Tire FIASCO>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[demarpaint]

I needed tires on my E-150 and figured as long as I'm doing it I might as well have an alignment too. A little back ground first: I had a cord separate in the right front tire which was easily felt. I took it to a buddy of mine to make sure that my front end was in good shape, basically double checking my observations. I moved the front tires to the rear and the problem moved from front to rear. Time for tires, they were old and due for replacement.

I did some shopping and got a very good price from one of the larger tire chains. I figured they were going to try and sell me something to make up some additional profit. Now the fun, its an older Ford with the Twin I-Beam suspension. The tech comes to me and says "you need ball joints". I said that’s funny it has king pins. He them starts tugging on the right front wheel and nothing is moving. I replied install the tires and forget the alignment. He said no I can still align it, he then shows me rear brakes with about 70% life on them and says they're due. At this point the tires are already off the wheels. Now the real kick in the [censored].........I have cyclone wheels and they smashed the center caps out so they could balance the tires. Then they attempt to reshape the caps. I was so [censored] I was seeing double. Fortunately I have another set of the caps or I'd be behind bars now!

I left without the alignment and the charges for the tires are in the process of dispute for the damaged center caps.

Frank D

 

[rpn453]

When buying tires, I take the wheels in loose. It's a lot less likely that they'll wreck something if they only have the wheels.

I too would get the alignment somewhere else.

So which chain is it?

 

[demarpaint]

Maavis, did I mispell that? I figured if all they pretty much do is tires and alignments how bad could they [censored] up? You should see the center caps!!!!!!!!! Learn something new every day.............

Frank D

 

[Mr Nice]

I hate when they try and pull the old...

"your brakes are shot" trick when I get new tires put on.

 

[sciphi]

Get the yahoos! Make them compensate you for the center caps. Those things aren't exactly cheap.

Smear the suckers, too. Nothing like a hit in the wallet to make somebody see the light.

 

[demarpaint]

I'll be working on an email to corporate tomorrow, that's for starters, the fireworks just started. They should teach their techs the names of parts so they don't look like [censored] ******es the way the service manager did today calling a king pin a [censored] ball joint. What a moron! When I called him out on it he was floundering, looked like a real fool. Shame that's how some businesses have to make money ripping off, at least trying to rip off the public. I built my business on honesty, maybe if they tried that they'd make even more $$$$$$$. I guess we'll never know.

Frank D

 

[XS650]

Chances are the guy that tried to pull the fast one was acting under corporate direction handed down from his supervisor. Don't expect corporate to actually care except for the fact that you caught him at it.

 

[Shannow]

Sold (well sort of, unless you count sale as change of ownership of both vehicle and money) my 4Runner to better half's brother sort of as a favour.

Get an abusive phone call when they went to get the roadworthy to change title and interstate transfer..."You told me this was a good car, it's going to cost us $1,500 to get this thing fixed to be roadworthy".

Thought it pretty funny since their state doesn't have annual inspections, mine does, and my cars DON'T fail inspections.

Asked where they got it looked at "Tyre Power - They do really good deals on tyres"...when I asked if they ever find anything wrong besides tyres.."Yep, they've found suspension and brake problems every time we've bought off them".

I offered to pay for a re-inspection, on the proviso that they went to a certified mechanic, but an independent...he found a sticky handbrake on driver's side rear (legitimate, but not picked up by the tyre place) and nothing else.

 

[firemachine69]

How DOES one align those twin I-beam suspensions?

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: firemachine69
How DOES one align those twin I-beam suspensions?


Only toe can be set, they can cold bend the I-beams if the owner of said vehicle is willing to let someone try, I won't. It's almost impossible to get a good alignment on an older Ford E or F series truck. Most of the less experienced techs have no clue how to work on them. My local mom and pop tire guy closed shop, I dealt with them for close to 20 years w/o issue. Like I said, live and learn, just when you think you've learned it all, oh boy look out!!

I knew going in they were going to try and sell something, that's their job. Its the center caps that really [censored] me off!

Frank D

 

[Shannow]

Try an F series alignment downunder.

The original set was designed to correct the steer into the american road camber. That was carried to Oz with an RHD conversion, so the prevailing geometry is trying to drag the rig off the edge of the road.

There are a few who can do it, but there's lots of twisting involved.

 

[demarpaint]

I just got back from a local muffler and brake shop that does alignments, NYS inspections etc. I have done business with them over the years for exhaust systems, something I stopped doing about 20 years ago. Anyway I asked the tech to please check the front end thoroughly before doing the alignment. He went through it with a fine tooth comb and reported back "its like new". So much for Mavis trying to sell me ball joints for a van using king pins!

Frank D

 

[rshaw125]

Thats one extra benefit that I like about Costco. They don't do alignments or brakes. They have put tires on all 3 of our cars. No problems what so ever.

 

[mrsilv04]

I always remove the center caps *before* getting to the tire shop.

 

[demarpaint]

In the 20 + years of owning this van, and almost 35 years of driving I never had a tire center [censored] up like this. Live and learn, you would think that a tire center knows how to handle these situations, but I was giving them too much credit. MY BAD!

My center caps have to be pushed off from the street side of the wheel,into the rotor/drum side, so it has to be off the vehicle. If I was going to do all that work I should have just brought the wheels in to the shop off the van. Might not be a bad idea, next time around. Then I don't have to go through the hard sell B..S that is typical of these tire chains.

Frank D

 

[Dualie]

cheaper isn't always better. I finally found a tire shop that treats the vehicle how I WANT it to be treated.

They even still balance on the vehicle. NO [censored] and they charge a fair price. More than the National chains but im not buying tires im buying tire service without the hassle.

No fancy laser beam alignments or whiz bang non sense. Old school tech that works.

AND on top of all that they will still do a camber caster adjustments on my 1985 F-250 without griping and do it the right way the first time.

he said that it was 1/2 a deg off last time.


he said normally I wouldn't even bother thinking twice about that. But I had a new guy that I wanted to personally show how to do this so I did it for you at no charge.


SERVICE to me is more important than price. I could get a day laborer to mess up my wheels for much less than the national tire chain but that doesn't make it a good idea