And a couple weeks later he tells me he sent it into Canon for cleaning because he appreciates me loaning the lens to him, and he's a good friend for doing it, yada yada. Immediately I was suspicious what actually might have happened to the lens. It took over a month to get it back from Canon. He was grilling me one night on what I may have done to the lens (I treat it like I treat my testicles... very carefully) because it needed all these parts and the cleaning was so much more expensive than he expected ($240). I kinda got the feeling he was trying to get me to admit to having dropped the lens at some point, which has never happened. Kinda like his effort to pass the buck...
He sent me this photo just now of the work order receipt.
Does this look like a "lens cleaning" to you?
This appears to be one of the parts listed as having been replaced:
http://www.uscamera.com/cy3-2030.htm
On the product description it says "This sleeve assembly can be easily damaged if the lens is dropped."
What would you do if you were in my position?