So I had to farm out a repair job on the Loyale. I decided to go with Steve’s Auto & Truck Repair down in Little Vally because they came highly reccomended from one of my mom’s customers (also a Subaru driver). They fit in my repair the same week I called, which is increasingly rare these days. Basically I needed the half axle, and the wheel bearing replaced. I bought the parts on my own and sent them down with the car. Steve called me 3 days later and told me the reason the wheel was moving while I was caused not only by the roasted wheel bearing but also the bad lower ball joint. I told him to fix it, the part was $35. 2 days later the car was done with $384 in labor alone, and with the ball joint and tax totaled out at $413. Kinda pricy I thought, but whatever I need my car. Car seemed fine leaving the shop, that is until dad went to slow down and turn onto my street. The wheel went KLUNK on the side I had all the work done and then there was the lovely noise of metal on metal. We both figured the brake pad let go and was rubbing on the rotor (the car’s needed brakes for forever, but I figured keeping the wheel on was more important.) The car’s sat in the driveway until today when Andy went to replace the pads and rotors and noticed the spindle was broken…not only broken but it looked to be tac welded back on! Obviously whomever actually did the work on my car broke the spindle off and tried to weld it back on…hello, it’s cast iron. Plus the wheel bearing is not pressed in evenly, and the tierod and bearing are lacking the locking nuts.
So basically, I paid over $400 for a half-assed repaired car that I still can’t drive. Do I call and tell them I flat out want my money back for the labor or do I give them a chance to fix the problem pro bono? I have no idea where they’ll find a spindle, that’s a junk yard part. Crap. Hello week 4 without a car.
I’d like to see what they’d be willing to do before I lawyer up, you know?
Seriously, they really put my life in danger there. Imagine if I was stopping quick on the thruway or something. I could have plowed into oncoming traffic, a tree, guard rail… the list goes on. Which should I suggest first… reembursment or free repairs??
labor $ back
supplied parts $ back
new spindle
new axle (no nut = trashed)
new tie rod (if it even wiggled a tiny bit its probably junk)
labor for replacing anything they damaged
even then, its still cast, and i highly doubt these hacks pulled out the tig welder and layed a stack of dimes around the crack
and if they did, its still a shitty repair, because its at most a 3/8" weld all the way around thats trying to replace well over an inch of original material
parts like this require FULL penetration to be strong /story
he will deny it. u will sue. he wont show up to court and he will delay paying. so if he sells used cars goto the dmv and they will suspend his sales license. its a timely process to get ur money back. thats what u will do. i worked for a very shady man that did similar things. including welding the ear of the strut where a swaybar mounts back on and charge the customer the rand r strut
Calling tomorrow, I had to find my bill. DOH! On the plus side, my odometer reading was printed on the invoice and I remember a law stating the repair shop is still liable if there’s under 100 mi on the car after the repair. I’m guessing they broke the spindle pressing the bearing out or something. The weld they put on it was pretty sparse, and I’m suprized it lasted 30 miles. This sucks. I’ll keep you kids posted. OH! and they charged me $200 over my original estimate.:smash2:
Yeah, but they called you and said additional work needed to be done (the ball joint), which you agreed to, so the original estimate is no longer valid.
kinda funny steve is my next door neighbor…i have taking many things to hilltop auto and never had a problem . he is a good guy i think you should call him befor posting he should fix it…