The problem is, the lugs could have been removed by a wheel thief…The only lug remaining was the locking lug…It’s not 100% certain the dealership was at fault…So demanding blood without proof is not going to get very far when there is a second plausible scenario…
@HelenMK
Have the husband’s uncle replace the studs and lug nuts. Save the receipt for the parts. Afterwards, drop by the dealer with the receipt, talk to the same manager you spoke to before, and ask to be reimbursed for the cost of the parts
And if they won’t reimburse you for the cost of the parts, you should say loudly “Congratulations. You blew your chance, and now you’ve lost another customer. I’ll be buying my next car somewhere else.” Make sure other customers are able to hear you say this.
And then I suggest you crumple the receipt up and throw it on the floor. Let them pick it up
And then you leave, never to return
I ended up with a very loose wheel due to an attempted theft in 1968. My 1955 Chevrolet BelAir hardtop was shod with nearly new American Racing 5 spoke 7.5 inch 15s and G-60X15 Goodyears. I had parked it under a light on a very busy street in the parking lot of the grocery store where I worked. I had went to a football game with a couple of co-workers at their nearby High School. I was dropped off after 10:00 PM and when I started on my way home there was something terribly wrong with my passenger side rear wheel. Four lugnuts were removed and the fifth was halfway off. The removed nuts were laying on the ground so my inconvenience was not as much as changing a flat tire. The following day I purchased a set of locks. I don’t think this is what happened to the OP.
If I were the OP I would consider it my moral responsibility to do what I could to prevent this from happening again. I would suggest having a face to face with the service manager and general manager/owner in their private office with a witness. If I were again “blown off” I would go to Honda corporate/regional. Someone high in the food chain needs to be aware of this. As far as a lawsuit I would not bother pitting my thousands against their billions!
At this point I would give the service manager a chance to do an investigation and find out what’s what.
If this incident was caused by someone at that dealership the SM certainly doesn’t want that kind of problem to happen (then, now, or in the future) and he stated the employee will be terminated if found to be at fault. Offhand, sounds like he’s trying to get to the bottom of it.
Unanticipated problems occurring due to a prior repair job are a fairly common complaint here. I can’t say what happened in your case, or who is to blame of course. But what can happen is the tech is working on your car, gets interrupted b/c another owner is there and wants his car NOW b/c he has an appointment, so the tech puts your job on hold and goes to finish that other car. Then he comes back to your car but has forgotten what’s been done and what hasn’t been done. I expect you can see how that could happen, an honest mistake.
The dealership – it sounds like – has a policy where they make a vdo of the wheels to show the lug nuts have been installed for this very reason. Why else would that go to that effort, other than admitting the reality that their techs are human and sometimes make a mistake? I think it is a good thing that the dealership has this policy. To me that’s a +1 for the dealership.
6 weeks is a tad long for this to be discovered, but not impossible it would take that long. If the dealership produces the video which shows the lug nuts are installed, there’s probably nothing you can do. But if it isn’t able to produce the vdo, then I’d be surprised if they don’t simply agree to fix what’s broken for you gratis, provided you keep calm. If you go on a screaming & yelling campaign inside the dealership, then might refuse to help you simply b/c you are scaring away the other customers and scaring the staff. My recommendation is to allow them time to find or not find the vdo. I suspect they won’t find it, and then they’ll fix the problem at no cost to you. After all,they have an incentive to keep on your good side as they want you to buy another Honda from them some day.
The only other thing I can add is this very same thing happened to me. The person to blame was ME! I rotated the tires on my Corolla and apparently forgot to torque the lug nuts properly. After about two weeks the wheel started to wobble while driving on the freeway. This wasn’t a wobble that could be ignored, anybody would stop immediately when they first noticed it. Fortunately for me freeway driving during rush hour around San Jose area is like 15 mph max , so I could just pull off at the next exit. Anway, that’s how I discovered the wheel lug nuts had come loose, and it had to be my fault as I was the only one who had messed with the wheels. In my case they were all there, just loose.
I usually do my own car maintenance. But if a shop works on my wheels, like if I get new tires or have the tires balanced, I do like another poster above said and as soon as I get the car home in the driveway I loosen then re-torque the lug nuts. Then I check and torque them again in about a week.
While not meant as a defense of a tech screwup, those fast lane service specials can lead to those kind of mistakes. It’s all predicated on speed and getting it out the door. Throw in someone putting a bug in your ear every 5 minutes and it’s near impossible to maintain concentration on the job at hand.
I trust my local tire and wheel shop as they have an excellent reputation. I know mistakes can happen but I am able to watch them torque the lugs with a real wrench, drive the car for at least 10 figure 8s then re-check torque As far as checking torque at home my torque wrench has not been calibrated in over 30 years. The last time I used it was about 25 years ago.
If the lug nuts fell off because they weren’t properly torqued, I have to ask this question, has anyone checked the lug nuts on all the other wheels?
The problem is, the lugs could have been removed by a wheel thief..The only lug remaining was the locking lug...It's not 100% certain the dealership was at fault..So demanding blood without proof is not going to get very far when there is a second plausible scenario..
Sorry folks I have to agree with Caddyman especially since 6 weeks went by. There is no way to prove anything was or wasn’t the dealers fault.
My final thought: Mega-kudos to Honda Corp. for making a wheel assembly that holds together with one lug nut.
Car was inspected today free of charge. There appears to be no damage whatsoever, to the lug studs, rim, rotor. Getting affected lug stud replaced. Full inspection of all tires while I watched. Service manager and a higher up from Honda were present. I took photos of the affected side, after the tire was removed. I sent them to my dad. He agreed with the service manager, based on photos, that it is unlikely the tire would have stayed on for ~500 miles with only 1 lug, and not shown any damage, but it probably had been like that for a week to a week and a half at most, since I don’t drive often. Manager was professional in person, vs on the phone. I felt reassured. Missing spare lugs were replaced. No charge for anything as goodwill gesture. I feel much better. I hadn’t driven till it could get looked at. I am at a loss as to why a person would steal lugs, but I am happy that I am safe and that the tire stayed on with just the 1 lug. No video footage was able to be found for the car, not that it matters now. Thanks again everyone. This is precisely why I didn’t take a yelling and screaming for justice approach.
Glad you got your car back on the road to your satisfaction Helen. Best of luck.
Good followup. As a precaution, I always tell my wife to check the car up and down after picking it up from a shop (or after I have worked on it) and to be a bit more vigilant; and I do the same too. We rarely use shops or dealerships anyway, but have seen a few errors here and there.
My wife was surprised on the advice, thinking if the car was just checked by professionals, it should be in safer condition than before-which is not always the case.