Need Opinion on Icbc work done.
 

I'm going to start off by saying I want to keep things anonymous. All I ll tell you is the vehicle is a BMW Sedan.

The Story.
A car is being fix at a body shop under ICBC. The front sub-frame had to be replaced, So they let a mechanic shop do the sub-frame. But the shop that did the work doesn't have a alignment machine. So the body shop let another mechanical shop do the alignment. The car came back with the front passenger side camber to positive and caster to negative, even after the factory adjustment had been max out. The body shop had not told the alignment shop that the sub-frame hasn't been changed. The under side is covered so you can't see a need sub-frame any ways. The alignment shop took back the car to check if they did something wrong. They found out that the other shop that did sub-frame did not level the control arms or straighten the sub-frame when tighten thing in place. So after straightening and levelling everything the alignment was all well with in factory specification.

So the problem.
The car is now fixed, but the bill is now in question. the alignment shop wants time for diagnosis and fixing the problem, but the other shop said that the alignment shop should have finished the job for them and level and straighten the suspension before doing the alignment with no additional time.

SO who is right?
Should the alignment shop have to finish off the job with the alignment? Or is the other shop that installed the sub-frame job to level and straighten things?

IMO, the shop who changed the subframe are the ones who should be responsible for the bill. They told the alignment shop to perform the alignment and they did their job.

Had they told them "hey, we changed out the subframe, can you make sure everything is installed correctly before doing the alignment" then it would be a different story lol.

Are you not getting the work done through ICBC? Then the dispute of the bill should be dealt with through the bodyshop and ICBC end then since it is part of the repair claim.

^ Exactly.

Obviously not being dealt with through ICBC if the OP is trying so hard to keep the identity of the vehicle and his identity secret.

Someone somewhere is unknowingly about to buy a rebuilt BMW sedan...:whistle:

The question is whether the subframe can be straightened and the arms leveled without an alignment machine. If yes, it's on the mechanical shop, if no it's on the alignment shop.

It seems kind of odd that the body shop is the one that noticed the alignment is off, shouldn't the alignment shop have been the one raising the flags when they couldn't adjust it to spec?

Yes the car is going through Icbc. But Icbc won't pay for mistakes that a repair shop made. The body shop knew about the problem.
Yes the sub-frame and arms can be level and straighten without the alignment machine, as it's part of the install process. The shop that installed the part is saying they can't do it because the don't have a pit or hoist that the wheels would be level with the car.

That doesn't sound right.

If you go to an ICBC approved shop, and they send out work to another shop and that shop fucks up your car, I'm pretty sure your insurance place isn't going to give you the cold shoulder.

It's up to ICBC, the body shop and the two mechanics shops to sort out who owes who what hours, the owner of the vehicle (you I assume), does not need to get involved. This is an internal problem between two shops.

What my main problem is that the mechanic shop that doesn't have an alignment rack normally contracts that type of work out to another shop they partner up with. In this case it sounds as if this mechanic shop decided to send an incompletely repaired vehicle back to the body shop for them to send out to some other random shop for alignment, and this shop didn't exactly know or have communicated accurately what needed to be completed.

I sense that someone (you or the bodyshop) is doing a lot of meddling and screwing up these shops better judgement and workflow.

Something isn't right here. If you took your "BMW sedan" to ICBC and made a claim, it is up to ICBC to repair the vehicle and give it back to you. You do not deal with one shop screwing up and then billing the other. That;s between ICBC and the shops.


Smells fishy...

As posted earlier some unsuspecting poor sap is gonna end up buying a rebuilt "BMW Sedan" cause this guy sounds shady as sh!t.

Hahaha, I had such a good chuckle over this :)


"hit light in front"
"great driver"

What wrong with keeping it secret?
A. It's not my car
B. it's still an open Icbc case so I'm not allowed to say to much
C. the body shop doesn't want to go to Icbc for this problem.
I just want an opinion on the situation.

I'll tell you guys what car it is after this is resolved.

You don't straighten or repair BMW subframes. They are replaced with new subframes. The body can be straightened/repaired (particularly the "rails" at the front where the subframe attaches).

Subframes are aligned to the vehicle with pins. If the subframe won't fit the pins then the vehicle itself hasn't been properly repaired. You can't shift the subframe around (like some vehicles) to alter alignment settings because of the pins.

If the alignment is out then there are bent parts that need replacing (control arms, strut or knuckle).

I've NEVER seen ICBC get a BMW subframe repaired. They always replace them.

You're missing the point genius, why the hell are you involved in this? Your/his/hers/?? car being repaired is between the SHOPS and ICBC. You should have nothing to do with it. :suspicious:

did it cross your mind that OP IS the shop or ICBC? :suspicious:

dangonay I guess my choose of wording was poor. by straighten I mean install in the correct position.

Never thought he might be the shop, but for ICBC to ask for help on RevScene? LOOOOOOOOOOL no.