Now that it's settled, let me tell you about the shop that f*&$#% me and put my family in danger

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher) 06/20/2019 at 17:28 • Filed to: Just rolled out of the shop

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My truck had been pulling to the left, so before I took it to the Indy 500 at the end of May, I brought it to the alignment shop I had used a few times in the past. I dropped it off on the way to work, and scooted from there to work. Picked it up at the end of the day, they said everything was good, and charged me $90.

Catch was, it still pulled to the left, like they had done nothing to it. I called to complain the next day, and they said they could not fit me in before the trip. So, I had to fight the pull on the 450 mile round trip, which was annoying.

The next week, I made an appointment for them to fix it, and they did. It took them an hour and a half and a couple of attempts, but it tracked straight. Great.

A few days later, the day before my family and I were due to depart on vacation in the truck, I starting hearing/feeling a pop in the steering under full lock. I brought it to my buddy Bill’s house. He’s an ASE certified tech and auto shop teacher, who had been on the Indy 500 trip with me. He inspected it and found a very loose upper left ball joint. Loose enough that h is eyes popped out and he said, “I can’t believe we took this thing to Indiana.”

The truck was grounded from vacation duty, so Bill lent me his ‘03 Grand Marquis for the trip (my wife didn’t want to take her CX-5). After that trip, I took the truck to my favorite shop. He’s an old school mechanic who runs a 1-man 3-bay shop and takes his job very seriously . I didn’t take it to him for an alignment, because he doesn’t have an alignment rack. This guy I trust completely. He was shocked that the first shop had missed that ball joint.

I then took it to another shop to get it realigned, because now it was aligned with bad parts.

Finally I went back to the first shop to complain. I at least wanted my mone y back for their alignment, because they had missed a huge safety defect. Of course they denied any wrong doing, insisting that it was magically tight three days before it was very loose.

So, I blasted them on every review site I could think of. And here we are at the end of the saga.

Here’s a completely unrelated picture of my scooter with the tool box I made my dad for Father’s Day strapped to the back.

NKato > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 17:51

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 Hey, at least the grand marquis saved the day! There's that. 

His Stigness > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 17:53

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It pisses me off to know end that decent people get fucked over, and shady shops continue to exist.

facw > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 17:57

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You might be able to dispute the charges with your credit card company, since they obviously didn’t provided the serves they sold you.

Boxer_4 > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 17:59

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I’ve had a few run-ins with incompetent shops over the years ; it’s always really frustrating and leaves you feeling like you can’t trust anyone to do a job right . There’s a shop that go to now for alignments and things of that nature that does really good work, but good shops are the exception rather than the rule.

I’m glad your run-in didn’t end in disaster.  

BigBlock440 > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:15

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Jack Williams told me (a week after their second attempt at aligning it) that “No, nothing’s loose, some cars just don’t hold an alignment. I recommend you purchase our unlimited alignment package. ”  If I wanted to waste 2 and a half hours every weekend for them to align it, I probably would have taken them up on it, but from that day forward, I’ve done my own alignments.  Shortly after that, I replaced the lower control arm because the ball joint was loose, and I haven’t had a problem with it holding an alignment since.

gettingoldercarguy > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:30

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This is what small claims is made for. 

shop-teacher > facw 06/20/2019 at 18:34

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Possibly. Couldn't hurt to try.

shop-teacher > NKato 06/20/2019 at 18:35

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Its true! My wife was singing its praises too. I may be able to convince her to let me buy one as an extra vehicle one of these days.

shop-teacher > His Stigness 06/20/2019 at 18:38

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Yep. Luckily the worst didn't happen.

shop-teacher > Boxer_4 06/20/2019 at 18:40

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I took it to a shop that I've used for tires for it's second alignment. Hopefully this one turns out better.

shop-teacher > BigBlock440 06/20/2019 at 18:41

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Won't hold an alignment? That's one I haven't heard before.

shop-teacher > gettingoldercarguy 06/20/2019 at 18:44

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True , but I don’t think $90 is worth my time.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:49

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Yup... this reminds me of a past car (2007 Ford Focus) I had where the rear would skip to the side a bit on certain bumps.

I had a sneaky suspicion that the toe-in on at least one of the two rear wheels was wrong.

I got it aligned at one shop... but it didn’t improve things.  And I had a sneaky suspicion they completely half-assed the job or charged me for doing nothing.

Did some research on the issue on forums where others experienced a similar issue of alignment shops doing a lousy job on alignments.

I was researching it, but before I could check/do anything myself, a lady smashed into it while it was parked in the street and it was written off by the insurance.

gettingoldercarguy > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:50

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Yeah, for me it's about forcing the errant party to admit they done messed up on some level.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:50

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Sounds like the shop I got my accident damage repaired at in 2015 (also had them do some repaint on my Accent’s rear hatch the other year from where a different shop had gouged the paint). Obviously not a safety issue, but the rust on my car this year is coming out in both placed they had repainted, yet the factory original side is still perfect...their warranty is for 5 years, so it would actually cover the work in both cases, but they deny it’s their fault...

Mercedes Streeter > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:51

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If you bank with Chase they’ll be happy to give you back the money with basically no questions asked. :)

HammerheadFistpunch > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:51

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Sounds like my CV saga that is heating up.

I heard a click on the GX

Took it to the Lexus dealer to have them once over the truck specifically noting to check the CV boots as that was my main suspect

comes back with a clean bill of health and a fresh wash. (says it might be sway bar bushings which I know is crap)

After my wife drives to and from California, up to bear lake, and down to capitol reef (towing a trailer) I discover the boot is torn and there is NO grease left in there.

clicking is much more frequent now

I call up the service manager and tell them

“let me get back to you”

Im not going to hear back. Im going to hobble in there on my crutches and draw it out. I’m not usually the kind of person to go after somebody but I kinda feel like they owe me a little. Hoping to get a factory CV at prices that aren’t insane.

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:53

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Jeez that’s bad. I was wondering why you borrowed a car for vacation.

Glad nothing happened while you were driving it.

Idiots. 

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:55

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Yeah I’m pretty sure that means it’s borked.

Chariotoflove > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:56

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Rats, when you said settled, I was hoping that meant you got a refund. Still, truck is fixed and safe. That’s all that matters.

Cool box!

Mercedes Streeter > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 18:58

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*SMH* Sounds exactly like the quality of work the blokes over at Mercedes-Benz of Lincolnwood and Mercedes-Benz of St Charles are known for.

Somehow whoever the dummy that did the PDI on my 2012 smart at Lincolnwood missed how my steering wheel was a few degrees off. Their solution? TAKE THE STEERING WHEEL OFF, put it back on, take a test drive, then give it back to me declaring the car fixed.

There’s literally no possible way they could have test driven it because the wheel went from being a few degrees off to being freaking 50 degrees off. Their solution? Do the same thing as before, and again fail to test drive it. In the time they spent screwing me around they could have put it on the alignment rack.

St Charles ruined my 2016's interior door card fabric then blamed me for it. Called corporate and basically got a shrug.

Nothing as insane as yours, but dear lord how are shops this bad still open?

Side note: Saw your scoot for sale! I’d say NP! :)

boredalways > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 19:01

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I'm just glad you're ok

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > BigBlock440 06/20/2019 at 19:10

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“but from that day forward, I’ve done my own alignments.”

How do you do alignments yourself? In the past, I’ve gotten alignments done with less-than-satisfying results and began to look into DIY alignment methods like this:

http://speed.academy/diy-wheel-alignment-how-to-guide-explained/2/

His Stigness > HammerheadFistpunch 06/20/2019 at 19:10

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Play up the trip and wife aspect.

“My wife could have DIED!”

Also emphasize that you were willing to have a new axle installed at the dealer had they caught it. You brought it in to THEM thinking they’re the experts. You TRUSTED them and they failed because why? They didn’t feel like changing it.

Also contact Lexus. Make a stink. 

HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 19:15

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This is pretty much what h appened/is happening with us and our Odyssey, and it was vibrating like hell and pulling to the right on our whole trip so we haven’t been driving much here, mostly walking along the beach shops and stuff. The day before we leave we are going to take it to a dealer here to  see what’s up.

TheRealBicycleBuck > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 19:19

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I had a shop replaced the tie-rod ends on my truck. The very next day, one of them disconnected while I was going down the highway at 65 mph. My daughter was the only one in the truck with me that morning. I had it towed back to the shop that did the work. The mechanic had used the old castle nut on the new tie-rod end and one was metric, the other was not. The shop replaced the end again (with the correct nut), paid for the tow, refunded my money, and gave me a new set of tires.

All of that was cheaper than a lawsuit.

BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind > BigBlock440 06/20/2019 at 19:22

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Lol that must be a PA thing. I had a shop that I (used to go to) tell me “I don’t know, those Subaru’s just never hold their alignment” after they tried three times and failed to keep my outback straight.   

BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 19:24

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I’m gonna guess it’s a Ford truck...?

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 19:52

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That’s worse than the place that told me Cooper CS3s  were a good tire

NKato > shop-teacher 06/20/2019 at 21:21

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Dude, get a used patrol car at auction and make it your restoration project. :D that’s technically what I’m doing with mine.

(They're the same platform. I've upgraded my CVPI to have cruise control using a town car steering wheel and CV buttons) 

dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford > HammerheadFistpunch 06/20/2019 at 23:13

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I’m probably going to test drive an 05 GX470 tomorrow. Is there anything I should look out for or be wary of? The frame looks almost new, just light surface rust. It has 291k miles.

shop-teacher > HammerheadFistpunch 06/21/2019 at 00:18

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Good luck!

shop-teacher > Mercedes Streeter 06/21/2019 at 00:20

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I do, but this charge was not on their card.

shop-teacher > Mercedes Streeter 06/21/2019 at 00:21

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I wish somebody else agreed that it was a NP. I'm getting very close to parting it out.

shop-teacher > TheRealBicycleBuck 06/21/2019 at 00:22

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Fucking hell that is scary!

shop-teacher > Chariotoflove 06/21/2019 at 00:25

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Well, it’s as settled as it's going to be. Nobody got hurt. Taking the truck to Road America tomorrow!

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW 06/21/2019 at 00:26

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Yep, now you know the rest of the story.

Stay away from Route 64 Auto Repair on North Ave in Villa Park. Not that you were likely to use them anyways.

shop-teacher > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 06/21/2019 at 00:26

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Ha!

shop-teacher > BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind 06/21/2019 at 00:29

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Nope, ‘06 GMC Sierra 2wd crew cab.

I bought it new, and it’s been incredibly reliable, but age and rust are starting to take their toll.

shop-teacher > boredalways 06/21/2019 at 00:30

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Thanks. I'm just glad my family is OK.

atfsgeoff > shop-teacher 06/21/2019 at 01:14

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Yep, ball joints are kinda important for, ya know, living and stuff

shop-teacher > atfsgeoff 06/21/2019 at 07:18

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Yeah, but you know, it's just my entire family and everything that means anything to me riding in the truck, NBD.

i86hotdogs > shop-teacher 06/21/2019 at 07:51

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scoot for sale?! need the deets.

also, how do you like the Zuma? I was on the fence about either the Zuma or Ruckus. Went with the Ruckus after seeing the heavy aftermarket it has (not saying the Zuma doesn’t).

shop-teacher > i86hotdogs 06/21/2019 at 22:48

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Here’s the link to the Helix I have for sale.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/873005246384316/

I absolutely love the Zuma. Min e is a 125, and it is so much fun to bomb around on. I even ran the Gambler 500 Illinois on it last fall. I rode  it 492 miles in two days, and it never burned even a drop of oil.