Our 03 Civic recently went into the shop for a rotor replacement and the shop did an oil change for us while they were at it. My wife got the car back and she immediately noticed that the “AC” wasn’t working. After asking a few additional questions (I’m not in the same city this week), it isn’t the AC that isn’t working, the fan/blower isn’t turning on at all. We had the same shop check it out again and their response was that they weren’t anywhere near the blower motor so this just has to be a coincidence. I could accept that but I’m still worried about a scam.
The car was in the shop just to have the rotors put on, not an oil change but they did an oil change for us anyway. (I was going to change the rotors myself but I couldn’t get the caliper hangers off and it was 100+ degrees outside so I decided to have the shop mess with it)
Has anyone else ever heard of this? Would it be easy to sabotage the blower motor on this car?
This is the mechanic’s nightmare. He replaces a tail light and the next thing you know is that the wipers have stopped working. Or the radio only plays rap. Naturally, he gets the blame. Some folks even assume it was deliberate sabotage.
I’d say your result was coincidence. Get the blower fixed. Fuse, switch, resistor, or motor, who knows. Get it done and then figure out what could have happened.
I understand that correlation does not equal causation but emotionally its just hard to take. I agree with the mechanic that the work they were doing wasn’t anywhere near the blower so it’s likely coincidence. It’s just crazy because I’ve had other “coincidences” like this. I’d rather go have a root canal than get a car fixed.
The car is 9 years old. Anything on that car can fail at any time and no one sabotaged anything.
This reminds me of the lady who came in for the water pump replacement and came back complaining the next day that the right rear electric window in her car was now inoperative and it surely had to be caused by the prior work done under the hood.
What do you mean?! It’s a Honda and it’s supposed last forever
Thanks for the responses, you’ve set my mind at ease. I consider myself to be a pretty rational person. I was pretty sure that it was just a coincidence but I wanted to see if it raised any red flags for anyone. Like it or not, the general public knows that when the car’s failing we’re at the mercy of the shop and we’re always trying to make sure we’re not getting taken for a ride.
If I were your mechanic and I wanted to sabotage something in your car in order to drum up business, it wouldn’t be the blower motor. Too much work to get at. Its much easier to break a coil or damage a spark plug wire.
