91FirebirdFmla

Long story short, the idiot at the inspection station had no clue how to jack up my car to check the tie rods, the end result, on the passenger side, he used the outside edge of the car right below the middle of the door as a jacking point. I later realized that the door latch now drags on the striker bolt when the door closes. The door is too low in comparison with the bolt. It was not like this before the incident at the inspection station and the hinges are very tight, the door does not move up and down at all. Can someone please explain to me what might have happened and how to fix it? Is it possible to adjust the latch on the door, although the door does appear slightly lower, i'm more interested in it being able to close before rather than the slight cosmetic flaw.

Mikos_89

I'd take it back to the shop and show him how he fubar'ed your car by jacking it up at the wrong spot.

He actually jacked it up near the middle of the door underneath the body? Man, that don't sound to good. You might have a slightly bent unibody on that side from him doing that.

You can try grabbing the door bottom near the latch area and try pulling it upward to tweak it back up to meet the striker. Using a block of wood with a floor jack could work too if you don't have the muscle. If you do that though, the area near the front window glass where it meets the black triangle piece might have leaks. You can also try moving the striker lower by elongating the hole in the body, but then the door will be slightly mismatched from the 3/4 panel.

I guess you can always take off the door panel and re-adjust the window glass/triangle piece after pulling the door backup, but this is a lot of work due to the stupidity of an inspection doofus that can't tell a unibody car from a body on frame car.

I'd take it back and make him pay to fix it properly. Stupidity like this deserves some kind of punishment.

91FirebirdFmla

I'd love to take the car back to the guy and make him pay to fix it. But I have a feeling it would be an uphill battle even though I actually witnessed it so there is no doubt that he did it. If anyone has had this happen to them, i'd like to hear how successful they were in getting some sort reparations. I'll try the jack under the door for now though. Thanks.

Mirage

Depends on where you are, i know that in Canada, in situations such as yours, the shop becomes liable for damages unrelated/ related to the repair of a vehicle while in thier possesion. Unfortunatly, actions would have to be taken right away. I would at very minimum, have words with the owner/ manager about your situation and see if they would be willing to negotiate some type of compensation for the repair. If there is no luck on that front, threaten legal action, and if necessary take it. you are most likely looking at a bent unibody, not cheap to repair, i would take someones n%t$ for that. Good luck, keep us posted

91FirebirdFmla

update: I tried using a jack on the door to realign it unsuccessfully, the door didn't move enough to affect it at all and I was afraid of damaging the hinges if i used more force. I did grind the striker bolt down a little bit on the outside top edge where it is hitting the latch so that it is slightly easier to open and close the door. Better than before but not perfect. There is no visual damage to the car until you look underneath where it was jacked up, and the uncaring manner in which the car was jacked up by the inspection station guy leads me to believe that I would not get very far with words alone and that legal action would be required. Unfortunately, I have to go back to school in a month and the cost of a lawyer/court fees and time just aren't worth it for the slight tweak the car got. It is just unfortunate that this had to happen as the car was perfectly straight before this. I guess it is a lesson learned by me and I will act differently to prevent any damage since I can't count on them to do so.

tagta189

Whenever you have some idiot like that messing with your car stand right there next to them and make it real clear to them right from the start that you are not letting the car out of your sight for a single moment.I had to have my emissions checked recently and stood breathing down the guys neck at every moment with the intention of making him extremely aware that I was going to make his life hell if there was so much as a scratch on it.He nervously and oh so carefully did what was required and let me get the hell out of there with thankfully no damage.Sorry about your damage tho,it's not an easy one to fix in our cars...

taonindo

why would someone that stupid be inspecting a car for safty issues ??? tao

91FirebirdFmla

Its an unfortunate thing that, from what I have read, many people have gone through this. Luckily, I found a better inspection station with a drive-over dyno and an inspector who is fond of american muscle. I will be going there from now on with no worries.

Abubaca

iTrader: (3)

My car failed because the stove pipe/heater thing on the exhaust manifold wasn't hooked up. It wasn't hooked up because it's a TPI car, and they don't use that pipe, but all exhaust manifolds have the fitting to save money at GM.

The guy swore up and down that I was trying to violate emissions standards, and that he wasn't going to risk his job. I talked to the manager and he agreed with the service guy. (It was a quick lube place, so he wasn't really a mechanic.)

I ended up taking it to my buddy's garage, and it passed no problem. I took the passing inspection back to the original place and told them that if they wanted, my buddy would be willing to explain it to them!

....that was when I was quite a bit younger, I would NEVER even think about bringing it to a random garage now.

91FirebirdFmla

Well, live and learn i guess. This place was recommended to me by the mechanic at the garage I work at. But he's always driven heavy trucks you can jack up anywhere, so I guess his lack of experience would not have shown through to him.

Diabolical

tds (sponsor up top) sells a door alignment tool. it's pretty cheap, and from what i've heard, it's easy to use and effective.

91FirebirdFmla

I was thinking about that, but since in this case, it isn't the door that needs to be aligned with the rest of the car, but the car that needs to be aligned with the door, would I just be making the problem worse by shifting everything and warping the hinges?

Mikos_89

Abubaca,

Can you post a pic of that heat stove thing you're talking about? I can't see anything that even remotely resembles a heat stove pipe thing on my manifolds.



91FirebirdFmla,

Yeah, you probably should just leave it alone right now. If it's not that bad, then you can just live with it until you get the time and bucks to fix it properly. Anything that has to do with a tweaked unibody underneath is gonna be big $$$ to fix. At least a couple of hundred $$$ I would think.

The 4th gens are another one. I've seen so many with the lower front fenders bowed out it's ridiculous.

Cameron

Raise hell that guy broke it, he should pay.

Just tell him you either want his sig on a check or his blood on the floor.