Anyone ever have to deal with shoddy work from a shop? Took my car for its maiden voyage today, and about half a mile out heard a loud bang, half my exhaust is sitting on the ground....the exhaust that the shop just installed, the cat pulled right off the pipe between it and the Y-pipe.....What really sucks is im going to be out $390 of paycheck because i cant get overtime without my car up.
I'm wondering if there is any way that can i force them to give my money back and fix it for free, or even better pay a real shop to do it right. Just looking for some advice how to approach this to resolve it in a way that compensates me, because this BS just F***ed me over bad. And comeon....how the hell hard is it to install an exhaust system? They botched the headlight job too, pass side highbeam wouldn't come on(needed it fixed)...now it does but the low doesn't come on with it....I mean, how in the hell do you miss something like that.....and the wires from the o2 sensor(that they wired in) were right on the header, along with the bat cable going to starter(they wouldve had to remove it to replace the fusible link going to the same terminal).....made for some nice smoke first test fire. And the floorpan...looks to be neither welded in or even metal....though I am unsure as whatever it is has some kind of putty all around the edges.

 

take it back, tell them what happened and have them fix it free. If they wont touch it, demand money back and leave. If they are a respectable shop, they will fix the problem.

if the floor pan is glued in, i would have a **** fit. the floors are structural, glue wont work. If the work is that bad, i wouldnt even bother letting them touch the car again, try to get you money back and go elsewhere.

 

the best thing you can do is:
1. take it back to them and tell them what happend, and see if they will fix it right. also see what they will do about fixing the floor pan correctly.
2. if step one dose not work or the fix it and its still shottly work, have them fix it right and don't be nice about it. contact your local BB
3. if it still is not fixed correctly, demand money back for labor (you have the parts). if they refuse file a law suit agenst them, and after they have been served contact the owners and see if you can get your money back, or they can go to court.

 

I don't know why you would have gon e back so many times with all the "shoddy" work you are listing here.

FWIW, there are many cars that are "glued" together, using a structural adhesive. If they used the proper adhesive, it will be fine. Many auto body shops seems to be leaning towards this technique in repair.

The best you can hope for is to have them repair it for free, they have no legal need to re-emburse you. Just have them fix it and go some where else from now on.

 

Who says I went back? It was all done at once.

 

As an insider I'll let you in on a couple facts. At most reputable shops there's usually a younger fellow without much experience that is the cause of 90% of the shop's problems. Well it's not fair to say that because they're not always young, sometimes it's just a discruntled f'er that doesn't care anymore. Anyway, find out who did your work and insist that he doesn't 'fix' his mistake. Have the master tech do it. That way the master is pissed off at him too and he's closer to getting booted out the door. If they don't have a master tech that's not a place you want to be. There are some smaller shops that don't look for certified technicians or even check their background because they can't afford it. These are full of people that were fired by all the major chains or don't have any experience. ****ing up an exhaust system is ridiculous. Don't be rude about it because you're likely to get crap handed back to you. Talk to the manager because they'll have the most experience dealing with upset customers properly. Service writers are inclined to blow you off.

 

Thanks for the advice guys.....just pisses me off that I'll have to wait till monday, and maybe half the week after, but I'm def going to insist that they fix it first thing monday...I need my car bad...
And just curious, anyone have a theory on how they hooked it up wrong that it just dropped off the pipe like that? I mean, I know it didn't help that I mashed the pedal a bit shortly before it dropped, but even so, it should not have happened at all, Idk offhand but I know the exhaust systems in cars have some slack in them for just that reason, I mean, I only gave it like 1/2 to 3/4 throttle.

 

Either it wasn't bolted up at all or it was overtightened and broke studs. Probably the first.

 

Well the clamp was still on it is the puzzling thing....I almost wonder if it just wasn't tightened right, but if its something else I would just be setting myself up for the same problem again if I just slipped it back on and tightened it back up.....

 

It isn't magic. The outer pipe should crush around the inner some and become difficult to remove, let alone vibrate out on it's own. It probably wasn't tightened.

 

What part of the exhaust system accomdates flex/pulling?

 

The connection at the Y-pipe going to the cat and the belled fitting for the main pipe going to the muffler. You can get a great deal of flex/stretch through that section that can lead to exhaust leaks etc. Many shops will weld the first section and you need to really tighten the bell connection.

On the other issues, buy a Helms manual. With no disrespect to the pros, but for the reasons listed in the posts above, unless I know the shop and people very well, I do the work myself.

 

I would still report them to your local better business bureau (if you have one, just seen Canada on you location), that way you might save someone else the same headache.

 

For the floorplan- are you sure that's not just the factory seam sealer (brushed on)?

For the rest, yeah, just go back and ask them to fix the exhaust. Exhausts aren't hard to work on- but b/c I think you have headers, you "may" need custom adapters/welding/flanges, I'm not sure what you have on your car.

As to why the cat slid off- catalytic convertors are stainless, regular pipes usually aren't. If the guy used a weak clamp, it might not've had enough strength to crush the stainless steel cat pipe enough to put a firm grip on the exhaust pipe. (Weak clamps = the bolts can stretch before they clamp anything) It's always best to use stainless steel clamps, which usually have thicker/stronger bolts.

But you've given enough examples (battery cable left on the header pipe?!?) that I wouldn't go back to the shop for anything.