I went into the body shop today. It turned out that my favorite mechanics is on the job. He did a little tuning for my BMW before. I know him fairly well.

Anyway, the story goes like this. There are two bolts that hold the lower front cross member into the frame rail. The hole in the frame rail got striped so badly that you can put the bolt in there without even turning it. The coolest thing is that it will fall out right after. Now, dealership is blaming the factory. American Honda told me that when the bolt got removed from the car. It is no longer covered under warranty. So, they are not paying for the repair.

The body shop had offer me three solutions. One is that bore the hole out and put a bigger bolt on it. If that don't work, they will try to replace the nut inside the frame by peeling the steel off piece by piece. If that still don't work, they will chop off the front section and weld a new frame rail into the car.

Now, I don't really like all three of them. but, I think to be reasonable. I should let them try the first solution. If that don't work, I am defiantly bringing in the lawyers for a new S2K. man, three months of ownership, and what I get is to chop the car in half to fix somebody else's screw up.

What do you guys think? Any opinion is greatly appreciated.

 

i would put more pressure on your regional office for honda... the first option might work, but you never know if 2 years down the road its going to come around again from wear and tear. it might be good to go ahead and have it fixed, but still dont let the pressure off honda.

 

Perry, dude, what a bummer...! Is this related to the bolt that we found at turn 6 on Gingerman?! If you need some sort sort of witness against the turds who screwed it up the first time, I saw it first hand.

But I think that tapping or dyeing the hole (I can't remember which is boring a hole and which is rethreading a screw) ... I say go for it, let them do the first attempt and see if they can get the next metric size bolt into that hole. As long as it's only 1 mm or 2mm TOPS! Any further boring, you really have no idea how the frame strength is being compromised and I would never expect to have to drive a brand new car around under that cloud of not knowing what to expect.

These guys screwed it up, they need to fix it. If they can't fix it, then they supply you a new car and let them try to sell your with a replaced frame rail! Just hope they tell the guy who buys it from them...but you can pretty much bet they won't!

Man, good luck and let me know if you need some kind of testimnonial...I can help, you remember I was all over your car trying to figure out what happened and I still have a picture in my mind of where that missing flange was supposed to be.

Let me know!

 

Sorry dude but I'm lost on this one. I still trying to figure out what you are talking about. Here is what I think from reading this and the original thread:

You took your car in for TSB55. After the dealer pulled and fixed the tranny, they tried to put it back in but couldn't secure it because the thread on some holes in the frame were stripped. They sent it to a body shop to get fixed and they say they will need to redrill and tap the holes. The holes are so badly stripped that they will have to use a much bigger bolt. The dealer says it came that way and Honda says that once the piece was removed it voided your warranty on that part, yadda yadda.

Am I reading this right? Is this what happened more or less?

 

Who removed the bolts?

 

Hi, Greg. Thanks for the help. The bolt does not related to the exhuast hanger. I still have proof on that. Because the bolt was different then the one from the car.

C3. You are pretty much right. Dealer decide to tilt the engine to get the last bolt on the tranny. To do that, they had to remove the front cross member right under the engine.

RT. Dealership removed the bolt in order to tilt the engine. so, there is no way the bolt came from the factory stripped. It bolt would fell out on the way here in the boat.

 

Ok that's the way it sounded but I wanted to be sure before opening my mouth. Sounds to me like the dealer owes you a new car dude. Call in the laywers, you need to sue them for a new one. The advice you got sounds right to me.

You must be some pissed! I feel for you. At least you were lucky enough to find out about it. Imagine if you had no idea and they just redrilled the hole and didn't tell you? Yikes!

 

Hey, C3. the dealership were about to hide it. I called one day and they was wondering where did the S2000 go. 10 minutes later, they found that it was in the body shop. It is just that bad. Hiring a lawyer will be my last resort if it comes to that. I just don't know how much ground I stand to force them buy the car back.

Any Comment?

 

I guess you were...lucky?

The only comment I might add is that they may be willing to do it given they will just turn around and sell it to some poor slob off the street. Their loss won't be that huge conpared to the cost of court. Doesn't your state have some kind of regulatory body that oversees auto repair. Maybe if you give them a call and explain (without naming names) they could give you some idea of your standing.

 

I'm with Cthree... sounds like the dealr is on the bubble for repairing your car to your satisfaction... or replacing it!!