Why I don’t let others work on my vehicles…

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any4xx

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My new-to-me ‘95 K1500 was ordered and bought new by my son in law. He does nothing mechanical. The only times the wheels have ever been off of the truck were when “professional“ tire shops replaced or balanced/rotated tires for him.

Yesterday was finally tire-time so I could daily drive it on tires newer than the 2006 dated ones that were on there.. This was on the R-F. Lug nut and the rest of the stud were MIA. SIL says he’s never lost a hubcap so obviously the missing parts would have been rattling around in there had they broken on the fly.

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Sadly, not at all an unusual find in my experience.

Someday I won’t be able to do my own work any longer. I hope that time doesn’t come soon…
 

RichLo

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Yea, Its unfortunate to hear stories like that. There are still good shops out there, when I actually need to take a vehicle in (rare occurrence) I go to a local family owned and operated one in town. There are other 'big-box' shops around that I avoid and tell others to avoid as well. I trust a shop whos whole family is dependent on the success of that shop. I know I'm paying more than a big-box shop but I also know its being done right and they communicate what they are doing very well and never try to over-sell a repair.

How much do you trust the other 5 studs? and the rest of the studs on the truck? Its obvious somebody 'torqued' them with an impact at full line PSI.
 

Joe Dirte

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I do 90% of my own work because of things like this. The only people I trust to do things I don't want to or feel like doin are the shop a couple towns over as they've been a major help since I was just gettin into vehicles, and my older friend who taught me a lot. Also drank with him for yearsn helped him split firewood. I still hang with him, goin to help him out today in fact. He's a good dude,, honest and we all call him "Super Tim" as he's a genius mechanic who can diagnose things just by description. I'm gonna say he has a 98% success rate on tellin us what to look at first so he doesn't have to charge us for simple jobs.
 

TreeGeared

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You would think more standardized services like tires would be pretty easy to find a reputable shop. By this example apparently not. My latest frustration is alignment. One vehicle came back with the steering wheel to the left when going straight. The other they could not get it in spec (no the car was never wrecked they just are not smart enough to recommend the adjustable cam bolts). Last weekend I bought turn plates and caster/camber gauges. Need to do the vette and not trusting anyone else to do it at this point. I have found good shops just had bad luck with alignments.
 

Erik the Awful

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My latest frustration is alignment. One vehicle came back with the steering wheel to the left when going straight. The other they could not get it in spec (no the car was never wrecked they just are not smart enough to recommend the adjustable cam bolts).
Crap like this ticks me off. When I was a dealer tech, we'd put it back on the rack until we got it straight. These fools were just too lazy to correctly do the job you paid for.
 

Joe Dirte

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Crap like this ticks me off. When I was a dealer tech, we'd put it back on the rack until we got it straight. These fools were just too lazy to correctly do the job you paid for.
Shop here in town mainly only does toe. I asked em to align my 92 caprice n they wouldn't cuz of the skirts. I took it and my lowered 91 to the other shop and they adjusted everything. The lowered car ran straight as an arrow. 1st shop wanted me to buy extra parts for Huck while 2nd shop said it needed nothing n got it all straightened up.
 
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someotherguy

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You would think more standardized services like tires would be pretty easy to find a reputable shop. By this example apparently not.
It doesn't pay squat, so it almost always gets the least experienced shop monkey on the job.

It's why I almost -always- take my wheels/tires loose to the shop, instead of taking the vehicle. Less for them to mess up.

Richard
 
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