Tire Monkeys

[Steve Sears]

Hank,
Oh yeah, BTDT x2
Part 1: Recently had my "new to me" 5kTQ aligned and newly installed snows
balanced at a local tire shop named after a Beverly somebody.  Picked up the
car - and it was still shaking violently at 100 km/h.  Took it back and the
monkey lads (including the same one who did the original work according to
the print out) told me the weights must have "flew off"!  Well, I would have
hated to be behind me when driving out, because not a single one was left on
the rims - wow, I musta been a gatling gun.  They proceeded to tell me that
the rims I got for the snows were slightly damaged, hence the vibration, but
they had to balance all 4 regardless - funny how that wasn't noticed before.
Part 2: Had store-branded Michelin tires installed on my 5k a couple of
years ago at the local Canada (/crappy) Tire.  When I went out to see how
things were going, I noticed some black plastic on the floor.  As I got
closer, I recognized it to be a mangled lug bolt cover.  When I checked the
ones sitting on the hoist, they were all chewed.  When I asked the Monkey
Lad, he replied, "Ya, they were really hard to take off".  I asked him why,
in the name of all that is holy, did he not stop what he was doing (using a
air wrench to remove the covers) when he busted the first one, he said "I
dunno, sorry."  Yep, sorry.  They ordered caps in, but VW/Audi had added a
shoulder to the caps and the originals were no longer available
*&^(^(^*&%*%!!!  The new caps have a date with the Dremel before the car
goes to it's first cruise in August.
And they wonder why we do our own maintenance?
Cheers!
Steve Sears
1987 5kTQ
1980 5k
1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes