Just had my work truck front end rebuilt and alligned, and now it wants to wander from side to side. I am assuming this is caused by either improper toe in or not enough caster. The truck drove great before the new alignment. The guy that did the work is trying to tell me he has tightened the ball joints too tight and to bring it back so he can loosen them to solve the problem. Makes me question whether or not the truck even needed new ball joints...... like the service man at a Ford dealership who told me last week that my truck badly needed a fuel filter and that my engine would be harmed if I didn't replace it. I had taken it back on a recall to fix an engine sensor. My reply was...you are telling me the one I put in last week in already bad? It is just getting harder all the time to find a reputable mechanic. I am through ranting....just wondering if I am the only one that has bumped into anyone like that.
My favorite was my wife taking our F-150 into the dealership and the service writer telling her that the gas tank needed to be removed and flushed. Truck had 16,000 miles on it, never in deep water and was running perfectly absolutely no engine issues. Just went in for oil change that was free with the purchase of the truck. My wife didn't bite but she set in the waiting room and listened to him sell an older woman the same line of crap only the woman (who was recently widowed) didn't know better and blew $600.00 on the work. I'll bet the service writer would be real happy if someone pulled that crap on his wife/mother.
Would have been nice if she called him on it. I would have at least written a very pointed letter to the president of the dealership,with a copy to the corporate headquarters. This is what happens when service people get commissions on work performed.The objective shifts from fixing cars,to generating commissions.
Holy Moog-joints Bassfire! Has he checked the finnegan pins? Are the muffler-bearings spawled? Loosen-the-ball-joints...things that make ya go hmmm?
Yeah, I went to my Dodge dealership with a transmission problem. Writer wouldn't even talk to me about it until they'd replaced the plugs, wires and fuel filter for $300 (several years ago). $30 in parts and an hour's work later I came back and he discovered that the plugs, etc had nothing to do with the bad tranny -- which was a warranty deal. LOML took our latest in to same dealership and got charged $70 to read the "check engine" code -- and to get the gas cap tightened. Yep, raised a little cain with dealership over that, especially since we had owned the van for about 6 weeks at the time. Only thing that saved them from more problems was an A/C line blew and ruined compressor -- this time it was warranty, no question.
How in the hell does one make a ball joint too tight? is that even possible? if it's wandering, most likely culprit is a faulty Alignment Tech.
"LOML took our latest in to same dealership and got charged $70 to read the "check engine" code -- and to get the gas cap tightened." Our local AutoZone (and I guess all AZ stores) will give you a free code reading and even give you a copy of the print-out from the scanner.
My old man went to Goodyear for an oil change. Service guy told him his rear shocks were leaking oil. He even showed him they had oil on them. Dad told him my son will check them out. I took it to my friends shop with a lift and they were dry. Hes still running them and its been about two years.
Yeah..had a good laugh about it and told him I knew better. Gonna wait til his boss is back to work and take it back to him. Could just be the muffler bearings or the thingamajig too.
Actually I installed a full set of aftermarket auto parts store ball joints into a 2002 Dodge four wheel drive and the guy couldn,t drive it afterwards. Yes the balljoints were too tight! Ordered a set of OEM balljoints and installed them...all fixed after that. Cheap off shore shit parts......
Like any other industry, the "Auto trade" is staffed by both good and bad people, skill and knowledge wise and honesty wise. Don't accept poor service or dishonesty, vote with your feet!
I had an air conditioner go out in a nissan once, and the mechanic kept insisting that it wasn't blowing cold because my battery was old and not up to snuff. So I yelled at him to let me pull the battery out and take it to autozone to have them test it. brought it back to him in 30 minutes with a print out saying it was fine. I then said, "Now would you just fix my A/C please??"
For every one thats dishonest, there's 10 that are upstanding and rightous. Just remember that. I've been an ASE Master since 1986, been fighting the uphill battle with the schiesters since then. It gets tiring.
Lux....in his best "broken English" be told me that several other cars had acted the same and he had to loosen theball joints up. Maybe that's how they fix em where he is from..I do know the parts came from a NAPA store and should be ok. Like you, I don't see any way to tighten a ball joint too tight. I have used this shop for a number of years and been pleased with the work, so I am gonna give the boss/owner a chance to make it right.
I used to have a '67 F100 that was just a beater. But I had completely gone through the front end, new king pins, bronze bushings, radius arm bushing, tie rod ends, drag link, even the I beam bushings. Had it aligned by the best guy around. New brakes all around. It drove like new, probably better. I took it in for a state inspection and the service manager came back out and said the whole front end was shot, and the brakes were gone and it would be $1000+ to fix it. I just laughed because I thought he was joking. He was serious, so I said well, lets see whats worn out. I had the guy let it down so I could get my log book out of the glove compartment and had them lift it back up. As he named things, I pulled a receipt. He was getting pissed, "well the kingpins... I had the tech check them and they were tight and of course I had not only the receipt but the ticket where I had the reaming and alignment done. "You might have all of those receipts but how can you be sure the work was done?" I said, "I did most all of it myself"... , showed him my ASE card and told him to get the wheels back on and get it off of his lift. He passed it with no defects and paid for the inspection out of his pocket. A-hole.
we have a policy here at our shop. if a customer 'shops' us for work (especially women), we encourage them to 'shop' 3 or 4 other shops in town and even give them the name and number of two of the best shops in town. then we tell them if they choose to go with another shop for what ever reason, they can call us back to verify whether or not the fix and/or price sounds appropriate. it perplexes the hell out of people. then i let them know that they WILL find someone to do it cheaper, but not better, and they should expect a mickey mouse fix to wind up costing them in the long run. i'm always right.
Feel-good story that I feel I hae to add here: Took my non-HAMB-friendly car for a service today at the local dealer. In addition to doing the service (for less than quoted), they gave me a new wiper blade (old one split but I hadnt bothered to swap it out), repaired a nail through the rear tyre AND swapped out a leaking water pump, all free of charge. Muchos impressed.
My brother-in-law and my nephew run a shop, open 26 years. He does the same thing, tells them up front the neighborhood of what the job will be when done right because he has done a lot of them and knows what they will need for the most part. But tells them to shop around and see. Call him and he will dig out what it will really cost. He is so busy, he will tell the shop doing the work, cool, but make sure you do these things too. Most of the time a couple of days later the car will be parked there with the keys, and he has another life long customer, as most of his are.
I completely agree since I have had my fair share of the bad one's but that won't excuse bad service from a shop They are there to service your car properly and playing these games is just plain wrong, I have had customers try to pull some crazy stuff on me and I will just flat out call them on it and if they persist then I will just tell them to take there buisness somewhere else because I am done working on it and the same thing should go for any customer that is being screwed over by a shop.
i guess if some fuck stick tried to get me to pay money to tighten my ball joints the first thing id do is ask for the service manager unless you were dealing with him then id go up stream like the owner or one of the owners if its joint then id have a little sit down with em and id politely explain that all people aren't stupid and im all done here and i will be calling the better business bureau. Thats for the good of all the other people they are fucking. Also tell em ita not a threat its a fucking promise. Scammin that shit aint right. What are they gonna do offer to fight you in the used car lot cause your gonna turn em in??? That would be fun... Dave ps: even for free after they fucked up your alignment id make em fix it and be done.. Also if i was watching someone fuck some widowed lady like that id have tried to save her ass too.. It just aint right
I know there are a lot of good honest shops too. An example is Lux Blue and his shop in Austin Tx. Because my daughter lives 100 miles away and does not know much about cars I needed someone in Austin for her to go to.He has helped me a couple times with my daughter's car, and I feel sure he is honest. If it is a job he doesn't do he has told me who to go to in Austin. That is the type mechanic I prefer....one that you can trust.
Now wait just a minute, we need more information before we start bashing mechanics, Ive made enough mistakes in my 25 years of running a shop and fixin cars to fill this entire screen and im sure some of you may have as well, if it is the type of ball joints Im thinking of, 2 and 4 wheel drive fords use there is a split sleeve on the upper joint that can be tightened or assembled too tight and make the thing act like a froze up king pin! so let the guy make it right or at least give him the chance to, just maybe you might find he is human. MAN YOU GUYS ARE A TOUGH BUNCH!
And not every part you buy is perfect...the ball joints I had installed on my customers truck would not allow the steering wheel to return to center because they were TOO TIGHT! Poorly made offshore crap......
My best shop story. In Nebr. years ago they did " safety inspections ' that had to be done by state authorized stations. I took in a new to me car for inspection, it passed! On the way home the whole right spindal came off the car and I side-swiped 2 parked cars. 1 lawyer later the state paid for all damages and bought ny car for more than I paid for it!
We usually go to Monroe Muffler. Only had a problem once where they forgot to put new wiper blades on but was taken care of. The weekend of the Detroit Autorama we were headed through Cleveland toward Buffalo in snow storm and the wiper arm got loose and would not work right. We had to stay in a hotel and went to the dealership the local dealership the next morning since I don't carry tools with me. We had to buy new blades for the car but they fixed everything and did not charge us. This was a dealership in Elyria.
I've been an ASE master tech for longer than I care to remember, and just when you think you've seen/ heard it all, you hear a new one! From crooked owners selling jobs cheaper to white men over a black woman to customers saying "the van just stalled at the stop light" (with marks in the cyl. head from the broken valve). Over tightening a ball joint sounds a bit odd to me but give the mechanic a chance first then if it ain't right..... Just remember one thing: the cars we drive change and get updated everyday. We are plumbers (for hydrulics) , electricians ( your new computer controls) and so much more. And don't forget that Ford might do it just a bit different than Chevy, than Honda, etc.... We live with our mistakes, doctors bury theirs! And doctors go to school for how many years??? I learned as I was doing the work!
I agree that women are treated much worse than men by repair people and also agree that many customers are dishonest too. Still lots of good people out there too.
I just got new tires installed on my daily driver. The tire tech tried to sell me new bearings, tie rod ends, and shocks. (It actually does need the tie rod ends. 200,000 miles on them now) The funny thing is, the tire guy tried to sell me all this crap, but never even noticed that both front springs are broken (they have been for almost four years). I think they have a standard list of parts they try to replace. They also found bad bearings in my wifes car. (the bearings are less than two years old and seem just fine to me.) My wife won't even take her car in to get work done anymore because she's afraid they'll try to sell her crap she doesn't need. She makes me take it in for her.
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