Hi,

I just bought a used 99 accord lx this saturday but discovered after taking it to a mechanic this morning that the car I bought had4 bad struts that are leaking and bad front wheel bearings. My car came with a 3 month limited warranty. Are my struts and wheel bearings covered by my limited warranty? Can dealers sell cars w/ bad struts and bearings? Thanks.

John

 

Dealers can and will cars with as much bad things as they can get away with...about your warranty...see an attorney..

WheelBrokerAng

 

Bring it back to the dealer first and see if they will honor the warranty. Tell them all 4 struts are blown and the wheel bearings are bad, if it's not covered under warranty (read the fine print), you may be SOL.

Did you test drive the vehicle before you bought it? Blown struts are too easy to notice... unless they're just slowly leaking.

 

SOL?

I really couldn't tell or didn't know how to tell if the struts were bad when I test drove the car. It seemed to run fine except for a humming noise while driving. The sales manager told me the tires in the rear were cheap which was making the noise. Turns out, mechanic told me the tire was indeed noisy in the left rear because of uneven wear of the tire due to bad strut that visibly was leaking. The vibration feeling and noise was the front bearings being bad.

Thanks.

 

poop(the other word for it) out of luck

 

I would bring it back, tell them the struts are leaking and the front wheel bearing need to be replaced. Tell them to do it under the warranty they gave you. If they refuse, I would threaten legal action. If it goes that far, a lot of times all it takes is a strongly worded letter from an attorney and they will do the work.

Did you buy the car from a Honda dealer or was it from another dealer (Toyota, Chevy, Ford, etc.) or was it just from a used car lot? If you got it from a Honda dealer, you can call Honda of America and complain about that dealership, explain your situation and they may order that dealership to do warranty work. If you bought from a non-Honda dealer, I would go the attorney route and/or do some legal research. Hopefully there are laws in your state protecting consumers from dealers selling used cars that don't pass inspection. If you bought from a used car lot, things may get trickier. Those lots usually sell cars as-is, without certification and use a limited warranty as a selling point and to pretoct themselves from lawsuits.

If the dealer refuses to do the work and you wish to avoid legal action, come back and we can guide you towards replacing the struts and wheel bearings. Are you somewhatmechanically inclined? Replacing the struts could be a do-it-yourself job, the wheel bearings on the other hand require a press to install, just trying to save you a lot on labor costs. One last thing, the struts and wheel bearings can be found online a lot cheaper than what a shop or dealer wants to charge you. Let us know what your plans are and we can help track down cheap, Honda Genuine or aftermarket parts from reliable sources.

Hope all goes well, good luck!

 

I gave a call to the sales manager today and he said he will get back to me if they will cover it. I will follow up tomorrow taking your much appreciated advice in consideration. I bought the car from a non-honda dealer used car lot. I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you.