AcuraKidd

iTrader: (1)

So yesterday I pull out of the valet parking lot after work, and as I'm pulling out, I hear this sound coming from the engine everytime I press on the gas pedal.

I dont really know how to describe the sound, but it kinda sounded like something scraping inside the engine, or something loose. It only happened between 1 - 2.5k rpm. It's like instead of the engine making its usual roar, it made this annoying grinding noise, it kinda felt like something was empty, like it was missing a fluid or something.

Now here's some back story:

About 2 months ago, I got into a big argument with the valet guys, and basically that same night when I was driving on the highway back home from work, I noticed how my pedals were shaking, both of them. My steering wheel was also shaking.

I didn't think much of this, but then it just got to the point where my cousin, who was sitting next to me, freaked out. So I pulled over, opened up the hood, and nothing seemed to be wrong. As I was getting back into the car, I noticed how 1 of the lugs was missing from my front passenger side wheels. The other 4 were actually soo loose that I was able to unscrew them with my hands. The front drivers side wheel also had all loose lugs. The rear wheels were fine however.

I didn't have any tools with me to tighten up the lugs, so I did the best I could to tighten them with a piece of cloth with my hands. I kept stopping every mile to retighten them, and kept doing this till I got home.

I know for a fact that all my lugs were torqued to 80 ft pounds before this happened, because I actually went out and bought a torque wrench to do it myself.

Also, that same morning everything was fine, so I came to the conclusion that the valet guys just wanted me gone, and I litterly mean gone.

And now I have this problem with the engine, and talked it over with my cousin, and we both came to the conclusion that the valet guys might have put something in my gas tank.

My question to you guys is this, how can I determine the cause of this noise coming from the engine? How can I narrow down the problem? If they did put somthing in my gas tank, is there any way to recover it once my mechanic cleans everything out? I wanna use the stuff as evidence

If it does turn out to be true that they were messing with my car and put something in my gas tank, how bad could it be for the engine and all the other components?

I swear if something happens to my car or me, those guys will end in the hospital with life support for the rest of their lives.

AirJordan23922

woah, messed up.... and that's why i never let anyone.... including family park my car... let alone drive it. Screw valet..... i advise everyone to park their own cars.

True Story: My friend who worked at a really nice strip mall with all name brands and stuff whom had valet parking of course. He said any time people were assholes to any of the valet people, they took it up to the 3rd floor where they had to park the cars, and just do burnouts and abuse the engine like no other...

AirJordan23922

... and i wish i knew the answer to your question... good luck

Cisko TLS

i would've beat the shit out them the first time it happened you pay money so fuck them..... but i also wish i had the answer to your question.. good luck dude but its real fucked up damn

AcuraKidd

iTrader: (1)

Although I dont actually pay them money, they get paid by the company I work for, and they got paid a pretty large amount...

I think I'm gonna start parking on the street at the meters, but I would hate to do that because of all the careless drivers that bump into your car when parknig

I still wanna get to the bottom of this, but without any hard eveidence I cant really prove anything, and I dont wanna start an arguement with them yet, but believe me if I do, it wont be pretty

co1063

out of curiosity, what was the original argument about?

AcuraKidd

iTrader: (1)

well, this is probably gonna sound stupid to everyone, so here it goes:

I got to work at around 9 am, and around 11am I got a call from my dad saying that my granpa just passed away and that he needs me to come over real quick to help him with some stuff.

So I go down to the garage, walk all the way to the back, and noticed that my car was parked behind like 6 other cars. So the valet guy comes out and starts bitchin about how I didn't tell him that I was gonna leave early, and how he now has to move these 6 cars just so I could get out. In the process of him saying all this, he used a few curses too.

I fired back at him by saying that it was an emergency and I didn't know that my granpa was gonna pass away at this moment. I also told him that his job is to park cars and to stop bitchin about it, and if you dont like your job, then quit!

he moaned something to himself, and I just got the hell out of there. I came back around 3pm that same day. I left work at around 9pm and thats when it all happened.

TCM 01 CL-S

Definitely inform the management of the company you work for!

FirePR2002

Valet drivers are COMPLETE assholes and deserve to die a painful death. My office building is connected to an upscale hotel that has a valet company contracted out. The valet guys beat the shit out of every car they drive - especially if they are in a hurry. I've seen them start up a car, put it in drive, and lay tread within about 1/2 second of starting it up. If the car looks sporty - WATCH OUT because they will dog the shit out of it on the way to drop it off to you. Doesn't matter the make or model - SUV or coupe - basically they drive it like they stole it.

I WILL NEVER ALLOW A VALET TO PARK MY CAR AFTER SEEING THESE ASSHATS.

I assume you've checked the fluids, right? Take it a step further to see if there is any residue (gritty or otherwise) at the oil fill hole, etc. Open the gas door to look there also. Other than this, I have no idea how to help out, but I would most definitely tell upper management about the problems.

Good luck!

jags2487

good luck man.. but i completely agree with you with the life support thing... def fuck their shit up in any possible way u can.. including getting their asses fired asap

jags2487

sorry for cursing Azine but it just angers me to hear stories like this !!

JRA2000TL

Yet another reason why I refuse to valet. If I can't find a self parking garage, I'll even go so far as to pull up and ask the valet where I can park my own car. Once, I dragged all of my luggage across a few busy intersections to my hotel just so a valet would not touch my car.

eleventure

I would check your belts and you oil level.
You should definitely inform management about the guy.
The should have cameras where the cars are being parked. might want to ask them if they can view the tapes of that day to see what the a-hole did to your car.

sbuswell

good idea about camera's, if they don't have camera's I would press hard about why they don't and explain what happened in great detail. Definitely don't let them touch your car agin. They tried to kill you bro. You need to take this as far as possible or they could pull some shit on some other person who could drive home pick up his family and then get into a deadly car accident because these retards think they're funny.

hairything

Definitely talk to management and go as high up in the chain as you can to get an answer. The hard part about this is NO proof unless there are videotapes. If no videotapes then you can't prove your car problems were done by the valet person besides the brief conversation during that day. Best of luck man to the car problems.

vincethe1

the most likely thing they can put in your gas tank is sugar...because everyone knows that that's what kills an engine. I suggest you drive really calm so that it does not suck in a lot of sugar at a time...i've heard of cars recovering from it but only if you drive with great mechanical sympothy, if you floor it and the revs build up, that'll cause more heat and the sugar will turn into basically sugar syrup that could seize your engine.

these valets must not have a sence of reality....i have a feeling they might get what they deserve, good luck.

btw, a tool comes with the car, unless you lost it it should be in your trunk...along with a jack. You should always carry them with you, otherwise how are you gonna change a flat tire?

sorry about ur grandpa man...i don't think they cud of picked a worse time to fuck with you, even i'm enraged and i don't know you

vincethe1

btw how much gas did you have in your tank? i suggest you fll it up to make the % of whatever is in there smaller..so it'll all mix together and wudn't be as bad...t all depends on how much they did put in there anyways.

ChrisQ1980

I don't think they put anything in your gas tank, I think they put something in your ENGINE through the oil cap. I'd stop driving the car, but at this point if it's making noise it's probably too late.

You definatly have to talk to someone in charge and explain the exact situation. You should have done this after they loosened your lugnuts. That is attempted murder.

vincethe1

^^yea good idea, mabe u shud get an oil change

02type-s

X2, sounds like something in the crankcase to me. Thats fucked up, I NEVER let anyone I don't trust with my life drive my car...

lilpimpinBT

Real sorry to hear that bro..

I have a 02 tl, and Ive had my tank tamperred with. similar the same way as you are stating.

BUt what happen Starting out If id push the brake come to a turn. It would seem sluggish. ANd sometimes die.. So i was wondering wtf? right? SO i got Some Gas Cleaner. DIdnt work.. Kept Getting worse. I had my Computer replaced to see if it was the problem. Nope.. Well i movd to my FUel injectors. They were gunked up with guke.. :/ I replaced them. And went on ... about a week later.. Through this week i kept my tank no less than 3/4 full.

Well happen again!

So what i did was check the injectors.. looked like they were getting to be the same.. So I took my gas tank off.. OH YEA Why have a gas tank under the axle.. I hated that :P!! When i took it off I could get a flash lite and look through the Gas to the bottom and noticed about a half inch of Stuff.. Similar to Sugar. Some Graning powder. neways because it didnt break up. it just set in the bottom. So what i did is. Burn my tank out. to clean it.
Blowed my Lines. Cleaned my injectors.. and put all back together.. Havent had a problem sense..

BUt i dont recall Having a problem with noise.s

My Main problem came along when i was coming to a stop or a turn..

Hope you get it fixed bro!

If you think your tank got suggarded check your injectors they stop everything the hole is so little that the gas passes through!

Kreez

I've had my '05 TL for a few months now and enjoyed reading but never contributing to these forums. However I couldn’t resist with this topic.

I’ve worked as a valet supervisor for the last year and can agree with FirePR2002, many of the valets do drive the cars, regardless of type, like maniacs. Attempting to drift Suburbans, flooring it in Cayennes, you name it, it’s probably been tried by one of our more rambunctious drivers. God help the car if it’s a rental.
However I don’t agree with FirePR2002’s belief that all valets should die painful deaths.

Eleventure has the right idea, see if there are security cameras in the garage. The ones in the garage I work in have gotten uncountable valets in trouble.

In my opinion trusting another person with your car is a difficult thing to do, especially if it’s your cushy TL to some 19 year old in a vest. So my best advice is to avoid valet parking all together, as kids nowadays watch too many movies and play too many racing games to differentiate reality from the real world.
If valet parking is unavoidable, try to slip the driver that is taking the car down a few bucks or a five dollar bill and ask that they take good care of it. They’ll be grateful and actually will be kind to your car.

And I was sorry to hear about your bad exp. hope you get it fixed.

AcuraKidd

iTrader: (1)

The problem here is that these arent just some 19 year old punks wearing a vest, there are 3-5 guys that work in this garage, and they're all between the ages of 40 - 50.

Also, this isn't the first time that they got mad at me. They always seem to be putting my car all the way in the back somewhere, and then their garage gets overfilled and they start putting a whole bunch of cars real close to eachother. Sometime's my boss would ask me to run an erand for him and drive somewhere to get something, and the valet guys ALWAYS get pissed that they have to move 5-6 cars just to get my car out. They always keep telling me that I should let them know if I'm going out during the day to let them know in the morning when I come in, so they could put my car somewhere in the front.

The problem with that is, I DO let them know only when I know I'm going out, but if I don't know, then how the hell am I supposed to tell them.

I still belive in what I said in the beginning, that its their job to park cars, if they dont like it, then quit!

Also, I think that ChrisQ got it right, I think they might've poured something inside my engine where the oil goes. But the weird thing is, the noise that I had that night, it actually went away the next morning. Maybe that poured water inside the engine? Maybe the engine had a hard time with the water, but eventually as I drove, it wore out and got back to normal?

I also got an oil change about a month ago, Mobil 1 Synthetic 5W-20

But anyways, I'm gonna inform the managers at work, and also get in contact with the owner of that garage, but without any evidence, I doubt I'd have a shot...

But I'd still like to get my car cleaned out just incase they did put something harmful in there. So far I've learned that I gotta change the fuel injectors, clean gas tank, clean all the pipes, seafoam everything, change the spark plugs, and to top it all off, get another oil change. Does that sound about right to anybody?

I should make the damm owner of the garage pay for all that...

fsttyms1

I wouldnt go spending all sorts of money changing things that may not need changing. Maybe change your oil, and add a cleaner to the fuel. Have a shop inspect the car for stuff before dropping thousands on stuff that isnt needed.

Also first thing i would have done was contact authorities and management

Agentphan007

I have the similar problem with my car also when you press the gas it makes a noise i'd been inspecting it for a while brought it to a shop where they told me that its the fuel injectors feeding the engine gas also check your alternator belt tensioner I found that the noise is coming from that area on mines the tensioner jumps up and down also how long have you have those rims on for and what type of lug nuts are you using? after market locks lug nuts always gets loose after a while. hope that helps I really doubt that the valet parker would try to pull a stunt like that

stylesinfinite

Hey I'm in queens too.. I say we go fuck em up xD

CL-Slick

iTrader: (7)

I would drain the oil and see if they put anything in the engine.

2000DEP

that's real meessed up...
that's why i never valet...
i just dont give nobody my black and red keys...

hope everythings well...