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I took my car in to get a 20,000 mi service and to replace my rear struts and front brakes.

First issue: my front brakes needing to be changed when I have less than 25,000 mi. I thought that brakes should go 30k easy. The service guy I talked to told me that those brakes can go from 18-25k. That just sounds like BS, but I dont know too much about cars.

So everythings done in about 2 days. (took a while for struts to come in) I pick up the car and that night, I noticed that my alignment or something was off. When my steering wheel is straight, the car vears to the left slightly. Its not too bad under 30mph, but its a huge difference at freeway speeds. I know for certain that it wasnt like this before I took it in. The problem is really disorienting and I have problems driving like that. My instinct is always to revert back to keeping the steering wheel straight as soon as I turn the wheel. So I planned to take it in the next day.

The accident (next day, today): I was in the middle of the intersection, on my way to school early in the morning, when I heard a "pop" and some skidding. I immediately thought it was a flat. I turned towards the right lane. I tried to turn to the left to even my car out with the curb, but I didnt have any control. Walking around the car a few times looking for a flat, I noticed that my tires were pointed towards eachother. (like this: / \ from bird's eye view) When the wrecker came, we turned the wheel and saw that there was an axle, or something connected with the steering, that completely detached from the wheel. My driver's side wheel was completely free and that was the pop i heard. Five minutes earlier, I would have been on the freeway and possibly killed. I took pictures from all sorts of angles, asked the wrecker for his opinion, and was going to get a copy of the receipt of the towing, under advice from my dad and his lawyer.

So my car's towed to the dealership. They just say its a quick fix and I assume all they did was reattach the axle to the wheel. I get it back, expecting everything to be back to normal. It only took them just over an hour. Immediately, I notice that the car is still going towards the left. I go in and as why it does that. The guy calls the mechanic, who tells me that its because my two front tires have different treads and that's what's causing the misalignment. He says replace both tires and get them realigned. (i had a flat on the passenger front tire a while ago and i realize that i should have replaced them both at the same time) They're both the same size tires, except one is slightly older than the other by about 6 months. Even tho I dont know much about cars, I dont see how different tread would make any difference, especially since this problem did not occur until after they did all the servicing. When I asked to get a copy of the receipt, they were hesitant to give it to me, but I still got it.

Tomorrow I goto the dealership again for the millionth time. I'm expecting a bunch of smoke blown up my butt. My dad's threatening lawsuit (of course) and the service manager is being quite hostile.

....just needed to vent a little....could have died you know.....

 
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Well let us just say that Honda has decided to use really soft, sh!tty brakes. Mine were gone at 5,000 miles. So if you made it to 20,000 be happy. As far as the alignment and the tread difference... it is possible that contributes. What most likely happened was when they took off the tire and then replaced it it changed things and caused the car to feel different. All I really have to say is make sure you have EVERYTHING documented. Don't go in there and just accept what they tell you. Don't speak to service writers. Make sure you skeap to the manager. I don't know how old you are but if you are wither female or young then I suggest havong a older male go with you. Honestly anytime you go to the dealership and speak to anyone try and have a witness. All of this will come in handy. Before you go and sue Honda you need to go through a chain of command. Otherwise your suit will not hold it's own.

 
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Yeah I found that service managers are *****

 
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I think the dealer is at fault for several things, especially the axle problem.

But your original alignment problem is definitely due to your replacing only one tire, instead of both.

 
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I hear you guys, but my thing about the alignment is that I didnt notice it at all before the checkup. I'm 19 and I know that they dont take me seriously. I let my dad talk to them since he's older and much scarier than I am. The whole lawsuit thing was just your usual BS, just a threat. I'm sure they didnt take it seriously. It was just something to catch their attention. I've never believed anything the dealership said to me. I realize that they're in the business of making money.

Right now, we're about to contact Honda and see if we can get a full car inspection done and another dealership. I'm positive that mine would be trying to cover their butt. We could then get everything done and get it billed to my dealership.

 
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If you take it to another dealership I have one suggestion. make sure that the dealership you take it to is run by a different zone manager. I have noticed that the dealerships under the same management tend to follow the same bullsh!t patterns. They tell the same lies and cover eachother's a$$es.

 
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Will do. And how would you check to make sure that it's run by a different zone manager?

 
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Chances are it will be in a differnt area. Like here I think that most of San Diego is run by one zone manager so I think I would have to go to LA for a different one. But what you can do is call the dealerships and find one that will tell you which ones that manager has control of.

 
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Just to vent here too check this out!

When we were buying the civic, we got the paint protection thing ( I knew it was a buncha crap that did not do anything, but we got it just in case something did get on the car that they would fix it) So one day I notice these little spots in all over the hood on the fender and bumper and I try to wash them off, and no luck so I take it into the shop and we look at it and try to buff one out, as we buff on it it wasnt coming off because whatever it was that caused these spots ate through the clearcoat to the paint. So I take it in and they have tohave their big honcho servic emanager look at it before they do anythign so he goes out, and looks at it, asks me who was bffing on it, and I say me and my teacher at a pro body shop were, so he starts bullishing, he comes back with a magnetic guage tool, which is used to check for body filler and goes over my whole hood, and hes like, wer eyou eve rin an accident? and im like NO hes like oh well this hood has been repainted, I was NO it was NOT because I am the sole owner and if it wa sina ccident I would knwo if it was fixed or not, are you calling me a liar etc. to make astory short this guy from the plac that does the covering paint thing came up and looked at it and said he wont fix it and left me a contract with highlighted stuff, well the situation did not fit under something that wasnt covered, and I just got so pissed but I left cause itd be like another hour at the dealership to get it straightned I already spent 3 hours there, anyway HONDA Service sucks.

 
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As far as the different tire tread goes, you can replace a tire with a different tire as long as it holds the same speciifications as the tire that was there before. I replaced a single stock FIRESTONE with a YOKOHOMA AVID, my tire mechanic said this would not cause a problem and that they do it all the time. My car had 8,000 miles on it at the time as well. I have never had a problem. I also am militant about making sure to rotate my tires every 5000 miles, I am at 18,000 miles now. My other three tires are still the stock FIRESTONES. You have some serious issues with HONDA, moreso with the service department of the dealership you went to. Keep a record of everything and go through the proper channels. DO NOT go to the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU you will be wasting your time. I would not rule out contacting a lawyer and suing since you could have nearly died, this isn't a LEMON LAW issue, this is a serious issue of safety from a car company that is reknowned for producing safe cars. But, I personally thing your problem is with the particular dealership that serviced your car.

 
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What caused the paint to do that? I now that Honda does use sh!tty paint. They always have. My mom has a 97 vic and the same thing happened to the hood. The clear coat started to spider and chip so she took it in and they painted it. There were no problems at the time geting them to do it. Like I have said before Honda is going to ****.

 
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well it wasnt a factory defect in the paint, it was some sort of acidic substance that hit my car (bird poop, soda, soem sort of chemical) but that is exactly the reason I paid an extra 100 bux for that bullshit paint protection so in cases like this that i could take it in and they would fix my problems, but those tight pocketed asswipe dealerships dont want to hold up their end of the deal, theyre nice to you as long as youre paying them money once you pay them theyd rather never see you again, always fighting warranties.

 
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Oh trust me you don't have to tell me how it is fighting with the dealerships. I know all to well, unfortunatly. I'm sorry to hear they won't fix it. What you should do is speak to the General Manager, then the owner, then the zone manager. If that doesn't get you anywhere tell them to talk to me.

 
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damn what's up with all these service problems at honda???.....personally that's why i do not take my car to be fixed at honda, everything seems to go wrong!!!!

oh yeah hope everything works out for both psykoholica and WhiteRiceBoi.....

 
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Thanks all. I really liked my dealership, as I was a 5th gen civic owner before this one. I was satisfied with their service and everything, that is until all this crap happened. Now I dont have the best opinion on Honda service. I dont blame the company tho, just the dealership.

 
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Still having issues with them. Turns out the service guy I had claimed he test drove the car with me and had two witnesses to it. Yeah... I could get two witnesses to claim anything too. This is just amazing... I really dont want to have to get everything written down and signed. I hoped that my faith in their word would be enough, but apparently it's not. They changed their analysis of the cause of the car's veering to the left. Now they say its because one of the tires has a bulge or something, not that they're two different treads. I got my tires changed today at Discount Tires and what do you know, it's still drifting to the left. Now that I have proof, I'm going up to Honda tomorrow with some ammuntion.

 
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TRY A DIFFERENT DEALER. I am not saying this will work but it sounds like you have a HONDA service department full of hacks. Unfortunately, this is the state of AMERICAN HONDA today...blatant disregard for their customers combined with techs who know absolutely nothing when it scomes to their cars. I can't believe the heads of HONDA in JAPAN are unaware of what's happening in America with their brand.

 
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IN my opinion. HONDA can treat you like s**t because they really don't care if u go there to fix their cars
BUT service managers are major losers!!!!!.. really, they do follow the same pattern, ALLL they say is
NOT OUR FAULT.
WTF!