Dealerships lied.. again

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The Honda dealership I bought my CR-V from lied again to me today. I brought it in with 300 miles, and told them it had a pull to the left. I asked for an alignment, re-balance, and a tire pressure check. They gladly agreed and advised they would do it free of charge. Well when I received my car and paperwork, it said nothing about an alignment. Should've looked before I left so tomorrow i'll be back in for the 2nd time.

If I position the steering wheel centered, the vehicle still pulls left so it has to be the alignment, right?
 
Originally Posted By: lawman1909
If I position the steering wheel centered, the vehicle still pulls left so it has to be the alignment, right?

Or damaged suspension components, but most likely just out of alignment.
 
Okay. If for some reason the suspension was broken, how could I tell? Is there a distinctive noise?
 
Originally Posted By: lawman1909


If I position the steering wheel centered, the vehicle still pulls left so it has to be the alignment, right?


Probably. It could be the crown of the road, a bad tire, a front end problem, or out of alignment. They should test drive it, with you, and you demonstrate the problem. Then they should trouble shoot it from there. Checking the alignment on the machine is certainly a way to confirm if the alignment is out or not, only after ruling everything else I mentioned out.
 
Originally Posted By: lawman1909

If I position the steering wheel centered, the vehicle still pulls left so it has to be the alignment, right?


That's an off center steering wheel, not a pull.
 
Originally Posted By: lawman1909
Okay. If for some reason the suspension was broken, how could I tell? Is there a distinctive noise?


It is best to have a pro check the front end out if you're not familiar with doing it.
 
It should always pull a little bit to the ditch cause of the crown in the road. The wheel should still be pretty centered though. Make sure you stay a little nice to them or you will have a bigger headache.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: lawman1909
If I position the steering wheel centered, the vehicle still pulls left so it has to be the alignment, right?

Or damaged suspension components, but most likely just out of alignment.


Maybe not. Rotate the tires. I once had a set that would cause the car to pull to the left. I rotared them and the pull stoped.
 
Originally Posted By: lawman1909
If I position the steering wheel centered, the vehicle still pulls left so it has to be the alignment, right?


Steering wheel not centered and vehicle pulls to left are two separate conditions. The former is caused by an error in the thrust part of the alignment, the latter can be caused by caster &/or camber problems.

If your steering wheel isn't centered, when the car is going straight, the car should continue to go straight, but the steering wheel will be crooked.

If the car pulls to the left, if you let go of the wheel on a flat straightaway, the car will begin to turn to the left on its own.

Pulling can be caused by uneven air pressure in the tires or a separation in the tire cords in addition to alignment problems.
 
I will! The head mechanic guy (real technical term) was apologetic and very nice so i'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
 
Originally Posted By: abycat
It should always pull a little bit to the ditch cause of the crown in the road.


He says it pulls to the left tho.
 
Okay, the vehicle goes straight when the wheel is crooked. It's just slightly off but enough to make me go mad!!
smile.gif
I will keep a smile on tomorrow. Should I request the problem be fixed?
 
Well it does when the steering wheel is straight. So I am thinking it is just the steering wheel not being centered. I will go talk to them tomorrow and have it fixed.
 
There's a chance the alignment got gorked in shipping the car from the factory to you. Sometimes they throw chains over lower control arms and this can bend stuff if the ship lists over enough.

Anyway, should be a warranty thing.
 
Originally Posted By: lawman1909
Okay, the vehicle goes straight when the wheel is crooked. It's just slightly off but enough to make me go mad!!
smile.gif
I will keep a smile on tomorrow. Should I request the problem be fixed?


If you have a car under warranty and something is wrong with it, yes... you should request the problem be fixed.
laugh.gif
 
Yes, they should fix it. They aligned it without the first step, which is set the wheel straight with the wheels free of resistance, and lock it or tie it if no steering wheel lock.

Then you make the adjustments. If you don't you can make up the difference on both sides and end up with the right numbers, but it will drive you crazy (and in theory have a slight difference in turning radius, but maybe not measurable)
 
Originally Posted By: lawman1909
Well it does when the steering wheel is straight. So I am thinking it is just the steering wheel not being centered. I will go talk to them tomorrow and have it fixed.

Ask them to check for TSBs and mentions out of Honda Service News (HSN).

"Pulling" steering is more common than you might think, and Honda has produced numerous documents for dealers on how to diagnose and correct pulls. Some are generic, and some are specific. Either way, all they need to do is check for them.

Occasionally, rarely, the problem is due to some manufacturing defect. In those cases, the cure can be as drastic as repositioning the front subframe. Again, TSBs and HSN will tell the tale.

A 2014 may be too new to have very many TSBs out on it. You may need to have the Service Advisor record your complaint on their system so there's a record of it, then wait a few more months. With more time, there will be more reported problems. Enough reported problem and Honda starts investigating. That's when the TSBs and HSN articles come out. Patience may be your best tool, here.

The worst thing you can do now is to demand that your dealer start monkeying with the factory settings. That only puts them into an awkward situation where they are forced to "lie" to you, because they're not anxious to cause even more problems than what you're reporting. If they mess things up, or "fix" the wrong thing, Honda won't cover undoing their mistake.

Did they ever test-drive the vehicle to verify your complaint? Did they ever actually rack the car to get readings from the wheels?
 
They test drove it AFTER they re-balanced the tires. Not before. And they put it on the lift and took the wheels off but I guess that's an obvious.
 
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Don't worry, dealers tend to treat their employees the same way. I had the TSB performed on my '14 where they replaced the front lower control arms for creaking, also the wheel was off center and I was in the 12/12 adjustment period of the warranty. They were supposed to do an alignment after the repair and when I got it back, the wheel was more off than before. Service manager accused me of making it up, mind you I used to do alignments and recently let my Suspension ASE cert expire for it not being worth the paper it is printed on.

They begrudgingly realigned it, well supposedly, because it is exactly the same angle off as before, and they would not provide me a print out. Tech said he never had a chance to look at it and the writer flagged him and closed the RO without him getting to it. Had them do it again and now the wheel points right and the car pulls left. Again no printout provided to me, and no history in the computer when I walked over to the alignment rack and pulled up vehicle history. At least it is all free.....
 
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