I have a bit of a dilemma that I would like some advice on.

I got my S2K in Oct. 2002 and wound up clearing the headlights with Rick's JDM diffusers in March 2003. Everything has been great for over a year now, no moisture, no problems.

Somebody pulled a hit and run on my car a few weeks ago and damaged the rear bumper on the left side, they left no note. I took the car in to one of the local dealers here in town that has a body shop, today I picked up my repaired car. On the drive home, I realized that one of my headlights is not working. When I get home, I check and sure enough there is some moisture inside and it must have shorted something out. The heat lamps from the body shop when they repainted my bumper must have melted the silicone seal enough to break the seal.

What should I do? I realize I might have caused the problem by clearing the headlights, but at the same time I turned in a working set of headlights when I dropped the car off and came back with one non-working headlight. Normally the bulb or ballast would be covered under warranty, I only have 25k on my car. Opinions?

 

Because you modified the headlight assemblies, the shop will probably not and probably shouldn't take the blame for it.

There's just no way that you could prove that they're to blame.

 

Mabey you can't prove anything, but you can certianly go back and ask!

Make some noise, complain, bitch. If they say no, then you are right back where you are now. If they say yes, then you have what you want. If they say mabey (split the cost of new lights with you) then at least you are better off then you are now.

 

They painted the rear bumper...why would they have put heat lamps on the front of the car? It's probably a coincidence that the light stopped working while it was in the shop...but I guess it can't hurt to take it back in...although I have a feeling they will want you to come out the pocket on this one. Their arguement is probably going to be "we worked on the rear bumper, you claim there is a problem on the opposite end of the car, which we did not and had no reason to touch, furthermore your headlight has been modified and can not be covered under warranty"

 

If the repair order made no note of malfunctioning headlamps when it was brought into the service bay, it's their responsibility if the car is returned with malfunctioning headlights. It's called covering your ass. If a car comes in for an oil change, but it also needs a new wheel cylinder and they either don't record it or fail to notice it, it's their ass when you the customer comes back complaining that your rear drums were "working" when you brought it in, and after your oil change they've begun to leak.

Talk to the shop foreman or service manager.

 

That might be true if you noticed the problem when you picked up your car (while you are still at the dealer). Once you leave there is no way to prove it wasnt working when they returned it to you. Also I question whether a shop is required to note all problems just because you bring your car into their shop. I could think of lots of existing problems that would go undetected when you bring your car for an oil change, I hardly think you could make them fix them when you pick up your car just because they failed to note the existing problem on your ticket. For instance, why would a dealer check your headlights when they are repairing the rear bumper (or performing an oil change as in your example)?

 

You are out of luck. There is no way any reasonable man would hold the shop responsible for this. It could have been caused by heat lamps however you modified the headlights. Perhaps if you notified them of that fact in advance you might have a case. Its much more likely however that the lights just failed on their own and the shop had nothing to do with it. The car was probably stored outside and there has been a huge amount of rain in your area. The lights are expensive but its not the shops fault. When you mod things you take on the obligation to fix them.

 

There are a lot of factors here that could easily explain the time frame for the failure. Shock from an impact combined with baking the car (P.S. Most shops bake the entire car because the lamps aren't really that directional or individually run) could have easily broken the seal. BTW, I am having my headlamp replaced by my ins. company because of fogging after baking as well, but my damage included the front left fender right by the headlight.

 

When you bring a car into your bay, you ALWAYS run it over for dents, scratches, or any other obvious damage. You record it. If you don't, it's your own fault when the customer picks up their car and just then notices their rear quarterpanel has a dent in it. No, you had no reason to touch the rear quarterpanel when you put in the steering rack, but it wasn't their before (according to them and the paperwork) so it's coming out of your pocket.

But true, if it was only noticed after the car left the shop, but it can still be reasonably fought for considering it's all somewhat related - body work, and the cause of the burnt light is the body work procedure/equipment. Ya, you put in "aftermarket" lights but the simple fact is that they (the shop) broke it.

 

Please note that nowhere in my original post did I suggest trying to defraud the dealer or anyone, I was just wanting opinions on who you thought was at fault or at partial fault.

So the damnedist thing happened...after not working for a week, the headlight started working like a charm today. I was shocked. All of the moisture from the inside seems to be gone. I can't explain what happened at all, I figured with something like this electrical in nature that it was shorted out and finished....but apparently not. I may have to do some re-sealing to ward off future problems, but I'm pleased as hell that the ballast or bulb doesn't need to be replaced.