Made a mistake today.

[alreadygone]

Had a lady come in for a 4 wheel alignment. Said I came highly reccommended by family members. Got her car(01 Mopar) on rack and sure enough toe was off bad enough to eat tires. Caster was also out of spec on rt. but no factory adjustment. When done I called to let her know it was ready. Said be later before her and mom were back from shopping, but would be glad to no longer have NOISE!?!?!? in front. Knew immediately I should have interogated her about what she thought needed to be fixed! Turns out guys at WalMart Lube shop had told her noise when cornering was from out of spec alignment. Took for test drive and not 100yds from shop realized she had a bad wheel bearing/hub assembly. Called her back to relate diagnosis, and she went by OReilly, picked up bearing and in a few minutes had here REAL problem fixed! Didn't feel bad for charging for alignment, because it was needed. She just wouldn't have had low tire life problem fixed if Walmarters hadn't misdiagnosed real problem.

Bob

 

[oilboy123]

I used to do alignments years ago. With bubble gauge etc. I guess it pays to do a test drive before an align.

I never did but I think now days with people so prone to suing etc a good idea. You can only learn and go on from there.

 

[The_Jeff]

wouldn't lousy toe put a constant load on the bearing, wearing it out faster?

Glad all is well.

 

[doitmyself]

Bob,

Doesn't sound like a mistake to me - more like an educational experience you can use to better your service. Either way, sounds like you're a class act.

Last time I had an alignment done by a recommended "quality" shop, the guy told me AFTER the alignment was completed, that I had a bad tie rod end ($23) and he would replace it for $120 bucks and not re-charge me for another alignment.

He lost my business forever.

 

[alreadygone]

eljefino,

If toe was bad enough to contribute to bearing load, you couldn't keep tires on it.

Bob

 

[Vilan]

I made a mistake today too.

Car is a quart low on oil. Break open a jug of oil (Castrol 10W30). Decide that being the manly BITOGer I am, I don't need a funnel to pour it in. Pour in about a quart, spilling an ounce or two over my engine. Oops.

Check the dipstick. Still about half a quart low. Must have estimated wrong. Pour in the same amount again. Oil jug seems strangely empty. Check dipstick again, now it's all smeared from the oil. Wander off for an hour or so to let it drip down.

Check the dipstick again. Now I'm over. A full quart over. And I need to leave for work in 30 minutes. Argh. But wait! I can loosen the drain pan bolt, drain some oil into an empty quart bottle and add it back in later. Genius. I burn a quart in about 2 weeks so it's not like it'll be sitting around forever.

Get out the ramps. Drive up on them. Spin tires wildly on the way up and send one ramp flying off. Move ramp back in place. Drive up sanely this time. Crawl under the car, 11/16" ratchet and quart bottle in hand. No problem, I'll just inch the bolt open until the oil dribbles out and catch it in the bottle. Once again, can't be bothered to look for funnel... duh...

Slowly loosen bolt. Nothing. Nothing. Suddenly oil explodes out over my hand. Grr, that's not supposed to happen! Quickly retighten bolt. Very slowly re-loosen bolt. Thanks to my careful holding technique, now oil explodes out again *and* blows out the bolt along with it.

Frantically try to plug hole with one hand and fish for the bolt amidst a rapidly expanding pool of oil with the other. Got it, plug the hole again.

Garage floor now looks a re-enactment of the Valdez. Both hands jet black. Oil bottle also jet black, with a few lonely ounces of oil inside. Violent thoughts float freely through my mind, like sludge through a Fram.

Luckily my sense of judging oil is way off again, this time in my favor. Checking the dipstick shows me still about 2/3 of a quart overfull. Oh well, hopefully that's low enough to not cause trouble. In a week or so it'll be down to normal anyway.

So how was your day?

 

[Aldaris]

Quote:

---

Violent thoughts float freely through my mind, like sludge through a Fram.

---

Brilliant association!

 

[Papa Bear]

Vilan, at that point I would have just dumped the whole mess and done an oil & filter change. Probably needed it anyway if it was a qt. low.

Any excuse to do an OC.

 

[Vilan]

I'm trying to extend my OCIs since I'm topping up the oil so often. I'm at 10k km now, going to change at 12.5k. I should be just about there when I finish off this jug of Castrol, assuming I don't try any other brilliant ideas.

I wasn't going to post about it, but when I thought up that Fram analogy I knew I had to.