I dropped the car off to get serviced today to find out if my wheels are out of balance, or my rims are bent. I merely played it dumb and said the car shook past 50 mph. The "service advisor" tacked on a $50 charge just to look at the car.

I've previously taken my car in because it pulls to the right. (still does) and the service dept. states they ran diagnostics and what not and in the end all they did was fill the tires with ait, and that was it.

I asked the service advisor to give me a call concerning the problem with the vehicle because I do everything short of an oil change with a family mechanic who is a honda mech anyway. Is this normal practice? Why are they tacking on an upfront charge just to look at the car, while all the other times they took my car for joyrides for days and just put air in the tires and never charged me a dime? This is at DCH Montclair in NJ if anyone else has any input on them.

 

if your car is out of warranty, your better off taking it to a specialist like a discount tire or some other place that specializes in tires, rims and suspension....the dealer is way too expensive and not really experts in this dept....they really only specialize in warranty work and not much else....

 

If your TL is out of warranty, anything you ask them to check, they will charge a diagonistic fee.

 

that upfront charge is how they make their money... it isn't written anywhere and you are technically paying for the service advisors sallary...

 

car is 2 yrs old with 20k on the clock. I'm about to call them and just say don't do anything. I'll pick up the car tonight.

 

Sounds to me it should be under warranty and no fee should be charged.

 

you need to speak IN PERSON with the Service MANAGER and tell them the problem is not being corrected
If its not a tire internal problem then its a suspension-alignment issue
Unless 1 tire is 10 psi low you wont notice much differance
Sometimes they will swap the tires side to side -if that cures it its a tire prob

Diagnostic fee is standard- you ask for their time- they have to bill it somewhere
When they went for a ride or added air- there probably was no invoice, or written as PNF prob not found on the invoice- which was it??
In that case you need to call corp and get a real warranty rep on the job
1-800-382-2238 x5

 

I appreciate the information. I have spoken in person with their service manager, there have been two "managers" for the past two years I've had possession of this car.

I have all their work order invoices. some that I have in writing were even deleted from their database. I have seen a mixture of PNF and 'corrected by setting tire pressure' on the invoices (at one time they even jacked it up to 35f/32r psi
) in both cases, nothing was charged.

I've called in to cancel the work order. I'll goto a tireshop I used to goto. just went to the dealer since its closeby.

 

you are only running 35/32 and you think thats jacked up? Many of us run 36 and 38,

With plenty of attempts so far on record- copy them and write to acura corp
Call and get a case manager 1-800-382-2238 x5