Stealership first service experience- another reason to just do it yourself

Be afraid, be very afraid.

 

It's just not dealerships, any shop can have a bad day with loose lugs and everything. Having worked at a dealership in the lube department I've seen some stupid stuff happen. Lube techs are just that some are trained some aren't. You don't get the master technicians doing oil changes. Hell some of the new techs don't know what a grease zerk is, training and prior experience is key. The tork sticks mentioned are to prevent over tightening and shouldn't be relied on for exact tork specs. The person I'm concerned about is the service writer if he is on commission I've seen them recommend a tune up, six spark plugs on a diesel engine to a customer.

 

I just want to know why it takes you a 36” breaker bar to bust loose lug nuts. Better hope you never get a flat and have to use your oem lug wrench.

 

I don’t really understand the issue in these threads.
If the 18yo kid in the back doing my oil changes and tire rotation screws something up that breaks my vehicle, it’s the dealerships fault.
They will pay to fix it and put me in a rental while they do it.

But if do it and screw something up, I’m standing there looking for a paddle.

 

I just bought my Taco and when I went in to see the document guy who sells the extended warranty, paint & chassis protection, takes your down payment etc., he said to me: "You never heard this from me but it is a good idea to take your truck in to the dealership a month before the warranty expires and have them do a diagnostic and overall check of the vehicle". Pretty good advise, imo, and it is beneficial to both owner and dealership.

 

The good ones are far and few between. I’ve had problems with poor work at 3 Honda dealers and 2 Acura dealers for warranty issues. Sued one of the Honda dealers as a result. My vehicles don’t go to a dealership now, period. Warranty or not.

 

I'm looking at doing my first big check up soon. 30k miles. I haven't even changed the oil in this truck myself yet since I had the free changes from the dealership... Not sure I'm proficient enough to do more than an oil change and tire rotation just yet but these stories are making me nervous...

 

If you read the OP, he states that some nuts were loose, some had obviously been run on with an impact gun.

 

Unbalance rear tires, when rotated to the front, can definitely cause steering wheel shimmy. People don't think unbalanced rotating mass be like that, but it do.

 

What’s a paddle?

 

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Up shit creek without a paddle

 

Poor experience here....10K service and my rear drums are now warped! I called the dealer and mentioned that they may have overtightened the lugs as I had zero issues going in...they didn't want to own it over the phone. We shall see come Friday!

 

Oh! I can contribute.

Just moved to a new location. Toyota dealership 2 miles down the road with just about a 5 star rating with a few thousand reviews. I only needed a TIRE ROTATION. You know, where it takes 10 minutes to just move them around? I'm in an apartment complex and no longer have a jack, or else I would have just done it.

Had them also check the alignment, as it pulled to the right a bit.

Anyway, they "did" the alignment and rotated the tires. Went to get my keys and pay. The alignment paperwork wasn't my truck year or model, and the VIN was wrong. He assured me it was the right paperwork, they just didn't update the VIN from the last one. Absolutely no problem, I get it. Left to go home, still pulled to the right.

Checked the paperwork, they also noted the tire pressure, tire tread and brake depth. Tire pressure all said 32 on paper, my truck TPMS said between 34-36 on each. I manually checked them too, truck was right, paperwork wrong.

Called and expressed my concerns that if I can't even trust the tire pressure to be checked, how can I trust the alignment paper without the correct VIN? (I was honestly so calm and understanding, even agreed that the tech could have just grabbed the wrong paper and tire pressure isn't a huge deal, as they weren't crazy off).

Went back, did the alignment again. Not even an apology, but who cares, just thought it was odd. Alignment paperwork now had ANOTHER truck's VIN on it, but at least it was a Tacoma TRD Sport. Left, truck STILL pulled to the right. Was told that with "bigger off-road" tires (Nitto Ridge Grapplers, 265/70 instead of the stock 265/65...) it will always pull to the right.

Whatever, just going to go somewhere else, it wasn't pulling that bad...

THEN they emailed me asking me to leave a review for their service center.... LOL what?! I left a very honest review of everything that happened, left my emotions out of it. Got a call the next day from the manager, he said if I come back in, he will personally stand there as the alignment is being done (ok, bud). So I did, an hour and a half later, they did the alignment, gave me paperwork with my VIN, I said cool, thanks. Still, even on the phone with the manager and in person, never once even got an apology for wasting my time, still who cares, but odd.

Went to Discount Tire to rebalance my tires as the previous shop that did it didn't have a new machine (old guy who ran the shop for years). They did it in less than 10 minutes and even SUGGESTED to me to watch them do it, as they have open bays.

TL;DR: Went for a tire rotation and alignment. Alignment 1 and other checks (tire pressure, tire tread, brake check) were clearly not done. Alignment 2, they couldn't give me a printout of the alignment with my truck or VIN on it, still pulled to the right. Alignment 3 was done, and paperwork had my truck and VIN on it after I left a bad review that they emailed me asking to leave.

TL;DR #2: Go to Discount Tire.

 

Fuckers at the dealer bent my key when I dropped it off for the 15k service. And the only reason I brought it in is because I paid 40k for the service. Turned around, told them I wanted a new one and didn't even get a "sorry about that" from the dumbass service writer. I can't wait until the free services are up.

 

At least they didnt scratch your car up while it was getting serviced, I used to get new scratches every time I would get my Subaru Impreza serviced at the dealership.

 

Fully disagree!! I get my tires rotated at our local Road Mart tire dealership. The tech that rotates my tires takes the lugs off by hand and tightens them by hand and rechecks with a torque wrench. He also wipes out the inside of the front rims when removing to get out that "shi!!y" brake dust. How do I know he is doing this? Because he lets me watch while he is performing the rotation. I buy all my tires from them and rotations are free. I now have a 2020 TRDOR and just had my first rotation done. When the stock tires that came on the OR wear out (hopefully soon) I will go to the Bridgestone Duellers that I had put on the 2016 SR5. BTW, I "tip" the tech which makes him willing to do what I like and they know I'm "anal" about my vehicles! (One advantage of living in a small town-pop. 15,000).