Mine have a 2007 Honda FIT Sports that has not given me any problems until recently. And I'm trying to determine if it's the fault of the shop that did the work.

My FIT has is about 3.5 years old and has about just under 45,000 miles on it. About 2 weeks ago, the usual Maintenance Minder lit up: "A1," meaning it's time for an oil change and tire rotation. Other than that, it was driving perfectly fine as always. So I took it to the usual place where I have all the past maintenance done (oil change, tire rotation, patching up the tire) at All-Tune & Lube franchised auto shop down the street from my apartment. I've never had a problem with this shop before. As soon as I walked into the door, I noticed that it was a different person at the counter. The guy told me that the Honda FIT is a special vehicle that requires synthetic motor oil, which would increase the price slightly. I don't recall ever being told that. But I gave them the ok and anyway. While at it, I also asked them to see if they can do something about the cab light that went out.

A few hours later I got a call from them saying that everything is fine, but told me that they recommend that the tire be balanced out and it would cost about $30 to do that. Since I never had a problem with this shop, I went ahead and trusted them, thus gave the OK to do so.

When I came by to pick up my car, I was shocked to find out that the cost of replacing the bulb in the cab light (including labor was almost $40!!)!! I also found out that the shop is under new management... which explains the different person at the counter. The sticker shock was my initial bad experience with this shop.

That night as I was driving to work on the interstate, I noticed that the vehicle vibrates, especially at a speed of 45+ mph. This is leading me to believe that this shop may have messed up my tire and wheel. Considering that...

1) It was driving fine until I took it in.
2) The Maintenance Minder says "A1," which indicated oil change & tire rotation--nothing else.
3) This shop try to "recommend" other things such as replacing wiper blades.
4) The shop says Honda FIT requires SYNTHETIC OIL, something I've never heard before and do not know if it's true or not.
5) This shop is under new management.

What do you think I should do at this point. I mean, I did paid with a credit card, so I guess if anything I can dispute the service charge. However, I don't want to keep driving with the vibration still exist. I'm thinking of...

A) Take it back to them to have them reinspect it. Assuming that they admit that they did something wrong and correct it, I wouldn't be charged. But they can just fix it and CLAIM that they couldn't find anything wrong and charge me some sort of diagnostic fee (or worse, found something to be wrong due to their error, charge a diagnostic fee, and not fix the problem).

B) Take it to ANOTHER shop and have them inspect it. If they say everything is fine, I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that the vibration is normal after tire balancing and hope it'll subside in time. But if they do confirm that the vibration was caused by a bad job done by the previous shop, and they fix it for me... how do I go about getting money back from the previous shop? I'm also afraid this new shop might mess up my vehicle even more and charge me to "replace/fix" stuff.

I really need suggestions on what to do with this problem. So please, any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Well, they're lying thieves. You might want synthetic oil but to tell you the car requires it is a lie, pure and simple.

That said, they probably just knocked a weight off one wheel and rebalancing should be easy.

They should NOT NOT NOT charge you to rebalance the wheels, in fact you'd be within your rights to demand a refund for the syn oil since you agreed to it under false pretenses.

But the simple thing to do is make them rebalance the wheel(s) and never go there again.

If your steering wheel shakes at speed it's probably a front wheel out of balance.

Don't know why they said a wheel had to be balanced- except if they found a problem (which they'd have to put the wheel on a balancing machine to do, or drive the car) or they just wanted more things to charge you for.

 

It could be that All-Tune just did a terrible job of balancing a wheel that might not have been out of balance to begin with but you could also have loose lug nuts or other issues. Get it looked at immediately.
They might just be grossly incompetent as opposed to outright crooks but either way you shouldn't be taking your car there. IMO almost all franchise quick lube-type places should be avoided like the plague. Find a good shop with some Honda expertise or take it to the dealer.
The Car Talk "Mechanics Files" section might be a reasonable place to start looking for a mechanic but their sample size is too small and of dubious expertise to make it really useful.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I will take the vehicle back to them and have them rebalance the tires. While I'm upset that I got tricked into getting synthetic oil, I'm not going to waste my time trying to get my money back for that . However, I will be sure to leave an appropriate REVIEW on this business (and name-drop, since it's under different management) on their Google listing (and other online contact database such as YellowPages.com, Yelp, etc.--copy-&-paste is a good friend) so everyone will know to steer clear of them.

 

If they belong to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) you might call the BBB and report what happened. I did that one time on some poor plumbing service I got and it brought instant repairs.