Took my car to a very reputable towbar install place in December. Went over everything and confirmed a hayman reese bar, minimal bumper cut.
Car comes back with a cut as crooked as a dogs hind leg, rubbing the bar itself, and 2x the height required. Lucky it didn’t look crap once I got some pinchweld on it and tidied up.
Got it home and discovered a large scrape on the side of the bumper from where he rammed the bar in without loosening muffler mounts as stated in the instructions.
Was told ‘if’ its our fault then we will arrange fixing. Fortunately, since the chunk of gold plastic ripped out of the bumper was torqued down under the bar bracket, it was pretty bloody obvious it was there fault so I was told to take it to a well known (and recommended to me by others) panel repairer.
So after a 3x 1/2 hour round trips (drop off, pick up, take back to ‘see if it was there fault’) I rang the repairer – month wait for a quote, then another month to get it fixed (just got it done today).
Meanwhile, one night I get home and smell burning. Turned out the wiring harness wasn’t secured and ended up on top of the exhaust. No damage. While fixing that I wriggle where it went through and a random rubber grommet falls out. Pull the taillights out and find a mounting stud snapped clean off.
While under there I note that all the bolts securing it have “8.8 JDF” written on them, except one which says “OE 8.8”. Didn’t think anymore of it.
Smash repair was hampered by a bracket incorrectly installed by the towbar people which meant the towbar had to be removed to get the bumper off. After getting the car back today and carefully inspecting the paintwork, the smash repairer did a good job – though a bit of orange peel.
Look underneath and find 2x towbar mounting bolts look wonky. Wind them out and shocked at what I find
Long story short, the “OE” bolt was an m10x1.5. Old mate who put the bar on originally must have lost a bolt, so picked up a random m10 and sent it with the rattle gun.
The panel guys removed the bolts to get the bar off, then put them back in in a different order (which would have been fine if they were all 1.25 pitch) and also sent it.
So now I have 2x potentially naffed threads which I have to try to fix. Going to make up a thread chaser tomorrow and give it a crack. I really don't want to helicoil
It seems your the unreasonable one for wanting a job you paid for, done merely to a competent standard.
Then they turn around and make it as though you're the troublemaker because they're obviously accustomed to the punters accepting their shoddy workmanship, no questions asked. They know you need the resources of a forensics lab to make a case against them. They are no different to a shoplifter to me charging for a job they haven't delivered.
Very disappointed for you. It's a towbar FFS.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Problem is everything is controlled by time and the dollar. Fitting anything the fitter is under constant pressure to rush the job through because it is all down to the dollar being paid. Tyler, the damage must have been severe if they had to get panels repainted, that is pretty bad As MF said it is only a towbar.
I told a friend about the saga and after saying the company name he immediately sighed "not that mob of *****".
Norm, having been in the situation myself I know what you mean by being rushed by a workshop foreman. Accidents happen, but if you are called out to have a look and are shown said gouge and lump of plastic 'peel' torqued down under the bracket you tightened down, the correct answer is not (grumble) "oh yeah... i might have done but I don't think I did ... it was a **** to install) then turn around and walk off without saying anything else.
Honestly, it wasn't severe but it was worse than the photos show, at least 3-4mm deep in places and clearly visible even though it looks tucked away (more at bottom. If it were a knocked around car it wouldn't be a problem - but it is in exceptional condition and only 117k now
I don't go charging back into these places chucking a wobbly. It takes a fair amount of BS before I get to that stage.
The young counter guy at the smash repairer said "oh yes, we have a good relationship with ___, we do repair work for them all the time" (old bloke in back visibly winces hearing his employee say that haha). They said that damage required a full bumper repaint ... don't know if it would if I was paying for it but anyway the paint match is good and the scratches that were there when I bought the car are also wiped.
Max, it even happens at the genuine brand dealers. When your family has dealt with a company since 1982, you would think you wouldn't get a run around. Comes back from service and the bonnet has been opened with the wiper arms up - ripped paint off the bonnet edge and ripped powder coating off the wipers.
No wasn't us, can't be. Show them photos of the car the morning it went in... oh it was us. Not major, but don't lie to me about it. They threw me a bottle of touchup paint and the angry rep came out with a rag with polish on it and buffed half the powder coat off the wipers.
Not my car, so I don't drive it regularly, but I immediately got told of a knocking with the wipers on ... drove back.
Was told it was my wiper blades and it was suggested I stop being a tightarse and change them like they suggested in the service. I changed them 2 months before the service. What it was was the wiper being ripped past its splined drive when they opened the bonnet - the LH wiper was hitting the A pillar. Fixed that myself
I was instructed to give them one more opportunity, so late last year it went in for a service. Price gone up $30. I siphoned out 200ml from the coolant overflow just to see what they would do. I fully checked system, removed any sign of what could even be misconstrued as a coolant leak.
Phone call "your radiator is completely stuffed - amazing you haven't cooked it. That will be $800, plus $19 if it needs a cap (haha)" Decline and get the sales push
"if you buy an aftermarket radiator it is guaranteed the temperature gauge will fluctuate" which would have made me laugh if I wasn't blind with rage.
Pick it up and get the same thing. Once the key were in my hand and the car out front (and I checked everything), I asked them if they thought I look like a ****** idiot, clearly I must do if you think I will fall for that radiator bit.
I get back in my car, she gets in hers and follow home. First corner theres a bump and half the under tray falls off. Stop at repco and get some plugs and fix it myself.
How long have you got - I have plenty more stories
What I want to know is do I look like an idiot who knows nothing about cars, or do they get away with it so often they get brazen?
Also I should note that after 2 hours of stuffing with the threads and making a thread chaser, I cleaned up all the threads and got it all nipped back up and its all good.
Hi Tyler, glad you got it finally fixed up but I would suggest you don't go back there, find somewhere else to get any work you need done in the future. Sad fact of life but it seems to be the way of the world these days
I've heard all these stories before Tyler ,some of the genuine brand dealers are the worst for ripping people off ,not to mention all the repairers that make up fictitious repairs and charge for them and damage customers' cars and the owner pays, the amount of times I've heard of people getting charged thousands of dollars for a misdiagnosed fault with their car and the original problem is still not fixed.
I knew someone that went to an Auto Reconditioner and paid for a new auto ,get the car back look under the car and they hadn't touched the car just charged for an auto they hadn't fitted so the car went straight back.
I've seen tons of services where part of the service is to check and adjust drum brakes and you can tell straight away they haven't even had the wheels off ,so you pay for a service but they skip half of it.
My cousin had a new car always had it serviced at one dealer ,they stripped the sump plug and said it was the car owners fault as they must have taken the car to someone else who over tightened the plug then they wanted to charge over $500. to remove the engine and put a new sump on .
You would never go back to them after telling them just put a tap in the sump to the next oversized plug size, job done for under $5. As long as you use a lot of grease on the tap to collect the leftover metal from ending up in the sump you wont have a problem.
I think they would have tapped the thread and then charged for a new sump if you didn't know.
There were car dealers that would sell genuine hub caps for around a $100.or more each , so the new vehicles they sold they would remove the hub caps put them straight into spare parts and fit $20. hubcaps on the new car ready for sale.
Also have heard of dealers charging hundreds to remove a fuel tank to replace a fuel filter that is part of a petrol vehicle service but they charge a Diesel owner this fee and the fuel filter is in the engine bay and has no filter in the tank.
Dealers have put an Auto service charge down to people with a manual gearbox so have overcharged for work that is impossible to do.
Seen a few cars come back from wheel aligners and the tie rod adjusters are loose ( been adjusted but not tightened afterwards) and have seen loose camber and caster adjusters.
Some tyre fitters will do the wheel nuts up so tight with the rattle gun that when you undo the wheel nut the stud snaps off and no way will they pay for repairs.
Lots of damaged mags and wheels from tyre fitters,but they don't pay.
Yes that is the JM tuscon. The white one you show is a few years newer - about an 09. They rebranded them as upgraded tuscon city sx (though I prefer the original).
They added silver highlights in lieu of darker colours in the console (which scratched easily), different seat fabric (wouldn't worry me as I have seat covers), changed the alloy wheel design with smaller spokes (harder to clean), added bluetooth to the sound system (would have been nice) But they axed the temperature gauge!
Here is mine (left) with another identical one last month
Norm, I won't be going back to them, all they do is towbars, roof racks, bull bars etc. Won't be recommending them either haha
Max, the mobile mechanic who serviced it just before I got it said the plugs are good for many more km, the coolant is fine and everything is good. I couldn't get the sump plug or filter out for hours they were that tight. Couldn't get a breaker bar on due to the exhaust pipe location. Ended up using a ratchet and lower part of a victa handle (with the bend) and it came off with a bang.
Spark plugs were absolutely knackered, coolant was brown/light green water and the fan belt was about buggered.
Huyandais are good cars Tyler, only problem with them is they blow headlights all the time. My son in NZ bought 10 new vans a couple of years ago and Huyandai have agreed to replace the globes for the entire time they own the vehicles. I try avoiding driving mine at night because I have to remove the battery to replace the left hand one. On my wifes car I fitted voltage stabalizers to each headlight last year but 8 months down the road she blew one of the LED's a couple of weeks ago. Before I fitted the LED's I was buying H7's in boxes of 20 at a time
I am convinced that half the reason the hyundais blow headlights out is when they are parked out in the sun (I would love to know why they do it when other cars don't but anyway).
Mine lives under cover and is parked undercover each day. About the only sun it sees is when driving
Touch wood, no bulbs buggered
The guy 5 houses down has a 2007 tuscon V6, parked outside. Blows headlights all the time. He drives around on just the right one and when that goes he pulls the battery and replaces both
Hi Tyler, I was convinced they were suffering from voltage spikes blowing the globes, that is why I tried the voltage stabilizers but that doesn't seem to have helped. This problem has been going on for heading 20 years and Huyandai just keep churning out millions of them without trying to rectify the problem
I do agree Norm, there is poor voltage regulation. If I wind up my windows and hold the button for a second after they got all the way up, the headlights will dim.
I have heard dielectric grease on the bulb terminals supposedly helps with fords doing it 20 years ago, so maybe an idea?
That's really strange guys that the bulbs blow ,there is a 2009 Hyundai here that's over 100,000 and never blown a headlight bulb.
When I google blown bulbs it's a common problem as you say.
I would have thought the same as Norm that the Voltage was too high.
One thing someone mentioned was a bad earth as a possible problem.
When I look up causes of blown bulbs I get the following.
There are a few reasons bulbs can blow, the major one being cheaper bulbs. The elements in cheap bulbs are much thinner and any surge of power, however slight, simply breaks them. Always go for more expensive, better quality light bulbs, its cheaper in the long run.
A loose connection in the lamp holder can also cause bulbs to blow. This is because the circuit is not completed as tightly as it could be and the electricity may have cause to "arc" or jump across the contact, rather than simply flowing through it. When this happens it produces more heat in the fitting than is expected or catered for by the bulb, and the bulb can blow.
The same can happen if the spring loaded connection in the bulb holder is slightly loose. This will cause electricity to arc across the contact, cause too much heat and blow the bulb. This can very often be diagnosed by looking at the contact on the bottom of the bulb to see if it is pitted.
Arcing electricity effectively melts the metal it is arcing onto ( This is how arc welding works) so if the bulb contact is being subjected to arcing, tiny little indentations occur, called pitting.
It is sometimes possible, if the live connection in your light switch is a little loose, for this to happen here also. Heat will be generated and it is possible, though very very remote, for the bulb to blow as a result of this.
Hmm I think I would try fitting another relay and make up some earth wires to the globes, I guess it can only be the wiring the light switch or the globes as long as the voltage isn't too high.
I never touch globes when installing them ,always use a rag to hold the globe.
Very strange as I've also heard of other people not having a problem with the globes .
Hi Max, both the Huyandais we have were bought new and the problems were from day one. I have pretty much given up now as I have exhausted all ideas I have, I just accept the fact I have to keep replacing globes. I have heard all the stories about cheap globes etc, tried the expensive and they last no longer than the cheap ones. Tried several types of LED's no better, I will just go back to the cheap ones and just keep replacing them
I wouldn't be putting up with that ,I would try an accessory light switch then totally re wire the globes to the switch, otherwise I'd be wiring in some spot lights . I'd even put a dipper switch on the floor for high beam.
I wonder if too many electrical items draw from the one fuse so the fuse is higher than it needs to be for just the lights. The more devices on a circuit, the heavier the amp load.
Older cars never had this problem but had less devices on a circuit.
Has to be a reason why this happens ,I'd even try old globes from nineties model cars just in case the globes are shoddy these days.
I know when they went to lead free solder (This law took effect on July 1, 2006) there were all sorts of problems with electrical items.
Hi Max, Never a problem with high beam, doesn't get used enough and they are a separate globe in a separate light fitting. Both are H7 but are on completely different fittings and wires. Very hard to do anything with them, I have fitted the voltage stabilizers to the low beam only
