Backstage

If They Would Just Listen...

Sadly, I had to take my truck in for a brake leak on Tuesday... I also happened to need new tires on the front, so I decided to get it all done at once and minimize the time I didn't have the truck...
When I dropped it off, I told them about the leak, and while I didn't know where it was for sure, the master cylinder seemed to be awfully oily... Then, I wanted the same model of tire that was on the real of the truck to replace what was on the front... Rotate the rears to the front, and put the new tires on the rear. Finally I'll take the old tires with me, so I'm not paying for disposal, and they will end up on a piece of agricultural equipment in PA.
I don't think I asked for anything exotic...
Well the brakes turned out to be a massive job as the real seals were shot, killing the drums and shoes. Since the rears went, I was stopping just on the front, and put enough pressure on them to crack the rotors (how I can't imagine since the rotors on that truck are massive, but there was certainly a crack there) which ate my pads... I didn't tell them to check the rear seals, or the front rotors, but they should have gotten to them after looking at the master cylinder... When they called and told me the story, they didn't mention the master cylinder, so I though I was good on that aspect... They didn't find the leak there until they had done everything else...
They called me a couple times about the tires. Did I want this brand or that brand?... No, I want the same model as is on the truck... Why is this so confusing?... They tell me the tires are hard to find to which I respond that I really don't care if they have to stay on the phone all day, get the tires... The tires are not exotic folks, they're just good quality Michelin truck tires with an E load range (heavy duty). They called again to say they had found them, like I am supposed to give them a gold star for the effort...
I picked up the truck, drove home, opened a nice cold beer and sat down outside. As I'm sitting there, I figured I'd take the tires out of the back, and put them in the garage since I need the truck bed available. Open the tailgate (I have a cover on the bed) and look in to find no old tires... So off to look at the receipt, and yep, there is the 6 dollar charge to dispose of tires... The bill was almost $1750, so that $6 got lost in there... Call them, and they tell me no problem I can come get them... I'm waiting until the morning at that point for sure... So I sit back down, and I'm wondering what I drove through that messed up my new tires on the back... Its been dry here, so mud is right out... It then hits me that they didn't rotate the rears forward... Yep, the new rubber is on the front... Ugh... Not a huge deal, just annoying... So I sit and kind of daydream a bit, until something is bothering me about the truck, and I can't place it... It took me a while, but eventually I noticed the pintle claw (towing hitch) was upside down... Now I keep a lock on the hitch so nobody will steal it, so I know either I put it in upside down last time, or they mechanics unbolted it for some reason. Get up, go look, yep, there are fresh tool marks on the bolts and nuts... And oh look, they didn't seat the bolts properly anyway... Its a tire place, so I'm damn sure they did the bolts with an impact wrench, so on top of that all, I'm sure they over torqued the bolts... Thank goodness they put the think on there wrong, or I might not have caught the bolts not being seated, which might lead to me looseing a trailer... (they took it off as the truck was just slightly too long to be able to close the door behind it)
Overall, the brake job is great, and I'm pleased with that. They managed to really get me pissed off though over some minor details... So I chewed a bunch of ass, and got my $6 back plus my old tires, and really got into it with them over the hitch... And now I feel better, but I suspect that the idiots that made the mistakes will never even find out...