Garage Incompetence

[S18 RSG 429]

Hi guys,

 

Safe to say, today isn't exactly my day.

 

On Tuesday, I put my car into my local garage to get some work done. I bought some 35mm Eibach springs, and front and rear camber adjustment bolts/bushes. A fairly simple job for which I was quoted 4 hours labour + wheel alignment. 6 hours later, I get a phone call saying the car won't be finished, so I could collect it the next morning, when they call me. 2pm the next day, I call up, "It's still not ready, you can have it by the end of the day". 

 

I rock up at 5pm, car still isn't done. I hang around until 6pm, car still isn't ready, they need to finish it tomorrow.

 

The car is finally ready at 12pm the next day, so I collect it, and relieve myself of £280 for labour (6 hours, not the quoted 4). As soon as I turn the corner, I hear an awful knocking coming from the rear. It continues over every bump, but I figured it may have been the poly bushes, or simply the springs bedding in. I got home after the rest of my work day, and took a look at the alignment of the wheels, and noticed the rear wheels seemed to have a crazy amount of negative camber (after I had asked for 1.5 degrees all around). The issue here was, I never received a printout of the settings, just a "take my word for it" kind of statement from the mechanic. 

 

Anyway, the next day, to put my mind at ease, I took it to a local tyre fitting place which does full 4 wheel laser alignment, and these were the settings (obviously before is top):

 

 

As can be seen, the rear toe was a mile out. I was told by the mechanic that did the alignment, that he wasn't surprised about my complaints of the car feeling loose and nervous on the road, because those settings were dangerous to the point of being undriveable. I was also told that the knocking was caused by the rear top mounts.

 

So, I took the car back to the garage this morning and asked them to sort out the knocking, and lower the rear camber slightly to get it more towards 2 degrees. At 2pm I went to the garage, at which point I was shown the car, and was told that 3 out of the 4 shock absorbers (for reference both rears and the front right shock) had blown their seals and were leaking fluid. This was because the shocks were probably on their way out already, and the springs accelerated this.

 

The problem, of course, is that I found the car was never test drove after the work was done, so it was literally driven 30 yards from the ramp to the car park, and then 50 yards by me around the corner when I noticed the knocking. There is no way I blew the seals on 3 shock absorbers in 80 yards. Obviously, seeing as though it is a bank holiday, I have now had to leave my car in the garage again (although I will be collecting it on Monday, there is no way am I allowing them to touch my car again) in order to get it somewhere decent, to have all 4 shock absorbers changed.

 

My question is, would everyone here share my opinion, of these issues being caused by the sheer incompetence of the garage in not doing my wheel alignment?

 

Also, could anyone give me a technical breakdown of exactly WHY this issue would be caused by this, so I can use it as evidence on Tuesday when I go back to the garage, as I am fighting for not only a full refund, but a full set of shock absorbers plus reimbursment of my lost time, as I will have been without a car for over a week. I also told them I had a driving holiday booked this weekend, which I've had to cancel and have lost another few hundred pound from that. I'm not fighting for that, as it's a lie, but I wanted to make them feel bad.

 

Opinions please.

 

PS. Could a mod edit the title please? OCD hits me hard

[Keethos 842]

Sorry to hear this dude, it's definitely something I'd fight. Like you said, it should have been a very easy/straightforward job. Did they explain why they were taking so long? I would have kicked off earlier if they had taken that long for no reason. Which garage was this exactly?

[Lauren 2259]

Wow that is an excessive amount of rear camber. Did you have offset poly bushes for the rear lower wishbones? 

 

The dampers should be okay though, what kind of mileage have they done? 

 

I reckon, you've got no chance on getting them to replace the dampers as nothing they should have done would have had any effect on them. You've asked them to fit lowering springs after all. I don't see why that would shag the dampers though and blow the seals. Even if they are bottoming out (you would hit the bumpstops anyway) I don't see why it would damage the seals.  

 

Are you sure the seals are gone? Obviously dropping the car 35mm will rob you of 35mm of what is already a short stroke. Plenty of people have done it though, without issue it would seem. 

 

I can see you have a tiny amount of toe out on the rear which is not good really. Toe in is what you want really. 

 

The alignment on the front looks fine, just wonder how they've managed to balls up the rear so badly?

[S18 RSG 429]

Their excuse for it taking so long, was that there was a 911 GT3 Cup Car on the ramp they were going to use for most of the first day, and that they found it to be a pain in the ass changing everything.

 

Because of the quality of the cars they work on (there was that 911, another road spec GT3, a Range Rover and a Jaguar XKR there at the time) I figured they must be a quality garage, and my dad has taken his Porsche there also, and they were fine.

 

It was a place called Motazone. They only have 1 premises, in my hometown.

[S18 RSG 429]

Wow that is an excessive amount of rear camber. Did you have offset poly bushes for the rear lower wishbones? 

 

The dampers should be okay though, what kind of mileage have they done? 

 

I reckon, you've got no chance on getting them to replace the dampers as nothing they should have done would have had any effect on them. You've asked them to fit lowering springs after all. I don't see why that would shag the dampers though and blow the seals. Even if they are bottoming out (you would hit the bumpstops anyway) I don't see why it would damage the seals.  

 

Are you sure the seals are gone? Obviously dropping the car 35mm will rob you of 35mm of what is already a short stroke. Plenty of people have done it though, without issue it would seem. 

 

I can see you have a tiny amount of toe out on the rear which is not good really. Toe in is what you want really. 

 

The alignment on the front looks fine, just wonder how they've managed to balls up the rear so badly?

 

The poly bushes are fitted on the rear, and I asked them to set the car to 1.5 degrees all around. What I think they did, was just max out the available camber on the bushes, which just added to the increased angle caused by the lowering.

 

The car has done 23000 miles. It had a full RAC/AA inspection around 1000 miles ago when I bought it. They brought up nothing at all about the suspension being on its way out, and rightly so.

 

From what I saw of the dampers, they are soaking wet with oil, and the reason for the knocking is them having no oil pressure inside, and therefore bottoming out on themselves.

 

The conversation I had with them was them effectively taking responsibility for the mistake, and they said they will contact Toyota to get some new dampers. If they try to charge me, they've got another thing coming. At the end of the day, as you say, people have lowered their cars by 35mm and done thousands of miles without issue. I did a total of 2 miles, driving extremely slowly because of the knocking. There's no way it was anything to do with the springs. It was either the install or setup from my perspective.

[Lauren 2259]

Okay, well if they can get a new set of dampers for you from Toyota, that's great, hope you get it sorted. 

[Kodename47 446]

If they have used a power gun on the dampers to change the springs then this is known to damage them. Plenty of cases in the states of similar. It seems the OEM dampers are quite prone to this so unless you know then you can fall victim to this.

IMO this is why the dampers have blown...

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33095

[rob275 1817]

the rear camber is a joke. :/

[Mike_89 11]

This is why I like to have a go at things myself, I wouldn't trust a back street garage with my car. I fitted lowering springs with no prior experience to mine and they were fine, I just did my research beforehand. It sounds as though they have spun the shafts on the dampers, this causes the damper to disassemble internally.

[S18 RSG 429]

Well, more developments.

 

It turns out that, while they have no intention of accepting responsibility, the outcome suggests that the garage know they're at fault. Either that, or my mum spending 4 hours at the garage complaining while I was in work drove them mad.

 

I completely believe that the dampers were damaged, either by the shaft being spun, as Mike mentioned, or as Adrian from Fensport mentioned, the dampers may have been over compressed when they fitted the springs.

 

The outcome is, they offered to get me a full set of OEM dampers, but Toyota are on back order until mid September, so as a middle ground, they offered to go half and half with me on a full set of coilovers, so I am currently waiting for Amber to send me across a quote for the Tein coilovers.

 

This of course means, that I will have a set of Eibach sportline springs for sale by the end of the week. I will post up a for sale thread when they arrive, but in the mean time, if anyone's after a set, let me know. I'll let them go below the discounted Fensport price so I can claw back some of my money. They've only done 3 miles.

[smudge 1020]

Not the worst outcome in the world then mate, glad you got it sorted

[Keethos 842]

Agree with Smudge, suprised they would offer such a random deal, wonder how much the OEMs are compared to full coilovers but good work!

[Lauren 2259]

Doesn't sound like a terrible outcome at all. And to think you'll get a decent set up now. 

[smudge 1020]

Just be sure to take it to a reputable garage to get them fitted! Don't go back to the 1st one

[S18 RSG 429]

Thanks guys.

 

Keith, I got an offer from Fensport for a full set of OEM dampers, £200, but they're second hand, so my guess is that OEM dampers are worth a pretty penny themselves.

 

Either way, by the time the springs are sold, and the coilovers are fitted, I'd had paid around £350 for coilovers, including fitting. That's not at all bad considering (although the 10 days without a car aren't exactly worth it)

[S18 RSG 429]

Doesn't sound like a terrible outcome at all. And to think you'll get a decent set up now. 

 

Hey, the 20 yards I drove on the springs felt great! It just so happens that as soon as the dampers had to do their job, they failed horribly XD.

 

But yeah, at least you can get off my back about coilovers now I gave in to you in the end.