The quality of mechanics that work on your vehicles and the quality of their work is a crapshoot now days.

[borgward]

I took my 2016 Honda CR-V for inspection on the 15th of last month, and the place I took it to is known for doing brake work (about 80 % of their business), and exhaust, inspections, and they also rent U-Haul trucks and trailers. I booked the apointment more than a month ahead, and told him that it would not need brakes, and I had taken apart the fronts and cleaned and lubed it and flushed brake fluid, but did not get around to taking apart the backs and wanted him to take them apart and clean and lube them. I also said I would supply new metal spring clips.

I put my torque-wrench in the front seat area with it set to the proper wheel lug torque of 80 Lb ft and a stubby extension and 19mm 6 point socket on it. And I asked him to please not overtighten the lug-nuts with the air gun but to please tighten them to the proper torque with my torque-wrench.

This brake shop has been in business in the Pittsburgh south hills area for as long as I can remember, and is in general thought of as doing top quality brake work.

Last week I stopped for a hogie at a local shop, and had to wait for it to be made. So I decided to pull the torque-wrench out of the spare tire area and check all the lugs to be sure none have come loose a little after 2 weeks of driving.

The first wheel I checked was the back drivers and ALL FIVE were very loose. It took more than a 1/4 turn for all 5 of them to get the touque-wrench to click. The other 3 wheels checked out OK with only one lug on the front passenger's moving a very small amount before the wrench clicked.

But all the lugs on one wheel being too loose is unexcusable, and downright dangerous. That wheel could of come off, and if it had who knows what could of happened. That could have resulted in a major accident. I was totally POed about this.

It was too late in the day to call that shop, but I called the next day. The mechanic that did the brakes answered, and was very apologetic. He did say that the other guy was the one who tighten the lugs. And that he might have been distracted when he was doing that job. But this really is totally unexcusable. A simple mistake like this could have cost somebody their life.

Just like a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, an auto repair place is only as good as its worst mechanic. And some of the clowns they have working at these places nowadays aren't worth their salt.

I know that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself but nowadays you can't even trust an inspection station to tighten the lug nuts properly when they inspect your vehicle.

I know there's some real nuts out there they're only concerned about getting enough money to buy their booze and that might be the kind of people that these places are hiring.

From now on if I ever get a car inspected I'm going to check the torque of the lug nuts before I drive it off their lot.

I had put 245 miles on my vehicle since inspection, and some of that was highway miles.

I had to pull the wheel on the opposite side and use that as a reference as to the proper size of the holes in the rim. And then pull off of the side that the lugs were loose and inspect those holes to be sure there was no damage. And also inspect the studs. Fortunately everything is OK and there is no extra wear on the wheel or studs.

Mechanics like this need a few lessons with a baseball bat in a dark alley. Some jobs that these nuts are doing can endanger people's lives if they are not done properly. And if they can't do the job properly they do not belong in that business.

Always been that way. Goes for a lot of machine shops too. Probably worse now.

 

[GMBoy]

Those reasons are why I started my own shop. We really do treat every car like it's our own. We have built a reputation so good that people come from different counties and wait for an opening. We are always 3-4 weeks booked but take people in with emergencys as we can. We are a very small shop and I would like to hire another tech (right now it is just me and my son) but i CANNOT find anyone with talent or quality to hire. So - we just keep moving best we can. Since retiring from GM last year to run this shop full time I have seen some shoddy work from other shops come thru often and shake my head.

 

[ctechbob]

I am the only person that touches any of my cars. I'll even remove the wheels from the car when getting new tires so they can't screw anything up on the car.

Ever since I started using the Tire Rack mobile installer, this has become so much easier. Used to have to tote the wheels/tires to the shop.

 

[CR94]

In my experience, lug nuts will be grossly overtightened by shops about 50% of the time, roughly correct the other 50%, and rarely ever left loose. Same has been true of the oil filter cap at the Toyota dealer. I always check lug tightness. One reason is that if they're ridiculously tight, I won't be able to change a tire on the road in case of a flat.

 

[Dave Sherman]

I don't have much faith in dealer techs. Seems many of them couldn't diagnose a flat tire and will say things that tell me they have no clue how things work or they assume I'm clueless. I have had good luck with a local chain for tires and repairs, my lug nuts are torqued correctly when I buy tires, and they don't play the upsell game. Took the wife's troublesome Equinox to them when the air injection kept setting a code that pointed to clogged air injection ports that I couldn't get rid of, and to my surprise, they arrived at the same conclusion. While they were in there found the exhaust manifold was cracked, so they took care of that too. Got it back and it was all fixed right.

 

[Gene K]

They already are, though.....the garage rate is usually over $200/hr.

Depends on where in the country. I doubt most garages in backwoods Mississippi are getting $200 an hour shop rate. On the other hand might be $300 in NYC.

 

[J Dubbs]

I've resorted to using mobile mechanics so I can watch everything they do... I used to do all my own work, but after trying many shops/dealerships for many years, I realized most all mechanics seem to suck azz

I'm sure there's good ones out there, they're just VERY FEW and FAR BETWEEN

 

[KrisZ]

That’s why I DIY. The last time I was at a mechanic was probably over 10 years ago. Inspections and tire service, that’s the extent of someone else touching my vehicles, everything else I will do myself or at least attempt. If it’s beyond my capabilities then I will go to a mechanic.