So you heard how I found the M3. While doing some maintenance on the car I realized I just did not have the tool needed and time to get the right control arm out. I ended up taking the car to a shop in town that is known for doing quality work. I specifically told them I did not want an alignment or any other work done to the car. Just finish pulling the old control arm, replace with the new one I provided and reassemble.

Later that day I get a call that my car is done and on its way back from the alignment shop! I said “what, I didn’t want an alignment done. I specifically told you that”. They said well anytime we do suspension work we do alignments at a shop across town. I said okay I’ll be there in a few minutes to get my car.

So I get to the shop and my car isn’t there. I waited for 30 minutes and still no car. The alignment shop is 10 minutes away. I had a bad feeling about this. The owner’s wife pulls up in my car and looks somewhat suspicious, in a bad way. She parks and brings the keys in to me. I Paid the bill, got my keys and drove the car home. I parked the car in my drive way and got out. I walked around the front of my car and looked underneath to look at the control arms/bushings. I noticed a wire hanging down and dragging on the ground. It was the tempurature sensor wire. Hmmmm, how did that get unplugged. And why was it unplugged. I stepped back from my car and looked down the drivers side/front bumper angle. Somethings not right here. My heart sunk. The line between the front valance and bumper was way off. What did they do? I walked around the passenger side and the turn signal lens/lamp was gone. I immediately got in the car and drove back to the shop. Nobody would admit to knowing anything about it or that anything even happened. They hooked the wire back up to the temp sensor and said that’s all they could do. They said the signal was gone before. Uh, no it wasn’t and I have pictures of the car prior to bringing it in to your shop I replied. I said I was going to do some research and call them the next morning.

After looking the car over thoroughly I noticed red paint and scrapes under the valance that were not there before. The valance has a trim piece at the bottom of it which was torn off/bent downward in about a ten inch section. So, Somebody pulled the front valance over a curb or something that was red.

I called the shop and ask where the alignment was done. I could tell they were hesitant to tell me where but I got it out of them. So I paid a visit to the alignment shop. The owner wasn’t there but I asked the mechanic to see the rack. Guess what color it was. RED! At the front of the rack was about an 8″ tall lip which obviously did the damage.

So I called the shop I paid to do the work. They said it’s not their fault and I should take it up with the owner of the alignment shop. You don’t even want to know how furious I was. I specifically told them NO alignment in the first place. But, the nice guy I am I called up the alignment shop and got the owner on the phone. I told him who I was and which car I owned. He immediately went from a nice professional businessman to “Yeah, what do you want”. I said my car was damaged while in your posession. He said “No it wasn’t” I said well the red paint on my front valance matches perfectly with the red paint on your alignment rack. His response “How was I suppose to know your car was that low! Foreign piece of S#&T! I NEVER WANT TO SEE THAT CAR IN MY SHOP AGAIN!” He rambled on for a couple minutes before settling down. I then asked, ”So you acknowledge the damage was done in your shop?” He answered “Yes”. I asked how he wanted to handle it and he said get a quote and he’d cover it.

So I had planned on having some touch-up work done on the car’s paint due to some chipping and paint peeling in one spot. Thank God for the shop I brought it to. They did excellent work and had everything back in place. From that point on I have done 95% of the work on my cars.

This picture is after the car was fixed and complete.