collision repair: strut too high
 

Hello!

my apologies if this issue has been addressed before, couldn't find anything about this so if this issue has been discussed in another thread sorry for a double post.

2 months ago my 2015 Honda Fit was in a collision. A car hit the front passenger corner head on, the wheel was diagonal, the door was misaligned, that corner of the vehicle was pretty banged up.

It's been in the body shop (Gerber Collision & Glass) for more than 2 months due to delays in receiving parts, staffing issues, etc. (so they say.)

A couple days ago they said my car is ready and they are driving it to a location close to me for me to pick up.

As they are driving it, they inform me the windshield cracked when the car hit a bump.

They tell me this is due to a manufacturer defect, that the strut was 8" too high and caused it to hit the windshield, cracking it.

Prior to the collision, I had driven this car 12k miles with zero issues.

Is this "strut too high" thing BS? Related to the collision? Or actually a manufacturer defect?

I don't know anything about cars, in fact it's my first car. So you can imagine my distress. I'm worried this body shop is giving me the run around and might be screwing up my car, making it unsafe.

If anyone with some more knowledge than I could weigh in, it would be greatly greatly appreciated. :)

They're suggesting that Honda installed the strut 8" too high, and their recent rebuild of the entire front end had nothing to do with its current placement?

I'm not sure where to start with this post, except to wish the OP good luck in getting his or her issues resolved. I guess I should also stop scratching my head trying to figure it all out.

thanks for the reply--

Yes. That sounds ludicrous, right?

I'm pretty concerned at this point. They are not inspiring confidence in the repair quality at all. This is the body shop that my insurance recommended and they said the work would be guaranteed for the life of the car.

But I feel like other issues could come up, or, even worse, the car may not be safe.

Do you have any ideas what I could do at this point?

thank you

thanks for the reply..

What do you mean? this situation is pretty exceptional?

I'm pretty worried about the safety and quality of the car they're ultimately going to give back to me.

agreed. strut should not touch the windshield, or even be remotely close. did the strut actually come out of the tophat? if so, my opinion is they didn't fix the car properly and are blaming the "defect" on the car.

you have any pics of the car? sounds like a dodgy fix. sorry you are going through this.

It is ludicrous to suggest that the car came from the factory with the strut misplaced by eight inches. I think they are feeding you a lot of baloney, and either the collision or their repair work (or some combination of them) are to blame for the windshield cracking. What they said, at least as you've relayed it here, makes no sense whatsoever.

Call your insurance agent. Explain what you're being told and ask for some help- they're the ones you're actually paying.

*** hope this doesn't go through as a double post, I tried to include some images in the forum interface but it didn't seem to work. ***

thank you all for the quick replies and the sympathy— I really appreciate it—

they gave me an updated explanation just now:

they’re not saying it was a manufacturer defect, they say that the *bearing* in the strut was destroyed in the collision but that this is not visually obvious, so they used the one that was in the car before the collision.

when they were driving the car and it hit that bump, the bearing failed and caused the strut to move upward and put undue stress on the windshield, which cracked it. they’re saying that this is a “wonky design” that caused this, and they haven’t seen such a situation before.

so they said they replaced the bearing and double checked the strut assembly and replaced the windshield now.

I am pretty suspicious of the quality of the repair job.

photo album of just after the collision: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

exactly what i was thinking, failed tophat. they didn't see the broken part (either by being cheap or just overlooked it) and reassembled the car with the faulty piece. :(

mad camber yo!
Attachment 86096

The two biggest lies told by auto repair shops:
"They all do that," and "We've never seen that before."

Just let your insurance agent know about the whole ordeal and see if maybe you can have them take a look at it since you're really uneasy about the quality of the body shop's work.

Good luck! Just be alert while driving for any weird behavior!

If insurance doesn't get concerned, it's because this is their tame shady body shop. that means renewal time is time to switch...

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...65b4ab31db.png

They put it together wrong (probably missed installing the damper mounting bearing altogether) and when they drove it, the shock shaft came up and cracked the wind shield. Completely their fault.

^^ i think so too.

thank you everyone for the feedback and comments...

got my car back on friday. they made quite a production of introducing me to the regional manager of Gerber, who said he found this thread (!?)

they were extremely apologetic, are covering a large portion of my rental costs, and explained to me in detail what happened...

but I will absolutely call my insurance and have someone else inspect it.

and the back right door is scraping the new front passenger door when opening and closing now.

i have not noticed any abnormal driving or handling behavior.

any tips on getting that touch up paint smell to go away? :p

Take it back and get them to fix it. Hopefully just an adjustment not a fundamental dimensional issue.
Time…

does this shop not have quality control? :mad:

I think they're controlling quality very well. They don't want it running all over the place!

Time, for sure. If you ultimately consider trading, make sure you give the vehicle about two months for the paint, solvent, and adhesive vapors to dissipate. BTW, Gerber is one of these outfits that's ass and underwear close to particular insurers. The insurance entices you to these favored shops with the promise of a lifetime guarantee on the collision work, at the certain cost of a Carfax hit and the shop bowing to whatever corners the insurance company cares to cut.

I learned all this the hard way over the years.