Are dealers really that stupid?

Overlag

Overlag

Overlag

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
11,038
Location
Romford/Hornchurch, Essex
Yup, another moan about a main dealer service. In April i had the ST serviced, including brake fluid change so they would have had to take wheels off. These guys were the last to touch my wheel nuts.

yesterday im wanting to rotate wheels front to back to give me more tread upfront for a upcoming trackday, well if only it was that simple. My wheel nuts were so tight that they broke the standard ford wheel brace thats made of cheese. No problem, ill grab by dads big wrench, manage to get 2 off by 1 is stuck fast and locking nut was done up finger tight :rolleyes:! After much swearing i give up as its getting dark.

This morning dad gets a his torque wrench out and popped the nut off... 180ft/lbs torqued to.... its supposed to be 62ft/lbs :eek: What absolute muppets.:mad:




anyone else got any horror stories about dealer services? :(
 
I know I havent been driving long but I have a fair bit of experience of tyre and service places (people like to take me along as I'm not afraid to speak up if there is an issue), and I can only speak of businesses in Pembs and Gwent, but I have never seen anywhere torque up a set of wheel nuts, they hit it with a pneumatic impact wrench set to max and that is it.
 
They probably used an air ratchet to do them up :D

I have plenty of horror stories, disc/pad check as part of a Merc service, wheels comes off, do 4 wheels go back on properly... nope. The one that ALMOST got away! :D Not mine thank god :p
 
My dad works for a main dealer - and he uses an air gun to do up wheel nuts.


HOWEVER - he has a selection of torque-limiting extension bars so that they're not done up tight.

I'm sure he's the exception rather than the rule! ;)
 
Argh, air guns.

While in the family Audi (2002 A4 Avant Quattro) a couple of years back we had a blowout, so up on the scissor jack and got the bolts undone but couldn't get the wheel off. Dad managed to pull the car off the scissor jack, despite 3 people pushing against the car. Had to get the RAC out who had a trolley jack and a sledge hammer to get it off.

Took it to Audi main dealer the next week (it was a fleet car) as it was due a service so got them to take off all the wheels, copper grease them and then do them up by hand.

That was the same Audi that had it's stereo replaced 5 times, and had a total brake failure. :rolleyes:
 
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Air wrench operated by barely trained monkey = more profit for Ford.

My dad had to take a Focus estate back to a Ford dealer to have bearings replaced 4 different times, each time the bearings lasting around 3 months - until they finally had to Araldite them in place... feel sorry for the next person who needs to replace them!
 
matt_fsr said:
Air wrench operated by barely trained monkey = more profit for Ford.

My dad had to take a Focus estate back to a Ford dealer to have bearings replaced 4 different times, each time the bearings lasting around 3 months - until they finally had to Araldite them in place... feel sorry for the next person who needs to replace them!
Click to expand...

Araldite???

I'm not even sure that's in the joke book!!!

WTF that is a super bodge.
 
Friends dad has his 850 T5 volvo in for it's 1st year service (going back when the T5 was a new model, this was on a friday), they returned it after the service (saturday) on a low loader, drove it up his drive and parked it. He went for a drive in it the following day (sunday), got a few miles down the road and the engine seized. Upon investigation it turned out that they had drained the engine oil, changed the filter but never got around to replacing the oil on the friday, it was supposed to be filled on the saturday morning before the car was taken back to him. That was a nice little bill for the garage to pick up!
 
Total joke, btw if your wheel bolts or nuts have been overtightened that much i'd want some new bolts or nuts, nothing worse than either a bolt or stud snapping in the hub.
 
my old housemate took his Integra to a Honda garage, they stripped the locking nut and said "we can't get it off"

we had to dremel it off in the end
 
Westyfield2 said:
Argh, air guns.

While in the family Audi (2002 A4 Avant Quattro) a couple of years back we had a blowout, so up on the scissor jack and got the bolts undone but couldn't get the wheel off. Dad managed to pull the car off the scissor jack, despite 3 people pushing against the car. Had to get the RAC out who had a trolley jack and a sledge hammer to get it off.
Click to expand...

Hang on - why would he be loosening the nuts with the car in the air? :confused:

Edit - never mind, reread - the nuts werent stuck, the wheel was :)
 
Why do people use torque wrench to UNDO tight bolts? All that's likely to do is shag your torque wrench. Use a breaker bar / scaffold / suspended on a jack as well if needed.
 
Overlag said:
Yup, another moan about a main dealer service. In April i had the ST serviced, including brake fluid change so they would have had to take wheels off. These guys were the last to touch my wheel nuts.

yesterday im wanting to rotate wheels front to back to give me more tread upfront for a upcoming trackday, well if only it was that simple. My wheel nuts were so tight that they broke the standard ford wheel brace thats made of cheese. No problem, ill grab by dads big wrench, manage to get 2 off by 1 is stuck fast and locking nut was done up finger tight :rolleyes:! After much swearing i give up as its getting dark.

This morning dad gets a his torque wrench out and popped the nut off... 180ft/lbs torqued to.... its supposed to be 62ft/lbs :eek: What absolute muppets.:mad:




anyone else got any horror stories about dealer services? :(
Click to expand...

ford wouldnt of taken your wheels off to do a brake fluid change
 
I'm always worried that my mechanic cuts corners because he charges next to nothing for my services. Luckily this was proven wrong when I had a puncture and had 5 tight but no overly tight bolts and a freshly copper greased hub to deal with :cool: Put my mind at rest (at the price of a tyre and wheel arch liner :( )
 
I've split the head off a wheel brace due to a garage over tightening the nuts, that was annoying although left me feeling a touch Superman!
 
An air wrench will have a torque setting.

This is just an example of the kind of people you get servicing your car at the main stealer, it was probably a trainee or something.
 
Last time I got my tyres changed I had this happen, the nuts were torqued to the max.
I know it's obvious advice, but loosen them off and retorque them correctly. If you're unlucky enough to need a roadside wheel change with them that tight, and don't carry the right kit in your boot, you're in for a lot of improvisation, swearing and huffing and puffing :)
 
Hmm,

My 5 series has Xenon lights, it therefore has a level sensor. One day the headlights are pointing at the floor, I can barely see where I am driving.

Take it into my indy moaning about it, they tell me it's best you take it to BMW for this.

Take it into a localish BMW dealer for diagnosis and repair. They say the lights have gone out of level, and this kind of thing "just happens" and they have rectified it.

Get home and it's just the same issue. I am thinking it's the level sensor, cue me spending a Sunday afternoon pulling my hair out installing INPA onto my laptop and getting it to communicatte with my car.

It reveals the Headlight level sensor is faulty. Now I am not expert in cars, but surely if someone came into a dealer complaining about the xenon headlamps suddenly pointing to the ground, one of the things to check would be the level sensor.

Of course the dealer that did the work said that must have happened after you took the car away.

The result was the aim of my headlamps completely screwed up and blinding everyone as they had been pointed all the way up by the monkey at the dealer meaning I had to take it to another dealer to get them aligned up again.

From then on I have never returned to another dealer for repair work on my car, my local independent is more knowlegable and is now geared up for all the computer stuff, he also doesn't charge for stuff the stuff extras most dealers charge for, such as Fitting brake pads during a service or cleaning out the aircon system.
 
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