06 headlight recall horror story

[verbal assassin]

Long story. Before I say anything, I just want to let everyone know that I baby my car since day one and there are no scratches, swirls marks or anything like that on my 06 Black sports coupe.

I got a letter stating that my 06 headlights 'should' be replaced because of the bad aiming. I thought to myself, why not? It's free and I get to drive a 07 sedan loaner so why the hell not..

Big mistake. So I took my car in for the recall and told the dealer, "Please no car wash". They handed me the key and off I went cruising in the 07 sedan. "Nice azz car".. Push button and everything.

2 days later, I get a call saying my car is ready to go. I got to pick it up. Did a little walk around and everything looked good. Then I took a closer look at the headlights and wtf do you know? The alginment is way off. Looks like its pushed in way too deep and the passenger side is higher then the driverside.

Took a closer look at the passenger side when I notice a very nice touch up paint covering a 1" scratch.. WTF? I was pissed.

Told the service manger to come and take a look at the nice touch up paint on my barely used 3 month old car. She looked at it and was like... "This wasn't here when you brought it in right"... I looked at her like, c'mon now.. Please.. That wasn't there and it's obvious someone F'd up when they tried to put the bumper back on and scratched it.

What pissed me off the most was, some punk tried to cover it with touch up paint. Instead of taking the blame. He tried to hide it hoping that I wouldn't see it.

She went back to look at my paper work, etc... Long story short. She gave me the keys for the loaner and told me that they will fix everything. Don't worry.

3 days later, I get a call. Your car is ready. I went to take a look, the scratch is gone and it 'looks' like they did a pretty good job and the repaint. The service guy said, "I know you didn't want a car wash, but the Shop washed the car for you, I trust the shops more then I would trush our car wash so don't worry. I said, cool. Left and went on my business.

Then today, I as I washed my car outside and noticed a bunch of swirls makr all over the car. The hood has about a 2ft long scratch running across the hood. Swirls marks everywhere. Even on the turnk. Just a long scrach running across it.. I tried to buff it out but it ain't working. WTF is that? Havn't these people herd of "Microfibers"...

I now need do some major paint prepping to get rid of all these scratches. And I also notice some clear coat cracking on my passenger fender where it meets the pillar.. This is just gay. I can probably sand it down my self and probably will.

And the headlights are still way off. I don't think I will let the dealer realign them.. I'll just have to find some time and remove the bumper myself to re-align the headlamps.

What a Biotch.. You can cleary tell the clear coat is cracking where it was repainted.. I will try to sand it down but will let the dealer take a look at it first.

Oh yeah, the service guy said while he was at the bodyshop, he saw 2 more infiniti's going there for some "repaint" because I was not the only one with this problem. He said other dealerships are having the same problem when they replaced the headlamp.. I said in my mind, that this is unacceptable.. I would expect more "care" on customer cars from Infiniti.

I mean, all they had to do was tape up the fendors to prevent nicks and scratches...

So for those with the 06, and you have take it in for the recall, ur car may have been repainted w/o your knowledge...

[AZhitman]

Good info, man - I have been hearing horror stories about these as well, but different (new HL's are weak, aimed improperly, etc).

The whole 2006 HL recall appears to have been a "witch hunt", blown WAY out of proportion and based on some sketchy info in the first place.

[verbal assassin]

well, i do admit the while the installation is way off, pushed in too deep, passenger side is higher then the dirverside.. the light output is 10x better then the original.

the cut-off line are now straight... the old cut off line was a little off. left side was about 1/2 foot higher then the passenger side.

[WESIDE]

Got the recall notice couple weeks ago. I laughed. The da-n dealer wil never touch my car again.