I hope that this does not happen to any of my fellow s2k comrades. It has been a long day, and I still have no clue as what to make of it or how to proceed. My best friend and his wife believe that I should take this to civil court, but I don't know if i have a case and I know nothing of civil court. Anyway, I thought I could get your opinions, thoughts or sale offers for a used axle.

So here is my horror story:

I have been having the clicking noise in the rear wheel of my S2000, so I did some research and found out about the "tighten the axle nut" trick, so I went ahead and did that. The noise went away and everything was fine. About a month later, the noise came back so I decided to take the S to our trusted local mechanic to install a new axle nut and to check if the hub and bearing were OK. The shop is kinda far from home (~30 miles) and the clicking noise was getting very loud, so I figured that it would be a good idea to re-torque the axle nut at the local gas station before making the 30 mile drive. I drove to the station across the street and asked the mechanic to torque my axle nut to 200 lb/ft. The mechanic pulls his impact gun at torques away instantly destroying my axle. The impact gun was a craftsman heavy duty 1/2 inch and the PSI was ~150. I don't know much about impact guns, but I read somewhere that this type of guns have ~380 lb/ft at 90 PSI so I can only imagine what kind of force he used on my axle nut.

After braking my axle nut he said "ok, sorry, not my problem" and basically sent me to hell. I asked him: Did you use 200 ft/lb like I told you? He said: "I don't have 200 ft/lb pound gun, this is all I have, its 600 ft/lb." At that moment I almost had a heart attack. We argued back and fort, I told him that he needed to re-mediate my problem because he was clearly careless/negligent. He refused to help me and told me to get out of his shop and to sue him if I want to. I asked for his business license and refused to give it to me. So at that moment it became really ugly and I told him I was going to sue him bla bla bla. Luckily there was a cop across the street, so I summoned her to the place.

I told her about their refusal to give me their business license. When the cop asked them if it was true they said it was a lie and that they had already given it to me. After arguing back and forth for about 1 hr with the cop mediating they offered to fix my car at 35 % discount of their price or a reputable mechanics price. Of course this is unacceptable to me since I do not believe I should pay 65 % of a broken axle that did not need to be replaced in the first place. Moreover, they retracted their offer and said they would offer me 35 % discount of their price, and not from another mechanic and that I did not have an option to bring my own parts. So I was basically forced to buy their non-OEM parts. I of course walked out of there and had to tow my car 30 miles to my mechanic and now have to install an axle that was perfectly fine. The cop suggested I sue them and that that is my only option, since they seem to be uncooperative.

Bonus info:

They refused to give me a receipt

After the cop asked them to give me a receipt, they tried to give me one only if I signed where it says "we are not responsible if anything brakes" AFTER they had already broken my axle, I laughed and so did the cop.

I found out that the PSI used was 150 after the mechanic told me that he could not have used more than 200 ft/lb since the dial showed 150. I guess he assumed I was a young idiot and that I would have thought 150 PSI=150 ft/lb. He attempted the same con with the cop. It partially worked on the cop.

The cop said that unfortunately she would not be able to testify in a civil court case since she was an officer on duty.

I might have forgotten some details, but feel free to ask!!!!!!!!!! Pic of broken axle nut soon!

 

I think you are out of luck, he can say he was doing you a favor and not charging you (You did not say you paid anything, if you did pay then maybe).

I wonder why you did not do it yourself, its very easy to do and a torque wrench is cheap, well the good ones are not cheap but you can get some awfully cheap ones that are good enough for a S2000.

 

get yourself someone to write up a legal doc..? Maybe the threat of court will make him change his mind. A axle doesnt cost too much..?

Or, if you dont mind eating the cost and making a friend get a used axle for cheap (Somewhere, from a crashed S) and make him install it for free?

 

Seems odd that the cop couldn't testify...... Call the police station and see if they would allow the cop to write a letter stating what happened.

That's their job isn't it? Enforce the law.

Sadly, I don't think small claims will go on you're side as the shop "legally" doesn't have a legal obligation to make things right if there isn't any written receipt/contract.

You might have some luck with the BBB though.

 

Did you file any type of paperwork with the cop? (i'm not sure if this type of situation warrants a police report or not).

Just to clarify; Joey did not do this correct? This was some random mechanic?

You could easily take this to small claims court; and if you have the cops information you could easily ask him/her to make a written testification; maybe not for the event itself but at least the aftermath (i.e. trying to sign away liability after they broke it). You could easily recoup your losses as the cops testimony would be enough to prove; A) Your car was there B) It was no longer functioning properly and C) They refused to acknowledge responsibility after working on it.

Regardless if you paid or not; someone agreed to do work for you and they fubar'd it. Lesson for you; don't hand your car over to just anyone thinking they're competent. Lesson for them; don't touch someones car without them filling out your paperwork beforehand.

 

Did he break the axle or the axle nut?

 

Lesson learned...dont take your S2K to an unknown shop. I would just suck it up and buy yourself a new or used axle and forget the shop that messed up. Do you really want them trying to fix the issue...I wouldnt!!

John

 

1. You should take out the reference to the s2ki member since he has no involvement in the story. It might be confusing in future searches.

2. Because you had to buy the mechanic's parts, you may actually have a pretty good chance for recovery. Your free will to bargain ended as soon as the damage to your car occurred.


2a. Whoever said you're out of luck because it was free and learn your lesson... That's not how it works. The mechanic, at his shop, dressed in uniform, is held to a higher standard of care than Joe Blow on the gas pump next to you.

But if the cost of repair/replacement was reasonable cheap, I'd go that route.

 

Some clarifications:

itS2crazy (Joey) is a great mechanic and HE DID NOT DO THE DAMAGE. Joey is fixing my car now repairing the damage caused by the incompetent mechanic.

I think there are some good points about the lack of receipt, but I think that i might have a chance if I can show that this mechanic used GROSS NEGLIGENCE. The question would be: Are mechanics supposed to know that torquing axle nuts require a certain amount of force lb/ft. If that was the case then I could show gross negligence because

1) I informed him that I needed 200 ft/lb
2) He should have known that he should have not used an "unknown" amount of force from impact gun.

 

broke the axle