QuestionMark,
My vehicle, a 1995 Honda prelude that I bought in 2002 from the original owner with only 33,000 miles on it, has been giving me UNSEEN AND INSANE problems...
I lowered my prelude 2 inches about 20K miles ago.She only has 85,000 miles on her and I store her every winter. I used progress coil overs w/5 way adjustable tokico shocks. Recently, it was almost as if the suspension gave out. The upper control arms started to rub on the inner "seams" of the cars body. After breaking through the plastic wheel casings, they literally started grinding away due to the metal on metal contact. It was as though the car was sinking. I have shelled out over $2700 in the last 2 months to get the car fixed and the problem just keeps persisting.
I had the Eibach pro lowering kit put in, which should have actually raised my car. I replaced the 5 way adjsutable shocks w/new ones, but nonadjustables (not my choice). The aftermarket camber kit (aka-upper control arm bushings) have been squeaking and are still the original from when I first lowered my car. To me, they look pretty torn up. However, no mechanic I have taken the car to has suggested repairing them??? However, the one who put in the eibach kit lubed them up with lithium grease (oh, but for a fee of course!).
The problem has gotten so bad now that I taped cushioning w/duct tape to the upper control arms to prevent denting the body of the car from the inside-out.The paint job is now getting affected by the ongoing problem. The paint is starting to form a white line where the upper control arms hitting on the rear quarter panels! Even the engine is messed up now too. The center of the car seems to be "sinking". No one, even these professionals that have robbed me, can figure it out... What could it be? I even had new poly. bushings put in the car too!!! And the one mechanic greased those upper control arm bushings w/lithium grease (but managed to charge me $150 to do that).
She has been sitting in the garage now for a good 4 months. I started her up though the other day. I noticed a HEAVY, constant grinding right in the middle of the back seat-seemed to get louder the faster I went. I looked under the car yesterday and saw that the bottom of the back seats is basically sitting on the trailing arm.
Also, on the roof-by where the side panels (your doors/top of window on door shuts to) connect and bond with the roof, there is a raise in the seam by the side panels-on each side of the car. Basically, it seems as though the sides of the car are staying put and standing right, but the whole middle of the car is starting to fall/sag. My wheel wells have repositioned and dropped-you can tell from the plastic pieces underneath the car and the gaps of space between them. There must me some MAJOR support bar or something broke...And I considered that maybe that seam on the roof is supposed to sit about two centimeters taller on the side panel than the roof. But, if you follow the seam to the front windshield, there is a crack starting to form running down the weather stripping of the top corners of the front windshield.I tore apart the trunk liner yesterday and found (literally) a crack by the drivers side rear wheel well. There was obviously some welding work done there too (that I was never told about). These 2 different mechanics could have in no way possible not seen that weld work b/c they installed the new shocks there (onto the shock mount). Why did they not tell me about this???
I have NEVER seen anything like this or even heard of anything like this before!!!
If the frame is bent and the car's shot, could these mechanics just be lying to me or hiding the true problem from me? It's so bad the upper control arms are coming up out of the wheel casings under the hood!!! Please give me some answers... or even opinions on if I should be pressing charges on these mechanics for the stress they have caused me!
I can tell you more about the mechanics that worked on my car too. I paid the 1st one in Aug. $1200 and brought the car back to him 2 days later. He charged me about $200 dollars to lube up some bushings w/lithium grease and install rear brake pads and rotors that I purchased before bringing it in to him. He managed to talk me into letting him order the new suspension parts (which is a Horrible and cheap set up compared to what I had). PLUS, when I picked my car up the 1st time, he had the old shocks and springs all over the garage and asked me if I wanted the old parts. I looked at him confused b/c I didn't know what I could do with them. He said,"YOu might be able to sell them on ebay to some idiot" Sure enough, I found out that those 5 way adj. shocks could have been reused, if not sold for a good amount of cash. He kept them, and probably sold them for a good amount of money.
The 2nd place put new polyur. bushings in my car-had it for 2 wks. I finally drove by on a sunday b/c I wanted to see if they were even working on her. She was the only car in the open parking lot-with a pile of dust on her and the alarm unarmed. Another shop I had my car at put her in the garage every night- is that not traditional procedure??? Plus, I put 500 miles on this car until realizing the mechanic had left his vice grip attached to the pass. rear upper control arm bushing. When I brought the car back on Monday, he laughed about it. I said that there were still problems occurring-he said "I really don't know what it could be, Heather" I paid them $1200 that friday and the problem wasn't fixed!!! And he tells me that???
What could I do? Can I at least get compensated for the damages here? I am not sure who I can go after-maybe even the original people who lowered it? That's a whole nother story. please let me know what you think.
AnswerHeather-
Stop the madness with throwing money at this car immediately please. It sounds as though you bought a car that has either been reconstructed in some way or at the minimum it has had some extensive structural repairs. I am sorry about your financial losses and in particular the loss of your suspension parts to that mechanic. The bottom line is that this car has much more serious issues than can be fixed by throwing more hundred dollar bills at it. I'm sure you are attached to the car and I'm sure you have invested thousands of dollars in it too. I'm sure it looks beautiful parked in the driveway as well. Probably you have put heart and soul into building it and couldn't imagine parting with it. My best advice to you is take it to a reputable body shop in your area and ask them to do an underbody inspection of the car to determine what kind of repairs have been done to it and if they can determine which part of the damage is causing the collapse of the suspension. Expect to pay $0-$300 for this. Then look at the situation realistically, is this car really worth the kind of investment it will take to bring it back to safe and sound? I believe that as much as you love this car- common sense will tell you otherwise. As far as holding anyone responsible legally, I think that while you have probably been taken advantage of, you don't have any legal ground to stand on because you presented a damaged vehicle to be modified. I don't know anything about these legal issues however. Cut your losses now and get rid of the car to the highest bidder and start over with a new one!!! It won't be an easy decision, but later you will be glad you did. Good Luck ! Mark PS: I'm sure all of this doesn't give you much faith when dealing with mechanics- there are good ones out there you just need to find them. You are right when you said they should have seen the problems back in the beginning. They should have advised you in the beginning what I just told you if they had your best interest at heart. They absolutely had to know the car was damaged or rebuilt the first time they worked on it. Sad.
