Well, I need R3v's advice on this matter.
A little background info on the story: I got my cars suspension replaced with GC coils, IE sway bars, and brand new bushings. While the job was happening i decided to get brakes and ebrakes done, along with a few misc. items to just have peace of mind. I was unable to perform the job myself, and was forced to take it to a shop due to time restraints on my end. I took it to this shop, and they quoted $1200 to get all the work done. I was very happy with this price, as it was competitive with other shops in the area, and one of the techs that would be working on my car came from a highly reputable shop.
What happened was I took the car in, and it took 2.5-3 weeks to get done, and the original time was 1 week. This was all well and good, because as we know bushings get seized, shops get busy, and things always take a bit longer than expected. When we got the car back, the price had jumped from $1200 to about $2200. I accepted this jump in price simply because of some extra things I asked them to do, and some fabrication was required for mounting the sway bars.
In October, the car was in an accident (3 weeks or so after all this work was completed by the shop), it got put into a curb and bent the frame, totalling the car. All the suspension stuff (to my surprise) is all undamaged, and the only damage is a creased rear trailing arm from where it hit the curb, and all the wheels were destroyed. The frame, to my inspection, is in fact not bent, and the only major damage would be a replacement trailing arm and new wheels. But the way insurance deals with cars is another matter entirely.
Fast forward to today. I am in the process of parting out the car and removing any usable parts - Ie. Coilovers, sway bars, subframe, all the regular stuff. As I am working on removing this stuff, I notice that a substantial amount of bolts and nuts are only finger tight. The set screws on the rotors were backing off and finger tight, 1 calliper bolt was loose, the sway bar end links were finger tight on the rear, bolts were beginning to back off on the sway bar mount points on the body, the subframe reinforcement welds to support the sway bars have started to rust due to them being bare metal, and worst of all the Ebrake cables weren't even tightened on so one side wasn't working at all.
I have yet to even touch the front of the car yet.
Here's the issue, All the items I have found have only been in the rear end, and ALL of them are important safety bolts. Had this car not been in an accident so soon after the work was done, I have a very good feeling it would have been in an accident due to something failing in the future.
Since the car is now totalled, I really have no idea how to go about dealing with the shop. If it were still drivable, i would drive back and demand they fix it, but since that's not an option, I am rather stuck on what to do. One thing I know for certain is I am the only one who will work on my cars from now on, and will make sure I fix all this shit before it goes on to my mtech 2 project.
I appreciate in advance for any input people have on the situation!
A little background info on the story: I got my cars suspension replaced with GC coils, IE sway bars, and brand new bushings. While the job was happening i decided to get brakes and ebrakes done, along with a few misc. items to just have peace of mind. I was unable to perform the job myself, and was forced to take it to a shop due to time restraints on my end. I took it to this shop, and they quoted $1200 to get all the work done. I was very happy with this price, as it was competitive with other shops in the area, and one of the techs that would be working on my car came from a highly reputable shop.
What happened was I took the car in, and it took 2.5-3 weeks to get done, and the original time was 1 week. This was all well and good, because as we know bushings get seized, shops get busy, and things always take a bit longer than expected. When we got the car back, the price had jumped from $1200 to about $2200. I accepted this jump in price simply because of some extra things I asked them to do, and some fabrication was required for mounting the sway bars.
In October, the car was in an accident (3 weeks or so after all this work was completed by the shop), it got put into a curb and bent the frame, totalling the car. All the suspension stuff (to my surprise) is all undamaged, and the only damage is a creased rear trailing arm from where it hit the curb, and all the wheels were destroyed. The frame, to my inspection, is in fact not bent, and the only major damage would be a replacement trailing arm and new wheels. But the way insurance deals with cars is another matter entirely.
Fast forward to today. I am in the process of parting out the car and removing any usable parts - Ie. Coilovers, sway bars, subframe, all the regular stuff. As I am working on removing this stuff, I notice that a substantial amount of bolts and nuts are only finger tight. The set screws on the rotors were backing off and finger tight, 1 calliper bolt was loose, the sway bar end links were finger tight on the rear, bolts were beginning to back off on the sway bar mount points on the body, the subframe reinforcement welds to support the sway bars have started to rust due to them being bare metal, and worst of all the Ebrake cables weren't even tightened on so one side wasn't working at all.
I have yet to even touch the front of the car yet.
Here's the issue, All the items I have found have only been in the rear end, and ALL of them are important safety bolts. Had this car not been in an accident so soon after the work was done, I have a very good feeling it would have been in an accident due to something failing in the future.
Since the car is now totalled, I really have no idea how to go about dealing with the shop. If it were still drivable, i would drive back and demand they fix it, but since that's not an option, I am rather stuck on what to do. One thing I know for certain is I am the only one who will work on my cars from now on, and will make sure I fix all this shit before it goes on to my mtech 2 project.
I appreciate in advance for any input people have on the situation!
Comment