Did Les Schwab Ruin my outer CV Boot?

Fleabay. Look for one out of a newer wrecked truck, the oem green sticker is a giveaway of a factory one. Obviously judge condition by pics and buy accordingly.

 

I've heard horrible things about LKQ. But they have inventory on ebay... You think it'd work out?

 

Lots of other sellers. Search for cv axle

$390 05-23 Tacoma Freedom Off-Road Front Upper Control Arms for 2-4" Lift Compatible with 05-23 Tacoma

05-23 Tacoma. Lots of results that aren't LKQ. I bought a few off mom and pop wrecking yard with good results.

 

Where are you in the PNW? I’m in Skagit county and have a band and clamper if your done playing games with them.

 

Missed the part you already got them in the last paragraph. I kinda got triggered about halfway through and had to rant then went back and reread it.

 

I'm in eastern King County. What did I already get?

What band and clamper? For boot bands? I'm thinking I'll replace their garbage boots again anyways. It's so soft and bad.

I'm also looking for an clamshell bushing tool, got one of those? Haha!

 

Yep and the seal beater/bushing taper tool.

 

And there you have it folks. Whoever is lucky enough to stumble into this thread, thinking about using Les Schwab for repairs. Don't. And if you even think about it after being advised not to by multiple people/ horror stories, go back home and rethink your thoughts and the life choices you've made up to this point.

 

Yup, I knew this going in! All I wanted was an alignment. And somehow we ended up here. With my truck less good than before and over two weeks later! Countless drives and phone calls.

They don't understand quality. Period.

The manager uses the phrase "make it right" but refuses to pay for parts to make it so. They act like the circumstances where it's hard to find OEM boot kits is my problem and not theirs. And they weren't even gonna tell me, in fact they lied to my face.

 

I have a buddy with one of those shitty 6” drop bracket lifts from there. He had the Prologic front coils with the stupid fucken huge top spacer. He started rubbing on 35’s and having all kinds of problems. We put some SPC’s and he had ADS build him a real coil over with resi’s. We got it all slapped together and he went down for an alignment at Les Schwabs. He calls me the next day and says he has to come up and replace his tie rods because they can’t get them loose. I’m like whatever see ya after work. He shows up and it looks like a fucken beaver chewed on his inners. He said they couldn’t get the jam loose. I pulled them off. Spun the end off which I’ll add was hanging on by a .5” of threads. They installed the original lift and had to cut them to fit the new spindle. Anyways I put a socket on the Milwaukee and let it eat and I’ll be god damned if that nut didn’t come loose. Put it back together and told him take the tie rod shit back to wherever you got it and tell those fuckers the jam nut is loose and be fucken careful because they don’t have any thread from when they did it the first time so they might want to fix their shit.

 

Sounds about righg. They gacked my tie rods a bit too.

Hacks. I bet I could have gotten em loose with a bit of penetrating juice and hand tools Vs enough heat to melt my CVs.

Im starting to doubt all their techniques. I wonder if my front alignment cam is even seized or if they were just botching that too. I'll have to give it a shot.

I'm so sick of wasting my time on all this. All this is an aside to the truck still driving like shit from their lame alignment.

 

Which LS was it? Some are better than others.

 

North Bend, WA

I'm beside myself. I just crawled under there to clean up and reband until I figure out what to do. And they absolutely clobbered my axle seal too!!!

So not only have they cost me time, aggravation, but they have also damaged parts they didn't even need to, I shudder to think how they reassembled the axle.

I haven't gone back in since I left with the wire last time, I've been too frustrated.

I cannot have them work on my truck ever again.

But what recourse do I have? I need a new axle, and now other repairs, as they have shown themselves to be totally unable to do work on my truck without damaging it.

Small claims court? Corporate Les Schwab? Do I need to find a reputable mechanic to write me up a quote for all the damages?

I can fix all this myself but it's eating into my stress and my summer and I shouldn't have to, especially not on my dime!

I need advice on how to become whole on this thing! Or at least not sinking hundreds in myself!

 

Outer seal too...

 

Damn I should have grabbed my stuff we could have knocked it out. I’m almost back to North Bend. I would go park it in front of one of their work bays first thing in the morning and tell them to fucken fix it.

 

Yea I didn't think I was gonna do the seal, until I found this!

At this point I don't want them to fix it. They break everything they touch! What else am I supposed to do tho? They need to pay for my repairs to be done by a journeyman mechanic at a real shop.

 

Looks like they rounded the f*** out of my inner tie rod end as well. It's too round for a wrench now! Also the outer is free to spin since the jamb nut isn't jammin it. Some alignment.

The gift that just keeps giving. Do you think I have a legitimate claim on this one too?! Freshly deformed and non rusted!

 

Bro, get yourself a lawyer and have him talk to corporate, this is a shitshow. #bettercallsaul

 

Oh I'm engaged with the right folks now.

 

Documentation has been submitted to the powers that be.

In the meantime the front diff continues to sweat and leak.

Here's hoping I can get made whole from the process...