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I HATE MECHANICS!!!! HELP!!!

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<< Well, he might as well try the headlights, though, rather than getting a mechanic's diagnoses which have a history of being shady ("well, actually your whole electrical subsystem needs to be replaced, that will be $1000, please"), or going in and looking like an idiot if it really is just the headlights. And yes, mechanics DO have a history of being shady...why else would there need to be a law saying they can't charge you for work they didn't do and they can't do work on your car that's not needed? >>



Thats the whole point, headlight bulbs dont go dim, they work or they dont. No electrical bulb slowly loses it illumination qualities ( that humans can see.) Does anyone notice the bulbs in their house slowly getting dimmer with passing time? >>



Hey dude! That's what the problem is!! Something that is not supposed to happen happened!!!
Not everything works according to your world!!
 
All I can really say is if in doubt bring it to a certified dealer mechanic the first time. You get what you pay for all too often.
 
yea, definetely try to take it to small claims court (I gurantee he will pay up before it even goes to court).

 
The BBB will not help you get your money back but will only warn the next customer and serve as a record and resource.

Small claims court is your best option if they won't fix your car for free.
 
while they did screw you, sluggo has a point (thats not neccesarily applicable in all manners to this case). You came to the mechanic telling him (x) is bad, replace it. Obviously the point has been made that it probably wasnt (x). It would be the same as going to the doctor with flu symptoms and saying, hey, i've self diagnosed myself and need medicine for (x) disease, even though you might have (y). And then the doctor giving you medication for (x) without a thorough checkup.

Just learn from mistakes and sue the hell outta the guy. 🙂

 
from what i read in your post your a pushover. the second anyone your paying doesn't look like he's competent you pull him. especially the 10 minute job dragging on for two hours and that still didn't get pushed over the edge, 2x time max b4 you go postal on a guy. 2nd of all why did you leave without them paying for your replacement headlights? you pay for service on your car, if they break something, they pay, its that simple. you should have not paid him squat since he wasted your time and money. what kind of incompetent idiot doesn't know that you replace headlights from the rear? i'm a dumb computer geek and i've figured out how to change car bulbs, hell even flashflights are changed from the rear.

i dunno, maybe you shoulda made a scene, the situation pretty muuch demanded it. you got run over..bad. let this be a lesson to you. if your at a business and they are clearly wrong you demand satisfaction and don't leave until you get it.
 


<< what kind of incompetent idiot doesn't know that you replace headlights from the rear? >>


What about sealed beams? 😉 The only bad thing about not educating yourself some on the process is the fact that you might have been able to stop this whole incident once you saw the idiot screwing up. I could do all my own mechanic work but I have no where or tools to do it anymore. My knowing how stuff is done though stops me from being screwed at a garage since I already know what is wrong when I take it there.
 


<< You came to the mechanic telling him (x) is bad, replace it. Obviously the point has been made that it probably wasnt (x). >>

It's not like that at all. It doesn't really matter if his lights were bad or not. The requested work was done WRONG and did further damage.
Say I decided I wanted new spark plugs. No reason...I just decided I wanted new spark plugs. And the mechanic does something completely boneheaded--rips them out of the sockets, or sets the gap way off....

It doesn't matter that the original diagnosis was right or wrong. He asked to have his headlights replaced and they screwed it up.

I can't believe that the manual for the car didn't say how to replace the lights...I know my '02 Civic manual does, my '87 Sundance manual did, my '94 Escort manual did, and my gf's '88 Camry's did. AND, it's usually a procedure that looks easy on paper until you actually try to do it with the battery and the alternator and the coolant reservoir all in the way....

Regardless of this fact, if *I* consider replacing a headlight to be basic knowledge, and I don't know a whole heck of a lot about cars, it's a pretty safe bet that ANY mechanic should be able to figure this out. Esp. a "Honda specialist" who should at least have the shop manual laying around.

You can call WuTangYang an idiot for not knowing this, but he's just an end-user.
The real idiot is the mechanic who couldn't change the lightbulb, and WuTangYang should confront them and take them to small-claims court if necessary.
 
Fact: If you do not cartainly beyond a shadow of a doubt know what the problem is and you are not proficient with cars, let the mechanics figure it out.


My suggestion that would ahve avoided the whole mess........Buy American. Never had a problem change bulbs, never had a reason too unless they got busted.
 
WUTANGYANG,

Although I realize my advice is late in coming I think your dim headlights are the results of a poor ground. Dim headlights is almost always a result of a poor ground. The fact that the Honda dealer changed your battery and alternator recently just reaffirms my suspicion. Halogen bulbs require a lot of amperage and are quite frequently grounded directly to the battery (did you ever wonder what the little wires connecting to the - side of the battery were?). If your lights are not directly grounded to the battery they could still be dim as a result of a ground strap being loose or disconnected. I would check all of the grounding straps around the battery and alternator first since they were recently disturbed. Make sure all connections are clean and free from dirt and corrosion.

Good luck and I'm sorry for your bad experience.
 


<< Your headlights were getting dim?

Headlights work or they dont, there is no perceptible dimming (by the human eye) of headlight bulbs over their life span.
>>



I concur. You probably didn't need to replace the bulbs themselves. They were probably just low on headlight fluid.
 
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