NAiL05

Thats crap. If they are part of the BBB complain to them and fuck them over.

PowerCommander

Freakin' Aye!!!! I read this entire thread and I realized i'm breathing hard as fuck and my adrenaline is sky high. WTF How do you hold so much patience? That will never happen with my car. Not twice... Two times is enough cause. One time it's ok, second time it's their fault third time I'm being a dumb ass. I will not go that third time. I commend you on your patience but damn let that layers deal with it once and for all. As you said, take their license and some money for taking off so much from work and all the inconveniences it cost you. Damn it just do it!!!!!!!!!! These are the things you know of that are wrong because they fell apart. O M G. Then to blame everything on your "race" components ahahahh. Ridiculous that's just adding salt to the wound.

Persia-TL

I have no idea how you are so calm and havnt killed these guys yet..i read this entire thread and i am blown away..i feel like i am about to snap!!! I have been working on cars for a good 6 years now..been done all my mechanic work myself...this is outrageous....good luck with everything man...

I have really enjoyed and appreciated all your useful threads and distributions to this form IHC..deff in for the bail fund..

I hate cars

Thanks for all of the last replies, I missed most of them before.

Just a little update, I finally took the car back to the dealer to get the wheels balanced. I had to cancel a couple appointments because I've been working so much overtime so this was my fault it took so long. Car is so smooth. After the balance I realized it felt smoother as slow as 45mph so it was affecting it more than I thought. Luckily the amount of weights is minimal. I believe the dealer puts the heavy spot of the tire with the lightest part of the rims so they use less weight. They did a great job.

For the first time since it had 20,000 miles on it, it's smooth with no clunking from the front end. I'm pretty happy for now.

The big part is I've put 6,000 miles on the new tires. The fronts have quieted down completely since the alignment has been correct. I guess they've had time to wear down enough to where it's even now.

The rear tires are wearing perfeclty 6,000 miles later. No feathering or irregular. They're as quiet as can be and I have one short "track" day on them.

Car seems a little more prone to understeer now. Probably due to the alignment being correct so I'll have to do a little tweaking on the suspension. It's got a slight dartiness under hard braking but this is my first experience with these tires with everything working as it should so it may just be the way it is.

During my last visit to the dealer, I asked just for the heck of it what kind of deal they could give me on a timing belt kit. $250 for the belt and all of it's components and they said they would extend the deal to anyone interested.

Through it all this dealer has been very good to me. Friendly service advisor and patient unbiased techs which actually know their way around a car. I was very impressed when we got into the swaybars with the tech. His knowledge is extensive.

They have spent probably 5 hours total of their time without getting paid. The car has recieved a free carwash every time. Probably 6 in all even when I was just meeting the Geico guy there.

My sales experience was not the best with this dealership back in '05 due to the pushy salesman but the service has been excellent. I actually recommend them..... Never thought I would say that about a dealer. They have been consistantly good to me, not just once or twice. The parts department is willing to highly discount parts so I encourage any locals to hit them up. Dealer is Barber Acura in Bakersfield. Used to be Superior Acura.

jwr0ng626

iTrader: (1)

wow just read ur entire thread.. sorry to hear all that BS that happened... =\ (did u kill the guy?) glad your car is comin together again!

racerock

I'd be willing to bet that you don't have rental insurance and it is not the other persons fault.

It is amazing how many "production" body shops simply work for the insurance companies (in effect) and that the insurance companies really hammer the shops to get the cars with rentals done and out the door so they are not paying on a car...

I hate cars

Just thought I would add another small update since this all comes from the original body shop incident.

Over the past month I started getting a minor vibration from the rear of the car. I recently had the rear tires replaced, an alignment, and the compliance bushings done by the dealership and paid for by the body shop since they screwed it all up the last time it was in there.

So I'm thinking maybe it flung a wheel weight off one of the rear tires. The part that made no sense is it started from low speeds too where balance could not play a role. So early this month I replaced my rear Konis. Luckily my father was standing there when I went to take the driver's side rear tire off. I put my ratchet on there and it turned under it's own weight. I told my father to watch and I used just the extension and socket and loosened the other lugnuts with two fingers, no wrench. So my lugnuts were very loose and that was my vibration. That's a third major issue just waiting to happen and this one was the dealer's fault. After I was done and had the wheel back on and tight, the vibration was gone.

Fast forward to today. I'm changing out my long overdue Magnefine transmission filter. When the front tire fell off the first time, the dealer replaced all of the air ducting that I had removed. I did the resonator delete a long time ago and they must have thought it fell off when the tire crashed into the fender. No big deal, I should have told them so that was my fault. But what is a big deal is they rerouted my cooler lines and magnefine filter around the new ducting and did not tighten the hose clamp all the way plus they kinked the line right after the filter. So I've been running all this time with a slow fluid leak which could've blown off any time and a kinked line.

Luckily the Magnefine filter is barbed but it was basically run without a clamp it was so loose. The cooler circuit is usually a low pressure circuit so that's probably what saved me from spraying ATF all over the engine bay. Luckily the kink was on the inlet to the filter so it didn't pressure up the side without the clamp. I noticed right away that my cooler got much hotter just by touch so no telling what damage was being done this entire time. I've put over 30,000 miles on it since the air ducting was replaced.

So this time it was a fluid leak, kinked cooler circuit, and a tire that was ready to fall off. I wonder what it will be next time.

I think that's two front suspension failures while driving, one rear tire that was about to fall off, a rack that was a wreck waiting to happen, 4 alignments, 2 sets of tires, and about 30 other non safety related issues.

Inaccurate

This is why I always redo the lug nut torque on my wife's car after anyone has touched her car. Even after body repair where there was no reason to touch the tires, I still proof the lug nuts. And for sure after she had new tires installed. The moment she gets the car home, rain or shine, I proof the lug nuts.

By proof, I mine to loosen them so that I can retighten them correctly with staggered tightening and with a torque wrench.

My car? No one touches my car but me. I will take the loose wheels to the tire shop to get new tires.... but they never get to touch my car itself.

I hate cars

You're completely right. Trusting a mechanic on something as important as lugnuts is....nuts lol. I just don't remember stuff like this happening 10 years ago. Not sure if it's my memory or if the service has gotten worse.

HondaFan81

Preach on brotha! I am the same way with my wife and try to service everything on her car since we been married. If I do not, I do a full inspection of their work.

I have done this for my sister after she had a automatic transmission rebuilt and caught a lower shock mount bolt/nut threaded on by a few threads, ready to come off with some more vibration.

I hate cars

I agree with you there. I check the GF's car over very well especially with safety related items. Even simple stuff they screw up. We had the MAF pipe recall done on the Murano. All it is, is replacing the plasitc MAF pipe between the MAF meter and the air filter. It's as simple as changing an air filter. When we got it home and I inspected it, the airbox was not on right and it had a 1/2" gap where it was sucking unfiltered air. That was when I was driving it once a week in very dusty conditons. I could only imagine a year or two of unfiltered air.

cjTL

iTrader: (2)

^Happy 11111 posts.

How much do torque wrenches go for? I've always been worried about that after having my car worked on.

Souljah

Mauhahahaha. IHC is now an AZine fiend! err i mean King...

I hate cars

I never saw these last two posts lol. Maybe I just have no life....

An update more for my own records, I know this is getting boring.

I've had a rattle in the center light/hfl assembly on the roof for some time. It not only rattles badly with bass but just driving down the road with no radio on. Today I did more sound deadening and that was one area I planned on taking care of. Immediately I found why it was rattling. The bodyshop didn't install all of the 4 bolts that hold the center up. I went ahead and deadened it and installed another bolt and it's very quiet now even with 20hz test tones. So one more for the bodyshop. I think I'm going to be finding this stuff as long as I own the car. In a few weeks, the entire interior comes out for sound deadening so I can't wait to see what I find then.

racerock

I'm with you on that one...

BUT, there was one time that I did a transmission swap, brakes all around, control arms, painted wheels, basically a general rebuild on a 323ci that I picked up for a grand...

Running up to have it safety inspected, I noticed a vibration on the front. Turned side to side, and figured it out and pulled over immediately...

I had forgotten to torque the front bolts after dropping it to the ground after switching out the fuel filter...

So, it happens...

I hate cars

At least you figured it out in time. I swapped the rear wheel studs out on the GN for the NHRA required ARP long wheel studs that stick out past the lugnuts. I didn't have a press at the time so I just put them in and tightened the heck out of the lugs. Going down the freeway after about 15 minutes I got a vibration. After another 5 minutes I pulled over and found they were not seated right the first time and pulled through some more effectively loosening the lugnuts. One had broken off by the time I pulled over and I had to buy one new rim because it damaged the holes.

rkan121

what a wild story, the best part of the story without doubt was your persistance and general knowledge of the situation. All of which benefited you in the long run. How long long did this process take from beginning to end ?? A while.....huh?

Chad05TL

I dont like other people working on my car. They often screw something up. Some jackass at Pep boys scratched 2 of my rims through the paint.. I have to take my car in to someone to change the tires. but it never fails.. Mechanics just work on your car from 8 to 5 for a job.. Its not their own car. And they dont care.

I hate cars

Around Oct '08 to present. I have a feeling it's never going to end. Just hopefully all of the major safety hazards are fixed. I'll probably wait for a few more things to go wrong and then have them fix it again. It should be interesting to see what's underneath when I strip the entire interior and trunk sound deadening in a few weeks to sound deaden the car. I almost don't want to look.

Chad05TL

someone told me when I was 19... "just drive it"

Chad05TL

hope that doesnt sound too cold