Need legal advice on bad auto shop
 

Hey guys,

I've been a member of this forum for awhile, but don't post much except for FS ads mainly. Anyways I haven't been on in awhile, but I was trying to do some research on this topic and couldn't really find any answers.

Pretty much what happened is my vehicle, 1999 Honda Accord EXR, needed a new harmonic balancer as well as completely replace my fuel and brake hardlines from front to back. I just moved to Mississauga, so my regular mechanic was quite far away. Anyways, I took it to one shop, got a quote, it was pretty expensive, so I wanted to try a few other shops. My father in law suggested a shop that he goes to. So I got a quote from them which was significantly less.

I took my vehicle to them only to get it back with the power steering making alot of noise, the hard lines were chopped in the middle, and only replaced there, and the motor shaking alot more then prior. I took the vehicle back to them after a week, and they guy said no problem, the fluid just needs to be flushed again, so he flushed it, returned the vehicle back to me, only to have the same problems again.

I gave up on that shop, figured they were hacks, and they didn't know what they were doing. I took it to another shop, which specializes in Hondas, the guy looked at it, flushed my power steering fluid and said the other shop most likely used the wrong fluid, and told me that the harmonic balancer was replaced, but the hole for the crankshaft key was some how damaged and made bigger then it should be. This is not repairable, and I would need a new motor if I want the vibration to go away. He said it's driveable, but only from point A to B.

I am 100% certain the first shop I went to messed with my car and caused the damage, but what can I do in terms of making the shop pay for a new motor? I'm not in a position to be able to afford a new car, and even if I try to sell this car, it's going to be tough, and I'm not gonna get anywhere near the value of it because of the motor. Really I don't even care if they pay for a motor or not, I just wanna get them shut down, or get their business license suspended.

Any advice would be appreciated, and if anyone is interested in knowing the name of the shop, pm me, I don't wanna advertise it all over unless the mods are ok with it.

Thanks guys, and mods I apologize if this was in the wrong forum.

Moved to discussion section. No worries.

Document everything, keep all receipts and dates of when everything occurred. If possible, get pictures of the damaged with date stamps (little late for that now).

Go to your local news or news paper and tell them you have a story. They love this stuff and you can make it publicly known what they did. If you want them to pay you back, that could be difficult. Maybe speak to a lawyer and find out if you have a case or not, then take it to small claims court?

Honestly... you can't do anything. If you needed a new harmonic balancer, you had prior issues before the first shop ever touched it. Balancer's don't just go bad, either the bolt became loose, threads were stripped, the crankshaft has too much radial movement, etc.

And I know what the 2nd guy is talking about when he says the keyway is too big. This honestly doesn't matter at all. The only thing it affects (assuming you can still torque the bolt to spec) is when you go to set ignition timing with a timing light, the marks will be slightly off. That is all it will affect.