My AWD dsm got towed - Enter

[Black_Bullet]

Ok so I parked at my friends college campus dorms yesterday coming by to visit and even went inside to get a 24parking permit. All the visitor spots were taken and I couldnt park across the street, so I parked in the very next space to the last visitor spot and put my parking pass on the window.

Come out of his house 2 hours later or so and my car is ####ing gone.
Now at this point im ready to stab the shit out of someone.
Well I call the tow company and I need ####ing 156 dollars out of my pocket that I dont have to get my car out. I asked them how the car was towed and asked was it flatbedded because its AWD and the guy said yea and he went blabbing on with his tow truck drivers have x amount of years experience they know how to tow.

Well I feel like an idiot because now I think he's just saying that to cover his ass, I should have pressed him harder about how it was towed before revealing to him it was AWD in case he really didnt know that.
And he kept saying it came in on a flatbed, i told him by the way that it was parked they wouldnt have been able to get a flatbed in the campus at the angle I parked. I also had my ebrake up if that helps any...

Then he said they used the regular tow truck to pick it up and move it so they could use the flatbed. I dont know how far they could've dragged it with 2wheels on the ground or what, IF they even really used a flatbed at all. The security guard at HCC was some old guy but he didnt remember seeing a flatbed but I dont feel he was a reliable source of info either.

So now what do I do, how do I diagnose my drivetrain for strain or damage if they didnt use a flatbed. How likely is there damage even if towed with 2 in the air for a short amount of time. Would it be easily obvious to me when I get in my car and drive off? Or would it drive normal but still have horrible wear and tear? Whats the sympthoms of an improperly working VC? If the shits Fu##ed up in any way I want to take them to court and try to get them to cover any and all damages...

If the guy is lieing and they really didnt tow it correctly, Id rather it to be completely obviously f*cked up than to be half working were its hard to tell.

 

[fwdmaster]

Damm that sucks, I would just drive it hard and see if anything got damged or hear any wierd noises

 

[Black_Bullet]

Damm that sucks, I would just drive it hard and see if anything got damged or hear any wierd noises

Another thing that sucked right now is that I have a bad clutch. Its slipping pretty bad under any kind of boost. I was about to order a new clutch setup for it this week with my last little scraping of money. The car is only driveable to were I can get to and from work/school and daily commutes without seeing any boost. So your method wouldnt work anyway...

 

[Jdiddy2k4]

Don't they have to fill out some information on file? Like the driver's id or something and maybe even tow truck license number? Then maybe you could cross reference the truck license with the actual truck and see if it is a flatbed

 

[Black_Bullet]

Don't they have to fill out some information on file? Like the driver's id or something and maybe even tow truck license number? Then maybe you could cross reference the truck license with the actual truck and see if it is a flatbed

I dont know I will check though.

 

[solidviper89]

dude that sucks... something had to give up internally... somethings broken now its ## job to find out what!

#### getting towed

 

[Zack Huffman]

This is why I have the "AWD, flatbed tow only!" sticker on the front glass right beside the VIN. I also always leave the car in 1st gear with the e-brake pulled pretty tight when I park.

Sorry to hear, FWIW I hope they really did use a flatbed.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

A couple of feet means a 10-12 feet. Guarantee they didnt tow that car only a few feet. and i can guarantee that a few feet is enough to break something. Make sure that you inspect that car fully before it leaves the impound.

James

 

[VPrime]

My car was towed improperly roughly 15-20 km... I never noticed it acting weird afterward.

 

[Black_Bullet]

Well luckily my mom was able to spot me the money to get my car. I hate having to go to her to always bail me out for stuff like this but I am at least glad to have my car back.

I had my boy follow me to pick it up. When I get there aside from me giving them the run around with on all the most penetrating question I could come up with, the tow truck drive says again that they pulled it out of the complex and then flat bedded it. He says the driver probably lifted it from the back to pull it out since the ebrake was up. So I say ok and I then expected the car a little and nothing seemed to be out of normal, except untill I drove it...

All the way home down the interestate I felt this weird pulsation in the rear end of the car that increased with speed. I got off the interestate and decieded to take MLK home thru the city since I wasnt comfortable at the highspeeds in this situation. I have no idea what the issue is since Im thinking if anything in the drivetrain is destroyed it would be the tcase, vicious coupler, or center diff which is all up front.

When I get home and inspect it again I come up with this-

Rear Left tire

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Rear right tire

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

This a large flat spot on the tire worn down to the damn threads. Obviously, common sense would say since I did park with my ebrake up some how the ebrake managed to hold the rear tires still enough to eat at only one portion of the tire. But to eat this deep into the tire, Im thinking these motha####as had to have dragged my car for some distance.

Also notice how the rear left tire was much more ate down than the rear right tire.
Perhaps the brake wasnt holding as strong on that side? The flat spots werent perfectly symmetrical nor parallel, the only way I can explain it is think of the flatspots like cam gears- the rear left was more advanced and the rear right was more retarded ( in relation to each other, so one wheel had to turn some, likely the less eaten up one)
Unless they made a few turns while they were dragging the car.
If that ^ didnt make sense then dont worry about that part...

The only optimistic thought I had at this point is that perhaps the ebrake saved my drive train from issues being that the rear tires werent really turning as the front ones were up in the air staying still.
I mean there could still definitely be damage if the ebrake let go at any point, but the brake still felt strong and when i picked the car up from the towing place the Ebrake was still up and the front tires still in the direction I left them...

My mom is helping me get all the information together and all my facts straight and more solid evidence so that we can threaten them and hope they at LEAST buy me all brand new tires for the car in replacement of the exact ones Ihave. If they arent willing to do that then we are just going to try our luck at civil court since there wouldnt be much else I could do...

 

[Burnett03]

The tires look pretty worn to begin with pal. The pulsating is most likely an unbalanced tire.

 

[Black_Bullet]

The tires look pretty worn to begin with pal. The pulsating is most likely an unbalanced tire.

Your not making sense, the tires have plenty of tread life on them, and there was NO pulseating before this tow truck improperly towed my car off. The pulsations are from the rubber of the tire being eaten down so low that the tire is no longer rolling in a perfect circle similar to how a car would feel if it had a knot/ or bubble in the tire.

And the tread life of the tires are besides the point, the pictures are ment to illustrate the damage, and all the thread showing. It just goes to prove my car was towed improperly and probably shows the tow truck people I spoke with were lieing...

 

[Deadly BlaZe]

The pulsating is most likely an unbalanced tire.

Wrong. Even with the slightest irregularity or unevenness on the tire, you will feel pulsating. I would go to them, show them what they did, ask for compensation. If they refuse, tell them you will sue them.

And yes, your hand brake probably saved your drive train.

 

[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

You need to prove that they did tow it incorrectly. I'm not saying you did but you can flat spot tires other ways than towing it incorrectly. Just because your tires are flat spotted doesn't prove they towed it incorrectly on its own. What I would do is go back to the parking spot your car was parked in and if they did tow it incorrectly there should be black marks on the road from them dragging the car. Try to find that and snap a few pics of it and follow them see where they lead to. That's my only suggestion.

 

[Black_Bullet]

You need to prove that they did tow it incorrectly. I'm not saying you did but you can flat spot tires other ways than towing it incorrectly. Just because your tires are flat spotted doesn't prove they towed it incorrectly on its own. What I would do is go back to the parking spot your car parked in and if they did tow it incorrectly there should be black marks on the road from them dragging the car. Try to find that and snap a few pics of it and follow them see where they lead to. That's my only suggestion.

Unfortuantly you are correct, I was already talking about that earlier with my friend.
I need to try to get a copy of the camera footage from the school and that would make my position much more solid, and I thought about checking the roads for tire marks.
That could also give me an idea of how far they pulled it like this.

 

[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

Unfortuantly you are correct, I was already talking about that earlier with my friend.
I need to try to get a copy of the camera footage from the school and that would make my position much more solid, and I thought about checking the roads for tire marks.
That could also give me an idea of how far they pulled it like this.

Exactly. Kind of like having the murder weapon (flat spotted tires) but no DNA (Tire Marks) to link it to the suspect. The suspect gets off due to inadequate evidence.

Those tires do look murdered though!

 

[slipstream808]

I'm gonna follow this thread. I hate towing companies (parking lot kind - I only use the ones that don't tow for parking lots) and want some justice served. I hope you get it.

 

[dazzellerr]

since i am at a junk yard/tow yard, i will help out on the procedure a little...

office person gets the call about an illegal car parked somewhere.
that person calls a driver, usually just a regular truck unless a flatbed is requested.
driver shows up at the location of the illegally parked vehicle.
hooks up, tows it off to the impound yard.
driver also then must fill out what is called a yard card. this card has the vin, license number, driver, location, hours of time it took to tow the vehicle, ect.
you go down and pay to have your car released, take it home.

now, what you can do is find out which driver it is, and then find out which rig he drives. you will find this info out on the yard card on which driver it was. i know our guys have their own rigs they tow with (they are the companies, but they are assigned a specific tow rig.) sometimes, if someone is not available that day, the tow rig from another driver is used on their day off, but for the most part, each driver has their own tow truck. you need to find out which driver it was in order to find out which truck it was.
hope this helps coming from an insiders mouth.

 

[Black_Bullet]

since i am at a junk yard/tow yard, i will help out on the procedure a little...

office person gets the call about an illegal car parked somewhere.
that person calls a driver, usually just a regular truck unless a flatbed is requested.
driver shows up at the location of the illegally parked vehicle.
hooks up, tows it off to the impound yard.
driver also then must fill out what is called a yard card. this card has the vin, license number, driver, location, hours of time it took to tow the vehicle, ect.
you go down and pay to have your car released, take it home.

now, what you can do is find out which driver it is, and then find out which rig he drives. you will find this info out on the yard card on which driver it was. i know our guys have their own rigs they tow with (they are the companies, but they are assigned a specific tow rig.) sometimes, if someone is not available that day, the tow rig from another driver is used on their day off, but for the most part, each driver has their own tow truck. you need to find out which driver it was in order to find out which truck it was.
hope this helps coming from an insiders mouth.

The place I got my car towed from doesnt call in illegal parking, they just have their rules already set and the towing company is on a contract with them I guess to just lerk around and snatch up a bunch of peoples cars.

When I was picking up my car I was trying to find out which driver it was, and they gave me some bullshit about about they couldnt tell me for the drivers safetly and that they didnt remember who it was. They were telling a shit load of lies, just a bunch of scum bags.

 

[N1te]

Having any drag on the tires should be compelling enough evidence to get compensation, perhaps even enough to get some of your drivetrain fixed, which is no doubt in the least slightly damaged. Maybe them pulling your car damaged your clutch, I mean it is part of the drivetrain, it certainly is possible. A good tow truck driver can get your car on aflatbed without using a regular car to pull it out. They're called rollers. If they don't comp you, sue them. It's a very simple process, you could even do it yourself, you just go down to your small claims court and file a complaint. Best of luck to you.

 

[illeffekt vr-4]

Is there any way you can check the security/surveillance tapes at the college? That way you can see what tow truck came and what they did.

 

[1gTurboTuner]

I'm gonna follow this thread. I hate towing companies (parking lot kind - I only use the ones that don't tow for parking lots) and want some justice served. I hope you get it.

What towing company doesn't tow for parking lots when they get a call to? Don't generalize towing company's together they are not all the same some are very professional, parking lot towing accounts for a lot of a towing company's business (around 20% or more in some cases) so the only company's i could see that wouldn't do a parking lot tow are company's that don't do light or medium duty towing business. At least that's how it works around here.

The towing company should have used dolly's to make sure that his vehicles tires were all elevated because its an AWD. So you should bring that up with the company, ask why dolly's weren't used to avoid the tire problem.

EDIT:

The towing company does know the driver for that tow, the one I have worked with has every driver sign the ticket with a driver number.

 

[Black_Bullet]

I spoke with some lady at the tow truck company earlier this mourning and she just took my information down and was going to fax it to the owner and have him call me back. The lady I spoke with over the phone even suggested for me to just take it to someone to inspect it so I can get something written down by a proffesional based on the damages.

Id love to take it to my mechanic Drew and have him write me out some statement that not only my rear tires being screwed, but my drivetrain as well so I can possibly walk out with more but as of this momment I wont gamble with that for now and Ill just at least work on getting new tires and see if the company would just be willing to replace them without any court situation. Since itd be only Civil court it may not be worth the headache to try to get more out of them or go thru more loops on what I can prove is damaged, especially if they are willing to at least replace ALL the tires without any hassle. ( Thats also hopeing there isnt any other damage)

I am taking my car up to a tire shop in a few mins to get them to write me out some kind of statement showing the damages done and hopefully get them to agree with me that the car needs all four new tires and not just two ( being its a AWD vehicle) and have them sign off on it and then perhaps I can take that statement to the tow truck company.

Having any drag on the tires should be compelling enough evidence to get compensation, perhaps even enough to get some of your drivetrain fixed, which is no doubt in the least slightly damaged. Maybe them pulling your car damaged your clutch, I mean it is part of the drivetrain, it certainly is possible. A good tow truck driver can get your car on aflatbed without using a regular car to pull it out. They're called rollers. If they don't comp you, sue them. It's a very simple process, you could even do it yourself, you just go down to your small claims court and file a complaint. Best of luck to you.

They can try to deny the damages and say the tires were already like that...
Its all what you can prove man... which yea It sucks, therefore I am going to try to handle this in a level headed manner and see if they are just at least willing to work with me on purchasing all new tires for my vehicle. And not any non name brand or crap tires, replacing the exact tires I have now..

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

DUDE. I TOLD YOU TO FULLY INSPECT THE CAR BEFORE LEAVING!!!!!! You could have avoided the whole situation if you just checked everything out. I hope everything goes well. That sucks man. I told you they drug that thing for more than a couple feet!!!!

James

 

[Black_Bullet]

I know I was just so pissed at the time I wasnt thinking straight, I did look at the tires but it must've been sitting on top of the flatspot, and the tires were covered in dirt so it kind of hid it. I kicked the dirt of when I drove it, so therefore I immediately noticed it when I got home.