, but it sounds like you might be out of luck with that. You would want to check with Hyundai corporate (not the dealer) to see about them possibly replacing your engine, but it’s gonna be difficult if you signed an as is purchase agreement.

In the meantime, check your oil every time you fill it up with gas.

Non interference motors are mostly a thing of the past. To get higher compression and better engine efficiency, modern engines are pretty much always interference engines.

A timing chain replacement on that car should not cost anywhere near that much. Go to a different mechanic and get another opinion.

There is a metal coolant pipe that connects to the water pump with an o ring, and the pipe then runs under the intake manifold through the intake valley to the transmission end of the engine, where the pipe connects to coolant hoses. These can leak there. You might, possibly be able to check for dried coolant residue at the transmission end of this pipe, but it’s gonna be really hard to see without removing the intake.

A blown head gasket is also a very real possibility, it should be detectable by pressure testing the system.

One made by Toyota or Honda.

VW cars are unreliable shit.

My experience with old hoses, belts, and tires is that they usually look just fine, and then they suddenly blow apart. On a 22 year old car with all original parts, just change them all out .