Well, just got my car back from the shop. According to the paperwork, they replaced my driver's side rear wheel, trailing arm, control link and front link. As soon as I got on the car, first thing I noticed was the tpms light on, after checking tire pressure the guy told me that I had to drive the car for a couple of miles before the light will go off, and in fact the light went off but it came on again this afternoon for a few minutes while the car was parked and it went off again. Second thing I noticed, after driving off the shop I came to a stop( I was doing about 10-15mph) and heard a clunk in the trunk, specifically on the rear driver's side of the trunk, best way I can describe the sound is as if I had a piece of metal in the trunk and when I hit the brake it would bounce off the trunk's floor, this sound only happens when:
a) going slow, step on brakes, release brake pedal, clunk.
b) going slow, drive over pothole or dip on road, clunk.
When I'm driving faster I don't hear the sound, whether I'm braking or going over potholes, the car doesn't sound like before either, but there's no clunk.
Third thing I noticed, the steering wheel is not dead center like before, it's a little(and I mean a little) to the right.
And last thing I noticed is that there's a slight vibration when going over 60mph, where before there was none.
I've got a lifetime warranty on the repair, so I'm taking it back, but I would like to know what's wrong with the car before they touch it again, I want my car back the way it was , any help would be greatly appreciated.
If you guys must know, the reason it was at the shop is because I side swept a curb

 

One more thing, they did an alignment on the car and it looks like this:
Caster:
left 7.3, right 6.9

front camber:
left 0.1, right -0.4

Rear camber:
left -0.7, right -1.4

front toe:
left 0.15, right 0.10

rear toe:
left 0.15, right 0.10

Total toe: 0.25

Thrust angle: 0.0

 

TPMS, that's true it will go off after a short drive, but since it came back on............check all your tire pressures..especially the right side. It might just be a little low or borderline and as it heats up and expands, the light goes off. get at least 34lbs in there. Since you hit the curb, did they have to take one of your tires off the rim? You had to have messed up a rim right? Aftermarket or stock rims? The TPMS might not be seated real well. I had a hell of an issue with one....on my new rims awhile back and I will fill you in if it persists.

Steering wheel off...they replaced just your front endlink right? Seems like the need to do a better alignment.

Clunk...........well, the did a whole lotta work back there, It could be as simple as they didn't torque down the lug nuts tight enough(105lbs, I think, but I'd have to look). How much do you trust this shop?
Since it seems like the next thing I'm going to tell you to do is pull the wheel back off and look around, I guess I wouldn't torque the nuts yet. Get in there and look at everything they did, I would really look and make sure the got the coils on there right, that the endlinks are not backwards(tough to do, but can be done)...let's see.....if you have a torque wrench, check all the bolts including the ones in the trunk at the top of the shocks(yes, they shouldn't have needed to loosen these, but you never know). If I think of anything else, I'll let you know, but mainly it's going to be pull that wheel and start looking and torquing. Also......make sure that the wrench and every thing in your trunk is nice a secure. Believe it or not, maybe something isn't in that tray real tight and bouncing around???????
Oh.....and don't race Bastage with that shimmy going on!

 

Thanks for the quick response, that was my plan, to take the wheels off and start checking EVERYTHING(not that I know what I'm doing), do you know the torque specs for the rest of the bolts down there????
I've only been to the shop twice, first time was my wife's suv, and I have to say they did a damn good job on that 1.
As far as racing Bastage...........................not until I'm FI.

 

Have to look them up tomorrow if that's not too late for you? You can search now as I think there is a thread or sticky that has most of them..........if I recall.
Also there are a couple with the alignment specs or other peoples read outs, so you should look for that as well. I'm not good enough with the alignment to look at your numbers and tell.

 

Thanks man, I'll start looking around

 

Hey who changed the name of my thread????

 

Brake caliper could be loose.

Since you are new at this... Bring it back to the shop and have them put it on the lift to make sure everything is connceted and torqued correctly.

 

Was thinking this as well Razz1, just forgot to say that with all the other crap I wrote.

 

Definitely make them give you a better alignment!

 

Well guys, first off thanks for the help and advise. I took the car to the dealership and they told me that 3 suspension bolts were loose, one was almost a full inch out of place, they also mentioned something about a camber bolt being put incorrectly, so all this caused the noise I described and the bad alignment job. The vibration was caused by a bad front wheel, come to find out the shop only "recondition" the wheel instead of replacing it with a new one, the guy at the dealership told me that once on the high lift the wheel looked as if you were rolling an egg. Great job progressive , this was done at their service center and now they're giving me a hard time about getting the wheel replaced, so much for #1 in costumer satisfaction, guess is time to change my insurance company. End of rant

 

Wow......just wow........glad you appear to have it solved. Progressive insurance doesn't run thier own shops right? So it had to be someone else correct? Do they make you go to some particular place? Anyway...people hate the Gecko, but I've been with them for over 30 years and no complaints.

 

Progressive does have their own shops, 2 here in Orlando, the good thing about getting repairs done thru them is the lifetime warranty on anything they touch on your car for as long as you own the vehicle. So even though they did a shitty job this time, my car will get fix.

 

UPDATE!!!!!! I just got my car back after 2 and a half weeks at the mazda dealership, it took progressive ins. that long to determine that I needed a new rim since the one they "reconditioned" was bad. All in all it took mazda less than a day to return my car once they got the go ahead from progressive. Needless to say I'm switching my ins. company. By the way Classic Mazda of Orlando did a great job on my car I would recommend them to anyone.