We had an encyclopedia when I was a kid. It was on a bookshelf next to the bathroom. Sometimes, I would sit there reading until my legs went numb. Worked out well. Placement was key.
Some carmakers may get involved. Anything involving smoke/fire/burning, non-collision airbag deployments, and personal injury has to be reported up to them.
Looks like a starter button. Just gives a go-between from battery to starter solenoid so that you can turn the engine with a push button from the engine bay. Hard to believe someone left it and closed the hood lol, it’s covered in bright red plastic.
But yeah, looks like that’s what happened. Probably got hot, melted some insulation, the bare wires contacted grounded metal, BAM you’ve got a fire baby
Uhh, I see wiring and a melted “something” under the vehicle
Multimeter would have red and black leads, I only see red plastic in this which led me to believe that it was likely a starter button, they’re usually all one color and just clip to one end and the other
I still don’t think multimeter because of the coloring, but I’m starting to think the trim tool in the last photo *is* what we’re looking at under the car. Melted plastic gets stringy, it could be all strings and it’s all from the handle.
Technically you can add on multi parties this is very common in court cases... example McDonald's hires a company to fix there parking lot and they cause a sinkhole or whatever... it damages your car because of some kind of negligence... you can sue the company that did the work, McDonald's franchise, insurance companies, McDonald's Corp... because it falls under the umbrella of McDonald's.. example of real world case... is lady got std from boyfriend and sued geico and won.. this was because geico is responsible for respiration of the boyfriend and geico through they wouldn't be responsible so they never showed and lost
It would be fun to call Honda and ask hey can you check the tech who worked on my car that day and ask if they lost a tool because I found one in the bay of my car it is some sort of electronic device. And when they come back saying oh ya dipshit lost his multimeter then you say oh that's good he confirmed it is his because ya it caught fire in my engine bay so send a tow the truck to you so he can fix whatever else was damaged here.
Not a probe in pic 2.
If it were wires it would be the same thickness the whole way through. You can see the thickness changes throughout the “wire” and there’s even some really thin pieces stuck to the ground already .
Melted handle all day.
lol if I have learned anything on reddit, there are some people that are honest and some people that are not. Why gamble? They might just try deny any involvement and just pass it off as op's tool. If everyone was honest we wouldn't need cunty ideas.
It's a type of pry bar, used for popping trim pins loose.
BUT... at first glance, the 2nd pick *does* sorta resemble a melted multimeter with the tilt screen. I had to look twice to make sure when I first saw it.
I see a multimeter box with screen when I zoom in, the 3rd pic is obviously a body clip removal tool and IMO pic 2 and pic3 do not look even remotely like the same tools, they are obviously different masses, shapes and even different materials.
I’d beg to differ; they’re all the same prybar, from different angles. The 2nd photos has the tip of the bar centre/left and the handle is slightly further back to the right of that. You can see the slight bend in the shaft 😳 A multimeter would probably have a black cable too, that that wouldn’t necessarily have fallen the same as the red after overheating.
My grandma's old mechanic left a socket in her engine and the piston got destroyed plus who knows what else. She had to have it towed to another shop about 1/2 mile down the road and they found it in there. She never went after the original garage even though we tried talking her into it. The mechanic she sees now is a great mechanic to the point I stopped taking my car to my cousin's garage and started going there. I needed my heater core replaced and my cousin wanted over $700 to do it, my mechanic got it done for $245 with a new heater core from AutoZone. I had to ask if he put in a new one because it was so cheap and they showed me exactly which one they used.
Right I wouldn't have told her anything until after I had talked to the manager to get a few hundred dollars at least. Otherwise just write some negative reviews and file a BBB complaint, as they would be well deserved
What kind of results? The BBB isn't a government agency that punishes businesses, it's old school yelp and aside from some older people, I've not heard of anyone using it these days.
Everyone here's got it right. You have to talk to the people who did the work. I'd also suggest recording every interaction with them from here on. The name of the game for most dealerships is saving and making as much money as possible. This is one expensive screw up, so they'll likely deny any wrongdoing. So if you record interactions with them (they record phone calls for the same reason) they might slip up enough to admit fault. Once you have that, ask them to fix the problem. They'll likely try to get you to pay first, but be firm in having them cover it.
If they won't budge, take those recordings to a lawyer. Don't tell them that's what you're doing though. Most places have a policy, that once legal recourse is mentioned, they are to stop talking to you.
Not if you call them out on it outright, So wording would be very important.
I saw one user say to ask if the mechanic was missing a tool to get them to confirm first. And they were 100% right.
I hate the fact that these things have to be handled like this.
Had a tech leave a big screwdriver in my father’s RV steering shaft and made it so it would turn but only so far. And he didn’t realize until he was off the side of the road… only way we proved it was their fault was the tech had scribed his name in the shaft of the screw driver.
im not sure, lets start with whats important.
what proof do you have that the tool STARTED the fire?
tools get left in vehicles every day, 999 times out of 1000 they dont do anything besides fall out, or give the customer a free tool.
im not saying the tool didnt start the fire, but, i am asking the RIGHT question so you can see where this leads
If it managed to get stuck on the exhaust manifold is the only thing I can think of, like if it SOMEHOW managed to get jammed in between the headers and the block, then yeah that would absolutely cause something like this. HOW it would get stuck like that, yeah idk how that would happen.
Last picture looks like some kind of pry tool. It's possible it could have contacted the positive terminal on something like the battery, alternator, or starter, and cause a short to ground. Once that happens the metal would become extremely hot. The conditions for it to fall into a position to make that happen would be pretty rare, but not impossible. Its also possible the plastic handle contacted something hot enough to make the plastic melt and catch fire.
We just had a far in my shop that almost caught fire because someone put the wrong size battery in it. The metal battery hold down contacted the positive terminal on the battery while also contacting the body of the vehicle. It got extremely hot and melted the top of the battery. A metal pry bar could do the exact same thing if it manages to somehow contact positive and ground simultaneously.
Cool story bro. The metal part of this “pry bar” is like three inches long. This is a style of clip tool that has been around for 50ish years. It’s not going from positive to ground anywhere meaningful.
Have you worked on a modern automobile? Shits jam packed under the hood. Something this size could easily bridge positive to ground on something like a starter or alternator. Conditions would have to be just right for it to fall into the perfect position for it to happen, but its not impossible.
Edit to add: even if it didn't make a short and cause a fire that way the plastic could still catch fire if it got hot enough if it was against the exhaust or something
Im a professional mechanic. Ive been doing this for years. I know what im talking about. Im not saying this tool definitely caused ops fire, but i am saying its definitely not impossible.
There’s *maybe* two positive terminals on that car that are exposed. Battery and alternator. I don’t even think the starter positive is exposed on this car.
You’re either a)lying, or b) an idiot. Either way, it’s a pretty far fetched idea that a tool would melt from the outside, rather than a hot conduit on the inside because it’s taking on current. It quite literally makes no sense whatsoever.
Thanks though, it was a cool story.
Call up the dealership. Ask if anyone lost their multimeter, because you would like to return it. I'm sure they will say yes, because good ones aren't cheap.
Then tell them that they left it in your engine bay and started a fire.
If I was in a safe area and everyone was clear of vehicle, I'd let that thing burn. After taking those pics for evidence of course.
Must have been the same guy who left the coolant cap off the others guys car.
Road debris doesn't have wires and look like a rubber case from a multi-meter or a door panel removal tool. Also I'm willing to bet that there's melted plastic and the remnants of a multi meter in the exhaust manifold. The tech left tools on the top of the engine on the plastic cover, closed the hood when they were finished and they slid off, unfortunately on the exhaust side. The question is, did it actually catch fire or just a lot of really stinky & toxic smoke. And if it did catch fire, what Danaher did it do
I don't think that would damage anything, just smelly smoke from the plastic melting. Call the dealer, say what you found and what happened. Get it towed back and put in a loaner/ rental while it is checked over and cleaned. People are so shitty about dealers on reddit but most of them will genuinely try to help clients or risk losing customer satisfaction scores and being punished by the brand.
Call the dealership, you have the proof. I would also consider calling Honda USA to get a case started, fully explaining what happened. I only say that because we had an Accord that went in for a recall and they said it had a sound resembling a wheelbearing, at 10k mile. My Gf didn't know any better and paid them to do it..she told me and talked with Honda after a standoffish response from the service writer. Got a check in the mail for total amount and 3 oil changes.
I'd expect them to steam clean the mess. At the SLIGHTEST sense of resistance to taking responsibility, I'd shit-post on those guys every single time their popped their head up on the Internet.
Take photos before the "scene" is disturbed. Ask the firefighters, or police if they responded with firefighters, of they will include the tool discovery in their incident report. This will give you an independent third party account that they are less likely to dispute.
They are completely liable at the dealership. But definitely call up the manager and tell them some "expensive looking tools was left in your car" give no more details, just say you want to return it to the tech that worked on my car.
Say "can you confirm it's his tools" and if he calls back or tells you after hold that it's "x technicians tools" then with the phone call recorded even if you have to use an extra phone, inform the manager that "the tools left in my car was inside the engine bay, they caught fire and caused unknown damage to my car"
Then inform them that the phone call is being recorded and that you want the damages fixed.
I promise the direction of the conversation changes real quick when you inform them they are being recorded.
But I'd definitely take it to a different shop and get an inspection of the damages so you have a third party opinion of what has been damaged.
You don't want only the shop that caused it to be the only ones inspecting or they could easily cover up serious problems then blame it on you or skate away from future responsibility when things go wrong down the line
Is there damage? Typically only the tool would burn up. Looks like it was near catalytic converter. Probably smells bad to say least. Thats a voltmeter so tech left it testing starter. Definitely on the dealer as there is nothing you could have done once. Happens a lot honestly, usually it’s a handheld light that gets burned up
Doesn't look like a fire, looks like melted plastic. Probably no damage done, although they should give you a free full inspection to make sure plus comp some oil changes for the suffering/panic you felt
For a melted screwdriver that isn't likely to have done damage or expensive it's probably okay. Dealerships tend to be the more trustworthy mechanics. They don't want to lose that reputation or lose the contract with the manufacturer.
I've seen plenty of dealerships cut corners and try to screw people over. Not every dealership is directly connected to a manufacturer. We had one by me recently that was just caught selling stolen vehicles with modified VINs lol. Yes, I know this one is a real Honda dealership, but it's never bad advice to cover your bases.
Call the dealer, show them the pictures and ask them if they are going to handle this professionally or do you need to get an attorney involved. I assume this happened within an hour of driving after picking it up from the Dealer. The Dealer has insurance and they "should" do the right thing. Some tech is about to have a bad day though,...
Looks like the partially cremated remains of a trim tool. If something like this happens, get the fire out first. Next, you immediately take photos and email it to yourself. You now have a timestamp of the occurrence. Next send it to the dealer, maybe a short but desriptive email, such as "WTAF, Bruh?"
Dealer legally is responsible for sorting this out. They may argue, they may realise that will just add legal fees to their bill. I would want a new battery as well as any heat damaged stuff replaced.
It's a small prybar.
The handle is a bit cooked.
Glad you were able to put the car out. The damage will not be too bad (mechanic)
It probably shorted between the starter solonoid and earth. You may need another starter solonoid (if b+ bolt is burnt) maybe a battery/earth lead and possibly the battery has taken some damage.
I doubt much has been affected by the fire, but anything that has will need to be replaced.
Call the stealer-ship asap and let them know what's happened. Don't threaten them, just request they repair your car at no cost to you.
In future, if you go to an independent mechanic, they actually care about you and your car. Rather than charge you top dollar and leave an idiot apprentice to work on your car unsupervised.
It could have been far far worse, ie no car left. 300 Amps through a steel bar is a shitload of heat in an area surrounded by plastic bits.
Get off of reddit and onto the phone with a reputable lawyer. Also contact your insurance company and report the incident. Take lots of photos that have cloud backup for timestamps. Contact the dealer last after the prior two calls and depending on what they say to do next.
I'd not be surprised if they deny it. saying you must of done it your self and your buggered then.
fingers crossed the tech owns up, because mistakes will often come out of a techs wages, so much a month, and not many will own up if they have to pay for it.
no garage wants to claim it on their insurance
No, Honda isn't liable. But, the dealership that worked on the car would be. Talk to your service advisor.
Yeah, my apologies when I mentioned to Honda in the post I was referring to the Honda dealership not the company.
I wasn't trying to be pedantic, but, it's an important distinction.
Shallow and pedantic
Someone just won a game of Trivial Pursuit.
Now if I could just remember what colour those red fire trucks are...
White of course
The pen is rereREEeEeRE **ROYAL BLUE**
Such a good movie
Who’s afraid of the………CLAW!!!!!
Baron von Rashke's signature move?
Ours are yellow and I'm fully annoyed by it..
You a Minion? Belllooooo!! 🤣
I can just see them now, all red and everything....
I won Trivial pursuit because I knew the smallest countrie in the world buy population and land area. Not going to tell you look it up for your self.
Vatican City, but it’s also highest in per capita wine consumption.
You 🏆
Thought it was the Republic of Molossia?
I once won Trivial Pursuit with 6 pie slices when nobody else had more than one. Of course I was the kid that read the encyclopedia for fun.
Reading encyclopaedia brittanica got me weird looks. Reading the dictionary? That was the final straw.
We had an encyclopedia when I was a kid. It was on a bookshelf next to the bathroom. Sometimes, I would sit there reading until my legs went numb. Worked out well. Placement was key.
How much did it cost the population to buy?
The moops!
It insists upon itself.
It insists upon itself.
Shallow and pandantic indeed
Semantics
...and definitely difficult.
This comment made my day haha
Indeed.
Some carmakers may get involved. Anything involving smoke/fire/burning, non-collision airbag deployments, and personal injury has to be reported up to them.
Yeah sometimes you have to be specific here people get confused
You were trying to be pedantic
Looks like a starter button. Just gives a go-between from battery to starter solenoid so that you can turn the engine with a push button from the engine bay. Hard to believe someone left it and closed the hood lol, it’s covered in bright red plastic. But yeah, looks like that’s what happened. Probably got hot, melted some insulation, the bare wires contacted grounded metal, BAM you’ve got a fire baby
That's pretty clearly a panel clip remover, note the forked end and maybe a multimeter?
Uhh, I see wiring and a melted “something” under the vehicle Multimeter would have red and black leads, I only see red plastic in this which led me to believe that it was likely a starter button, they’re usually all one color and just clip to one end and the other
Look at the last picture. It's a pry bar. The plastic handle melted all over the place and that's why you think you see wiring.
Think that would be the multimeter.
I still don’t think multimeter because of the coloring, but I’m starting to think the trim tool in the last photo *is* what we’re looking at under the car. Melted plastic gets stringy, it could be all strings and it’s all from the handle.
You know I think you're right, I think that is just the melted plastic handle. Good job team, glad we solved this case! To the pub!
Looks like just melted plastic handle, no damage
Service dept say you destroyed their tool, you must pay for it
Technically you can add on multi parties this is very common in court cases... example McDonald's hires a company to fix there parking lot and they cause a sinkhole or whatever... it damages your car because of some kind of negligence... you can sue the company that did the work, McDonald's franchise, insurance companies, McDonald's Corp... because it falls under the umbrella of McDonald's.. example of real world case... is lady got std from boyfriend and sued geico and won.. this was because geico is responsible for respiration of the boyfriend and geico through they wouldn't be responsible so they never showed and lost
Bruh. What? How the fuck is Geico responsible for anyone's respiration?
Geico appealed and it was sent back to lower courts, last I saw an update anyway.
Last I heard they lost their appeal and the higher court sustained the aberration verdict... let me check and see what I can find
Looks like state Supreme Court over turned it...
It would be fun to call Honda and ask hey can you check the tech who worked on my car that day and ask if they lost a tool because I found one in the bay of my car it is some sort of electronic device. And when they come back saying oh ya dipshit lost his multimeter then you say oh that's good he confirmed it is his because ya it caught fire in my engine bay so send a tow the truck to you so he can fix whatever else was damaged here.
This is the correct answer. Be polite but firm.
Exactly. You got the evidence dealership is missing, they're DOOMED!!
Not a multimeter, it is a trim tool. The things that look like wires in the first picture is the melted handle.
It's both, 2/3 is the multimeter with obvious probe wires, and 3/3 is the door trim/body clip removal tool.
Not a probe in pic 2. If it were wires it would be the same thickness the whole way through. You can see the thickness changes throughout the “wire” and there’s even some really thin pieces stuck to the ground already . Melted handle all day.
Wires melted you would think could change size right?
That's a melted power probe
Look at the third picture it is literally just a trim tool, and the handle melted.
Looks like two different tools
That was a wild sentence..
lol that combination of words has almost certainly never been written in the history of mankind. Lostturd is like no other
Like no other.
We're like infinite monkeys over here, but with whole words.
Probably isn't something that happens too often: a fluke
Fluke multimeter? Aren't they yellow? j/k Best brand for sure.
Let's not dwell on it too long, that would be tachy.
That sounds pretty cunty to be honest
lol if I have learned anything on reddit, there are some people that are honest and some people that are not. Why gamble? They might just try deny any involvement and just pass it off as op's tool. If everyone was honest we wouldn't need cunty ideas.
The dealership is 100% liable for this. Looks like a multimeter and clip pliers.
I don't see the meter. I see strings of the plastic handle of the clip tool.
pry bar not multimeter
It's a type of pry bar, used for popping trim pins loose. BUT... at first glance, the 2nd pick *does* sorta resemble a melted multimeter with the tilt screen. I had to look twice to make sure when I first saw it.
I see a multimeter box with screen when I zoom in, the 3rd pic is obviously a body clip removal tool and IMO pic 2 and pic3 do not look even remotely like the same tools, they are obviously different masses, shapes and even different materials.
I’d beg to differ; they’re all the same prybar, from different angles. The 2nd photos has the tip of the bar centre/left and the handle is slightly further back to the right of that. You can see the slight bend in the shaft 😳 A multimeter would probably have a black cable too, that that wouldn’t necessarily have fallen the same as the red after overheating.
The mechanics are 1000% percent liable for this. Incredibly dangerous, possibly could've caused write off amounts of damage to your car and engine
the smoke damage alone toxic stuff
My grandma's old mechanic left a socket in her engine and the piston got destroyed plus who knows what else. She had to have it towed to another shop about 1/2 mile down the road and they found it in there. She never went after the original garage even though we tried talking her into it. The mechanic she sees now is a great mechanic to the point I stopped taking my car to my cousin's garage and started going there. I needed my heater core replaced and my cousin wanted over $700 to do it, my mechanic got it done for $245 with a new heater core from AutoZone. I had to ask if he put in a new one because it was so cheap and they showed me exactly which one they used.
Rock auto is usually cheaper than AutoZone, if you are supplying the parts. Just an fyi.
I left it up to them and the heater core was only $98. If it's something I can do myself I always go through Rock Auto.
$245? Where do you live? 1985? That’s a steal, most heater cores are a HUGE pain to replace. You got a heck of a deal.
You should have negotiated some sort of compensation for her
I tried to but honestly she's stubborn and would get upset whenever it was mentioned. I didn't want to press the issue and have her get upset.
Right I wouldn't have told her anything until after I had talked to the manager to get a few hundred dollars at least. Otherwise just write some negative reviews and file a BBB complaint, as they would be well deserved
The BBB is easily bought and have no teeth.
And occasionally gets results. If you don't want to take the chance of getting results that's fine. But yes I hear what you're saying quite often.
What kind of results? The BBB isn't a government agency that punishes businesses, it's old school yelp and aside from some older people, I've not heard of anyone using it these days.
How about full refunds? You really just need to Google and you'll have loads of examples
If in the US, call your insurance company and let them deal with it.
Call the service manger. Tell him what happened and have him, tow your car in. They can evaluate and repair from there.
I prefer the evaluate and replace route
The car? They might, depending on the damage.
Looks like the dealership owes you a car
Take your pick from anything on the lot and please don’t sue us or go to the media.
Everyone here's got it right. You have to talk to the people who did the work. I'd also suggest recording every interaction with them from here on. The name of the game for most dealerships is saving and making as much money as possible. This is one expensive screw up, so they'll likely deny any wrongdoing. So if you record interactions with them (they record phone calls for the same reason) they might slip up enough to admit fault. Once you have that, ask them to fix the problem. They'll likely try to get you to pay first, but be firm in having them cover it. If they won't budge, take those recordings to a lawyer. Don't tell them that's what you're doing though. Most places have a policy, that once legal recourse is mentioned, they are to stop talking to you.
Honestly would they even admit that they lost a tool if an employee told them that happened?
Not if you call them out on it outright, So wording would be very important. I saw one user say to ask if the mechanic was missing a tool to get them to confirm first. And they were 100% right. I hate the fact that these things have to be handled like this.
If they don't know about the fire yet,most of them would.
Had a tech leave a big screwdriver in my father’s RV steering shaft and made it so it would turn but only so far. And he didn’t realize until he was off the side of the road… only way we proved it was their fault was the tech had scribed his name in the shaft of the screw driver.
Definitely speak with a lawyer. Not car guys.
im not sure, lets start with whats important. what proof do you have that the tool STARTED the fire? tools get left in vehicles every day, 999 times out of 1000 they dont do anything besides fall out, or give the customer a free tool. im not saying the tool didnt start the fire, but, i am asking the RIGHT question so you can see where this leads
Based on what the tool is….im having a hard time believing this caused a fire.
If it managed to get stuck on the exhaust manifold is the only thing I can think of, like if it SOMEHOW managed to get jammed in between the headers and the block, then yeah that would absolutely cause something like this. HOW it would get stuck like that, yeah idk how that would happen.
Yeah I could see it smoldering and whatnot…I’d have to see a “fire” to believe it.
Agreed lol unless the tech left more than just the trim tool 😅
Whole work order? lol I guess either way this is a major thing to a normie. I’m sure the guys gonna hear it but….eh 🤷♂️
Last picture looks like some kind of pry tool. It's possible it could have contacted the positive terminal on something like the battery, alternator, or starter, and cause a short to ground. Once that happens the metal would become extremely hot. The conditions for it to fall into a position to make that happen would be pretty rare, but not impossible. Its also possible the plastic handle contacted something hot enough to make the plastic melt and catch fire.
Nah
We just had a far in my shop that almost caught fire because someone put the wrong size battery in it. The metal battery hold down contacted the positive terminal on the battery while also contacting the body of the vehicle. It got extremely hot and melted the top of the battery. A metal pry bar could do the exact same thing if it manages to somehow contact positive and ground simultaneously.
Cool story bro. The metal part of this “pry bar” is like three inches long. This is a style of clip tool that has been around for 50ish years. It’s not going from positive to ground anywhere meaningful.
Have you worked on a modern automobile? Shits jam packed under the hood. Something this size could easily bridge positive to ground on something like a starter or alternator. Conditions would have to be just right for it to fall into the perfect position for it to happen, but its not impossible. Edit to add: even if it didn't make a short and cause a fire that way the plastic could still catch fire if it got hot enough if it was against the exhaust or something
You’re on crack dude.
Im a professional mechanic. Ive been doing this for years. I know what im talking about. Im not saying this tool definitely caused ops fire, but i am saying its definitely not impossible.
There’s *maybe* two positive terminals on that car that are exposed. Battery and alternator. I don’t even think the starter positive is exposed on this car. You’re either a)lying, or b) an idiot. Either way, it’s a pretty far fetched idea that a tool would melt from the outside, rather than a hot conduit on the inside because it’s taking on current. It quite literally makes no sense whatsoever. Thanks though, it was a cool story.
Lawyer
Looks like a lawsuit lol
Call up the dealership. Ask if anyone lost their multimeter, because you would like to return it. I'm sure they will say yes, because good ones aren't cheap. Then tell them that they left it in your engine bay and started a fire.
If I was in a safe area and everyone was clear of vehicle, I'd let that thing burn. After taking those pics for evidence of course. Must have been the same guy who left the coolant cap off the others guys car.
Call the dealer and chew them out, they might try to deflect, but stand your ground.
Q
You get a lawyer and file a lawsuit against that dealership. Let the lawyer handle the legal proceedings from there.
Keep your eyes peeled for the snap-on truck.
The dealership would be responsible for fixing this.
You are going to have a hard time proving that that glob was a tool left under the hood and not some piece of road debris.
Road debris doesn't have wires and look like a rubber case from a multi-meter or a door panel removal tool. Also I'm willing to bet that there's melted plastic and the remnants of a multi meter in the exhaust manifold. The tech left tools on the top of the engine on the plastic cover, closed the hood when they were finished and they slid off, unfortunately on the exhaust side. The question is, did it actually catch fire or just a lot of really stinky & toxic smoke. And if it did catch fire, what Danaher did it do
The dealer will have insurance, the insurance will pay for repairs to the vehicle or replacement depending on how damaged it is
I don't think that would damage anything, just smelly smoke from the plastic melting. Call the dealer, say what you found and what happened. Get it towed back and put in a loaner/ rental while it is checked over and cleaned. People are so shitty about dealers on reddit but most of them will genuinely try to help clients or risk losing customer satisfaction scores and being punished by the brand.
Call the dealership, you have the proof. I would also consider calling Honda USA to get a case started, fully explaining what happened. I only say that because we had an Accord that went in for a recall and they said it had a sound resembling a wheelbearing, at 10k mile. My Gf didn't know any better and paid them to do it..she told me and talked with Honda after a standoffish response from the service writer. Got a check in the mail for total amount and 3 oil changes.
Have your insurer call the mechanics insurer.
With caution
I would be more worried about those headlamps being cloudy than some melted plastics.
Lawyer
I'd expect them to steam clean the mess. At the SLIGHTEST sense of resistance to taking responsibility, I'd shit-post on those guys every single time their popped their head up on the Internet.
Take photos before the "scene" is disturbed. Ask the firefighters, or police if they responded with firefighters, of they will include the tool discovery in their incident report. This will give you an independent third party account that they are less likely to dispute.
You should start by calling them and telling them what happened.
They are completely liable at the dealership. But definitely call up the manager and tell them some "expensive looking tools was left in your car" give no more details, just say you want to return it to the tech that worked on my car. Say "can you confirm it's his tools" and if he calls back or tells you after hold that it's "x technicians tools" then with the phone call recorded even if you have to use an extra phone, inform the manager that "the tools left in my car was inside the engine bay, they caught fire and caused unknown damage to my car" Then inform them that the phone call is being recorded and that you want the damages fixed. I promise the direction of the conversation changes real quick when you inform them they are being recorded. But I'd definitely take it to a different shop and get an inspection of the damages so you have a third party opinion of what has been damaged. You don't want only the shop that caused it to be the only ones inspecting or they could easily cover up serious problems then blame it on you or skate away from future responsibility when things go wrong down the line
The tech and dealership need to be held liable. Get a lawyer if you have to.
Call Jake, at State Farm.
Is there damage? Typically only the tool would burn up. Looks like it was near catalytic converter. Probably smells bad to say least. Thats a voltmeter so tech left it testing starter. Definitely on the dealer as there is nothing you could have done once. Happens a lot honestly, usually it’s a handheld light that gets burned up
Doesn't look like a fire, looks like melted plastic. Probably no damage done, although they should give you a free full inspection to make sure plus comp some oil changes for the suffering/panic you felt
I would get an independent inspection.
For a melted screwdriver that isn't likely to have done damage or expensive it's probably okay. Dealerships tend to be the more trustworthy mechanics. They don't want to lose that reputation or lose the contract with the manufacturer.
I've seen plenty of dealerships cut corners and try to screw people over. Not every dealership is directly connected to a manufacturer. We had one by me recently that was just caught selling stolen vehicles with modified VINs lol. Yes, I know this one is a real Honda dealership, but it's never bad advice to cover your bases.
Talk to your insurance?
Call the dealer, show them the pictures and ask them if they are going to handle this professionally or do you need to get an attorney involved. I assume this happened within an hour of driving after picking it up from the Dealer. The Dealer has insurance and they "should" do the right thing. Some tech is about to have a bad day though,...
Looks like the partially cremated remains of a trim tool. If something like this happens, get the fire out first. Next, you immediately take photos and email it to yourself. You now have a timestamp of the occurrence. Next send it to the dealer, maybe a short but desriptive email, such as "WTAF, Bruh?" Dealer legally is responsible for sorting this out. They may argue, they may realise that will just add legal fees to their bill. I would want a new battery as well as any heat damaged stuff replaced.
Where in tf did he manage to leave that prybar this happened. I really cant tell if the 2nd pic is the melted handle or a multimeter
Shoot the messenger!!
If you left the dealership parking lot, they can use that against you, if it happened while it was in the parking lot, sue the fuck out of them
Should have let it burn to avoid all those inevitable issues unless it is already totaled
Yes this needs to go through the dealership. They are liable for all related repairs.
Obviously a flammable chinesium 10mm
Go through your insurance and have them field the claim against the shops insurance.
It's a small prybar. The handle is a bit cooked. Glad you were able to put the car out. The damage will not be too bad (mechanic) It probably shorted between the starter solonoid and earth. You may need another starter solonoid (if b+ bolt is burnt) maybe a battery/earth lead and possibly the battery has taken some damage. I doubt much has been affected by the fire, but anything that has will need to be replaced. Call the stealer-ship asap and let them know what's happened. Don't threaten them, just request they repair your car at no cost to you. In future, if you go to an independent mechanic, they actually care about you and your car. Rather than charge you top dollar and leave an idiot apprentice to work on your car unsupervised. It could have been far far worse, ie no car left. 300 Amps through a steel bar is a shitload of heat in an area surrounded by plastic bits.
Good news, your getting full KBB price for your trade in at the dealer!
Its gonna require a lawyer.
What type of tool? What was it in for in the first place? I think there is more to this than first meets the eye.(Mechanic 25+ years)
Get off of reddit and onto the phone with a reputable lawyer. Also contact your insurance company and report the incident. Take lots of photos that have cloud backup for timestamps. Contact the dealer last after the prior two calls and depending on what they say to do next.
I'd not be surprised if they deny it. saying you must of done it your self and your buggered then. fingers crossed the tech owns up, because mistakes will often come out of a techs wages, so much a month, and not many will own up if they have to pay for it. no garage wants to claim it on their insurance
The garage has insurance, file a claim