Yesterday morning the bodyshop for my truck called & said my truck was ready to be picked up and said what we owed. Mom cashed the check from the insurance company (not sure why she didn't get a cashier's check or write a personal check, but whatever, she decided to pay cash). She drew out the amount for the deductible and wear on the tire. Drove down there in the CR-V. At first he wasn't there but he drove up while we were trying to figure out how to contact him (I forgot to put his # in my phone). He showed me the truck- paint job, new fender, new bumper, & repaired hood all looked good. Turned on the truck and it popped the error codes which he said would go away if I took it to the dealer to have them plug something in to clear the messages. Mom handed him the $ and we asked for a receipt. He mumbled something I couldn't understand then said he was going to back my truck out of his garage and handed me the key. I turned to help Mom move to the driver seat of the CR-V and didn't notice that the guy jumped back in his car and drove off until I turned around to request the receipt again. He'd mentioned something about having to take a trip out of town so I figured he was in a hurry, but was annoyed he didn't give a receipt.
I decided I would just call him later to ask about the receipt & arrange a time to come pick it up or get it mailed. Mom drove the CR-V while I followed in the truck. I noticed the steering felt a little odd-- somewhat loose-- but thought maybe it was bc I'd been driving the CR-V for over a month & it has tighter steering. Then I started to notice that the steering wheel was turned to the left while the tires were straight and that every once in awhile I felt a tug to the right and the steering wheel turned more to the left. It wasn't comfortable and something just didn't feel right. As soon as we got home, I asked Mom to hop in and said I wanted to take the truck straight to the dealership to have it checked out. I had assumed that maybe when they put the new strut on, they didn't straighten the steering wheel before reconnecting things and that it just needed to be adjusted. Drove straight to the dealership and explained the situation. They said that it should have had an alignment done but that the steering wheel being askew was not a good sign and that they would look at it. I called the insurance company to let them know what had happened and that the dealership was going to do the alignment. They argued that the alignment had been paid for to the body shop guy, I explained that it seemed he hadn't done it. Through further conversation with the dealer mechanics, they said he either didn't do it right or didn't do it at all so I would need to contact the guy about getting reimbursed bc they had to fix it, but that they did not recommend driving it bc there could be something worse going on.
Awhile later they told me that their mechanic called full stop on the poking around and that they would not touch anything else until an adjuster from my insurance came out to look at it bc they didn't want to be blamed for anything being done incorrectly. They said that he only replaced 1 strut and that it should have been done in pairs so there would have been 2 new struts-- but not only that, the strut wasn't secured properly and was loose. Furthermore, the tie rod was missing a nut & wasn't even secured & I was lucky that the wheel didn't come off while I was on my way there. They didn't know if it was on too loose and fell off or if they just forgot it, but they said that it was done so poorly that if the guy had done the alignment it was unaligned by being loose. They said that they would address the error messages (VSM, TPMS, DRL, and "check emissions") as well as the airbag recall after the adjuster looked at it.
I called the insurance so they arranged to send an adjuster out and they said they would pay for any further repairs involving the accident but that I would have to get the other guy to pay for re-doing anything he screwed up. So, I think they will cover the VSM, TPMS for only that one tire, and DRL (bc the wiring harness probably got messed up in the accident) and whatever the emissions error was. Emissions one might have just been a glitch bc it did it before when nothing was wrong.
Had to have my brother come pick us up and left the truck overnight. It was due for some regular maintenance anyway, but it's still frustrating.
So, today I had to drive my friend's fiance to a doctor's appointment, take my brother to get some socks, drop the girl off at home, pick up mail, back home, then back into town bc the girl left her medicine in the car, picked up McDonalds for Mom, back home, fed & watered pets, cleaned up dog crap, brought mail in, and heard from Mom that the dealership called. The adjuster came by & said the alignment and loose strut are the responsibility of the repair shop guy, but everything else was covered. Said they would do the TPMS for the front tire bc it was broken in the accident but that another sensor in the rear tire needed to be replaced & it was something like $200 (Mom declined to have that done bc she thought that was too pricey). Also said the brake pads needed to be replaced (she thought that was BS but I know that was one of the things on the maintenance minder and we haven't had the brakes done since we got it). I'd already had the oil, oil filter, and cabin air filter changed out before so that wasn't on the list. The 2nd strut is something that will be covered by insurance and I think they are covering whatever is needed to clear the error messages.
I talked to the insurance company and they agreed that it would be prudent to get a receipt from the other guy before mentioning any problems with the vehicle (or at least wait until I heard from the adjuster about it). I called him today to say my insurance company was insisting on a receipt. There were kids playing very loudly in the background so I think he was with family and is on vacation or something. He said he was out of town until Sunday but he'll be driving through my town on Monday and can print out a receipt and leave it with the towing guy. I want to get that receipt and it bc it seemed he was with his family, I decided not to bring up the problems with the stuff being loose just yet. I plan to bring it up on Monday and let him know that the stuff has to be redone at his expense. I don't know if he personally did it or if he had someone in his shop do it. Not sure if he just didn't know enough about it or if he's just a lousy mechanic. It seemed he had never worked on a Ridgeline before though. I'm hoping he'll just pay back the $ or that the insurance will withhold any additional $ over the estimate and use it to pay the dealership instead. IIRC, the check was sent before he said there was additional damage to the strut so the $ only covered the visible damage-- tire, fender, headlight, bumper replacement, hood repair, and painting + tire alignment. Not sure if they budgeted the TPMS sensor. I'll have to ask them to e-mail me a list of what they did pay him for-- they apparently sent it over to the dealership. Dealership mechanics were frazzled and stressed that my truck could have literally started falling apart on me bc of the loose parts. I mentioned before my best friend almost died from his tie rod coming loose. He was rather outraged when I told him about the situation.
If I had known that there would be more than cosmetic damage, I might have had it taken to a different shop, but I assumed it was just going to be the fender, bumper, tire, headlight, & hood but not anything underneath. I should have listened to my gut bc I was a bit uneasy about the strut replacement.
I am glad that I listened to my gut on going to the dealership right away though.
Now I'm going to take some naproxyn and try to take a nap.
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