Did the Dealership Damage My Car?

Maintenance/Repairs
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6

Thanks for your reply (and to everyone else for their replies). To answer your questions:

  1. Yes, I informed the dealer that my wife has hit the curb, and that the other shop had replaced the tire.

  2. The only reason I went to the non-dealer shop (which is a big name shop) to have the car looked at and the new tire put on is that it’s much closer to me than the dealer and I wanted the car looked at quickly. Also, it was a weekend, and the dealer closed early before I could get out there. Otherwise, I’ve been going to this same dealer for regular and unexpected maintenance for the past ten years. I’ve trusted them, at least to this point, and maybe I should still trust them, but something doesn’t sit right with the whole way this thing has unfolded.

  3. There weren’t any symptoms whatsoever in the two month interval between the first curb strike and the oil change. I hadn’t a clue it was out of alignment. Took me by surprise. Since the oil change and second curb strike, there has been that weird sound underneath when I brake like something is brushing up against something else and causing a noticeable thump as it rubs past it, but that’s just what it sounds like. No idea what it is (but I’m going in to the dealer tomorrow morning to find that out too). Since it only showed up after they hit the curb, the cause and effect seems a bit easier to pin down here.

Should they have noticed that the lower control arm and ball joint were damaged at the same time they noticed that the CV boot was damaged? Why did I hear about this only after they hit the curb?

Also, do you take the car down off the rack to test the alignment out on a drive if you think everything is still out of whack and there are broken parts?

Finally, when they put the car up on the rack tomorrow morning and test the alignment, should I be suspicious if the report’s numbers are identical to those from the very first report? I would imagine that the second curb strike had to have messed with the various angles. I’m still super dubious about the post curb-strike report not being available because it didn’t print because they were “in the middle of a software upgrade” just then.

Thanks to you and the others for your input! I’ll check this forum later tonight and tomorrow morning to see if there’s any other thoughts/advice before I head into the shop early tomorrow.