The agency that insures and documents cars is investigating itself for failing to document vehicles it sold from its own repair shop.

The cars were involved in accidents and then repaired -- but if you bought a used vehicle from the Insurance Corporation of B.C.'s Burnaby research and repair shop, the company might not have told you about the crash.

Employees at the ICBC repair shop have been put on administrative leave and the shop shut down while the company investigates whether they failed to provide the proper documentation.

About 174 vehicles were fixed at the shop and sold to the public over the last 10 years.

ICBC won't give details of the facility but its president, Paul Taylor, said employees would not have profited financially by keeping a vehicle's accident history secret.

"At this stage we don't believe this is an issue around safety," said Taylor. "But out of utmost caution we are proposing to have all vehicles inspected."

When a car crashes, and is written off by ICBC, it may end up here in the repair shop, a non-descript building in Burnaby.

Inside, ICBC experts use the vehicles to research new repair techniques. When they're done, the cars are sold to the public -- and ICBC is supposed to let the buyer know about the accident using a form.

But it seems ICBC employees may not have properly filled out their own form.

On Thursday, the facility was closed and protected by security guards. ICBC is contacting everyone who may have been affected.

"We're confident we can track down the owners of these vehicles," said Taylor.

If you bought a used vehicle from a repair shop run by the Insurance Corporation of B.C., you may get a call from them saying that there's something you should have known when you bought the car.

If you're buying a used vehicle and want to make sure it hasn't been in an accident, you can check your vehicle history or get the vehicle inspected.

You'll need your vehicle VIN, your vehicle make, model, and year. Inspections cost $20 or $59.95, and you can find out more information at an ICBC website, http://www.icbc.com/buy_car/vehicle_claims_history.asp.