Welcome 12guns. Lots of good information from a newbie.

Zion, I don't remember... Got an auto tranny? If so, one of the mounts is vacuum-operated & controlled by the ECU. Make sure that one gets checked out.

 

Finally some progress. They are replacing front mount and mount on passenger side.

Insurance approved repair. Shop called me and said that insurance only pays 45 an hour and their rate is 75. They wanted me to pay the difference. I said no, I'll cal my insurance. Called the insurance and told them I wouldn't be paying for something that was done wrong in the first place. They worked something out with the shop and gave them $70 more.

Supposed to get car back Thursday.

After that wish me luck with diminished value. Even if I don't get it, it is worth trying. Heck, they should compensate me for all the times I brought my car in and had to ride my bicycle home! :O

 

Glad you've made som progress. The process isn't supposed to be this difficult, unfortunatly, there are plenty of crappy adjusters that don't know how to do their job. Sounds like you're handling everything just fine.
In regards to the Dimished value, you're right, it's worth a try. Even if they are willing to pay, you prolly won't see more than 1k or so. As mentioned before, the issue is that in most states the duty is yours to prove your loss to the insurance company. Dealer quotes typically won't cut it because the lower they quote you, the more they make on your trade in. The best way to document is to have your vehicle re-inspected after all the repairs are done. If there are any poor repairs or issues, that's where your DOV claim comes from. If the shop did a great job and the car looks great, you may be out of luck.
One more thing. My wife's 03' Accord had single stage paint, ie. clear and color mixed in. No body shops will paint w/ single stage, rather they use two stage which is color then clear coat. While the two stage is more preforable, her veh didn't look right after a couple months due to the clear coat being much more new and shiney, the old paint even in good cond and buffed out wouldn't shine like the clear coat. Depending on your color and paint, maybe you can use that. Good luck

 

Mechanically everything seems OK (besides the vibration)

I have silver paint so it is not single stage. I think the red and white are single stage.

I had my front bumper cracked and replaced once before and it never lined up right. This new front bumper is the same way, doesn't line up properly by the headlights. There is small space. Also the hood already has swirl marks on it!!! I have been washing my car by hand for the past 2 years now. The marks appeared and I have only washed it one time.

But other than that I don't have any issues. Could I use any of that for my claim? The shop the car is at already has done an inspection of it and said that the repair work was pretty good except that they cut corners putting in aftermarket mounts since the honda ones are expensive.

 

Depends on if you picked the shop or if it was the insurance's prefered shop. If you picked it, any poor repairs are between you and the shop. Swirl marks in the hood? Make sure a good waxing will take them out. Probably shouldn't be that way, not sure though. Best thing for you to do is call the insurance co, and tell them now that you have your vehicle back, you want to present a diminished value claim. See what they say. Sounds like your biggest argument will be any aftermarket parts. Problem there is that most certified a/m parts come w/ a lifetime warantee vs. OEM parts having 12 month warantee. You see the delima. The a/m parts are not always inferior, only when they don't fit, or are different altogether. The best arguement I've heard in my line of work, is that if any prudent person was picking between two identicle cars, one had been wrecked other had not, the person will always pick the non-wrecked on. Price being the same, there's your claim. Problem is still that the "burden of proof" lies w/ you, not the insurance company.

 

Here is the situation now.

Got the car back, the two mounts replaced. The vibration isn't as severe but still apparent. Shop guy said that he couldn't think of anything else they could do for it.

I called the insurance the next day to talk about diminished value. Adjuster acts dumb and says he doesn't know what it is and if I can explain it to him. So I did and he says he never heard anything about that and he would have to ask about it and call me back.
This was Friday afternoon so if he doesn't call me Monday I will call him Tuesday.

What do you think I should do regarding the vibration? I guess I will have to wait until I hear back before I find out what to do about the diminished value. It's funny that I spoke to the original adjuster from CT about it and he knew exactly what diminished value was.

 

Sounds like your biggest arguement for Diminished Value will be that the car is not "whole" and you haven't been indemnified. You likly will have to allow the insurance company to track down the vibration problem. Time to let them tell you what to do or where to take it. If they find the problem, great, if not, maybe they'll cough up a couple grand for DOV. Sucks that you can't find the problem. Not that this is true in your case, but I have many many customer that notice stuff after the repairs that they never noticed before the accident. Before, they didn't have reason to pay attention, after the accident, they go over the entire vehicle w/ a fine tooth comb and often find "wear and tear" issues that are not accident related, but they swear up and down they didn't notice it before. What insurance company are you dealing with?

 

This is Geico.

They say they can't recommend a place so how will they track it down?

I would have noticed if my car turned into a masseuse when I turned on the AC prior to the accident. Plus I drive a Civic Si and VW Passat regularly and am in my friends Lancer frequently as well. None of these vehicles have been crashed and not one has even a slight vibration in the wheel with AC use. Unfortunately I don't know anyone else with the same car as me to look at for comparison.

 

Take a real close look at the pulleys, with the engine running, especially with the AC turned on. Anything wobbling? Bent pulley? Evidence of rubbing on the belt?

In my 2003, there was very little clearance between the serpentine belt & several structural things. Like the sub-frame, & even the sheetmetal inner fender stuff.

You never said if it was auto tranny? If so, make sure they installed the proper vacuum-operated front mount. Not the (much cheaper) mount from a manual-tranny.

 

Here's the mounts. The front one is #9, but the front mount for a manual-tranny looks pretty similar. Look for the vacuum hose connected to the solenoid valve shown @ upper left. Look for disconnecte hoses? Disconnected electrical connection to solenoid?