Finally, after having my car in the shop for over a month from a hit and run, I get her back. Hit and run impacted the drivers side headlight and fender, damaging the hood as well. Somehow, the driver side rear wheel was damaged too. Entire car was essentially repainted, except for the trunk, spoiler, and roof. No camera, so no pics yet, before or after.

HOWEVER, she has quite a few problems after getting her back, outside of all the dirt, dust, oil stains, and grime.

1. Driver side headlight would not turn on, but turn signals functioned. Found out that one of the connectors was stripped and unrepairable, so I was told. They got it to work by rewiring it thru some other connectors, but it looks like amateur work. The lights are also unadjusted.

2. Steering wheel is also off. The car runs straight, but the steering wheel is off by maybe 3 degrees. Very aggravating as I drive along.

3. Also found out that the battery is toast. Their load tester simply said "BAD CELL", so there goes that.

4. Just a few minutes ago, I had some brake pedal shudder, as well steering wheel shaking. I need to test it a bit more to see what actually caused it.

Good side is that she is FIXED (of course), and that the paint looks absolutely perfect, outside of the orange peeling. There doesn't seem to be a paint mismatch, but it looks fine under interior lighting and outside in the sun. Spoiler still doesn't seem to match with the rest of the car, but I can deal with that. AND the Comptech Icebox, thanks to Excelerate, is installed and looks great. Just need to figure out where to put the carb sticker. Great to have her back, but sucks that she still needs work.

Just needed to vent this frustration.

 

now the body shop should fix the headlight since i assume they are getting paid by insurance? it should be perfect, everything should be up to par with factory specs.....why didnt they replace the connector? you dont want any cheap re-wiring job when it should be done right.... and they should also re-align the headlight... how hard of a job is that? might take up a whole 5 minutes of their time... they are still getting paid for it!

maybe there was some front drivers side suspension damage as well, which could prolly screw up your alignment and explain your new steering wheel vibration... if so this should also be fixed by insurance.. the brake shudder could be warped rotors.. but if it wasnt there b4 it shouldnt warp by themselves

the battery is probably just old so it was its time to go...

good that you have her back though

 

Where did you have it fixed - hopefully NOT an Acura bodyshop........ and if not why not

 

It was a friends shop, but they are moving to a larger shop in a little while. I asked them to fix a few other things around the car, including a rather large section of damage that was there before i even got the car, so it kind of balances in a way. I can do the connector myself, but I just need one that isn't cracked in half first.

I can do some of the things myself, since we owe him some money for swapping out a clutch on my family's other car as well, but I'll get them to fix what needs to be fixed. Hoping they'll give me a discount on some installation once I save up enough money for suspension and other little goodies.

And I am definitely happy to have her back. The Benz is a rough drive, in that it stalls like crazy once it warms up. Felt like I was driving a manual with extremely stiff pedals.