Warranty question

My 2004 Acura TL was recently smacked pretty good on the passenger side
in a parking lot. I called my insurance company which referred me to a
body shop for the repairs. I picked up the car last Friday but over
the weekend noticed that the lock and window on the front passenger
side door don't work, either with the remote or with the inside buttons
(at one point my son, who was sitting on the passenger side, was unable
to open the door at all and had to climb out the driver's side). Just
as I was about to call the body shop about this, I wondered - do I have
or am I going to have a warranty problem? I never thought about
checking with the dealer after I got hit and took the car in for
repair. Now the body shop has apparently done something to mess up the
electronics in the front passenger door. If I take it back to them to
work on, does this do anything to my warranty? Or is my warranty on
the door already compromised? I suppose I could simply take it to the
dealer but they'll likely see the car has been worked on and I'd like
to get some idea whether I've done anything to the warranty.

 

It totally depends on what the problem is. The dealer can't void your
warranty just because someone else worked on the car. In order to refuse
warranty service, the dealer would have to be able to prove that the work
done by the other mechanic is what caused the problem. If they can't prove
that, then the warranty applies and they must fix it. With that in mind
though, you did mention the car took a good smack on the passenger side.
It's highly likely the dealer will use this as a cop out and say the door's
electronics were damaged then and to take it up through your insurance.

 

agreed. if everything was fine before the accident, and its just the
side that was affected, its kinda obvious.

 

Did the lock work after the accident, but before the body work was done?
If so, the responsibility lies with the body shop. That is, they broke
it doing their work. If the lock was broken as a result of the accident,
you should be able to get it repaired by your dealer, and have full
warranty coverage. In any event, a call to the body shop is your first
step. They may simply have pulled a plug, and missed re-inserting it.

Dan

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