warranty work gone sour

[sxg6]

heres my situation, my car is less than a year old, a 2003 i got last august. for quite some time now, one of the headlights has always had condensation, the amount depends on humidity and if i had washed my car recently.

anyways, i brought it to get it checked out by a local dealership, and they confirmed that it needed to be replaced. and he said they had the headlight in stock, so all was good. this pleased me since itd turn out to be a single day affair

today, i was washing my car. and here in ct we've had really really humid weather so that might have contributed, but i noticed that in the headlight they "replaced" there was light condensation and also, if youve ever tried to clean a window, or something similar with a shop rag, it will not absorb all the water and will just push the water around, and leave streaks. i dont really know how to describe it, but thats what i saw, condensation and streaks under the lens.

so now im thinking that they simply removed the lens from the headlamp, tried to dry the condensation which was very heavy at the time, and did a crappy job of resealing it. this got me very, very po'ed. the service advisor lied to my face about the work. i have yet to talk to them since they are closed, but what would you guys do in my situation? im only 20, and dont fully know how to handle this situation.

 

[jthorner]

It is hard to say what happened. Is there evidence of resealing somewhere around the lens?

Most auto dealer repair shops would much rather replace a part than to even attempt to fix it, but there are always possibilities of bad behavior.

How about taking it to another dealer of your brand vehicle and asking for their opinion on why the replaced light unit is still showing condensation? Try to act puzzled and concerned rather than angry. Angry customers are around all the time and can trigger defensive responses. Customers who come across as being reasonable but looking for help sometimes get better service. YMMV though!

Generally you do not have to have your warranty work done at the same dealership you bought the vehicle from.

John

 

[The_Jeff]

They only have to get the car back in factory specs when they fix stuff under warranty. This gives you such bizzare results as an engine disassembled for $1000 in labor but only having one $25 piston replaced, the one that was bad. There's not much you can do about it, but if you are polite and act like you'll buy your next car there too you'll get more good will and better service from the local dealer.

This condensation sounds like a design defect; I would check the O-ring around the headlight bulb and the little drain or vent. Others may have found a cure somewhere on the net that takes 30 seconds to poke something free with a paper clip. As nice as it is to have the dealer do everything for free there is some aggravation to have them put their ham hands on it.

It would be helpful if we knew what car. Some headlights are $300, HID even more, which is why they're messing with disassembling the unit.

Dealers are often frustrated by poor reimbursements from the factory for time spent diagnosing relatively minor issues. They pass this on sometimes in poor service.

 

[sxg6]

its a 2003 honda civic. i havent looked for any evidence of sealing yet. the thing that bothers me, is he told me they had the new headlamp in stock. why would they say that unless they wanted to give me the idea that they were gonna replace it?

i just checked the reciept from the work, and it said headlamp is collecting moisture, headlamp lens replaced under warranty. and then underneath it they list a part number for the headlamp lens. but if the headlamp lens is new, why would there be streaks on the inside of it? arrrrrrrrrrg. quite frustrated, im just gonna check around the lens as you suggest for a busted o-ring or something of that nature, i really dont want to take it back in.

i was very very nice, they were very very nice, so i was really satisfied. however after i noticed the moisture today, i called them and left a message with my service advisor.. telling him what i saw, and just telling him what i think they did, although i hoped that they hadnt done it. i now realize that i shouldnt have done this, but im young, let my anger get the best of me, and made a mistake.

 

[Matt89]

Hey, don't feel so bad. At least you said you hoped they hadn't.

Stranger things happen. I had a '97 Chevy Malibu. Quickly noticed that the plexiglass over the instruments looked really scratched up depending on how the sun hit it. Assumed some kid had cleaned it with a brillo and made them replace it 'under warranty'. They did so, and I noticed that the second was as bad as the first...only now the dashboard trim was all jacked up from having been removed.

Not satisfied, I bought ANOTHER instrument panel lens (and the stupid dashboard trim piece that I realized was broken) and when it came out of the box - Voila! it had the mystery 'scratches', which I've come to realize were just a characteristic of the plastic. Boy did I feel like a complete idoit...

So, it could very well be a new lens that had some junk in it and they wiped it out. Or they figured they could fix your old one and did a bad job. Hard to blame them for trying to cut corners when they have idiots (like I used to be) all upset about scratchy plastic that nobody can see (but me).

 

[seotaji]

if the dealer listed a replacement part # then i'd probably trust it. they have to send the old part back to corporate for reimbursement.

maybe it's an o ring sealing issue, maybe it has to do with the gore-tex valve not working, etc...

all i know is that it's time to take it back to the dealer for some good old fashion sleuthing.

accusing them of stuff isn't going to help your cause.

hope you get it resolved.