Monkey Lads Score Again

[David Weiss <dzweiss@worldnet.att.net>]

Beware of Tire America (methinks another subsidiary of Sears).  They use
"lifts" which go under the middle of the car, and do not necessarily
extend to the _car's_ lift points.

Took the V8 to get two tires balanced, because tire wear is a little
uneven due to too much negative camber/ not enough toe.  Wanted to see
the vibration go away before rotating the tires.

This shop seems to work on a lot of alloy wheels.  Checked for torque
wrench and stick-on weights, specified the torque, and ran next door to
get lunch, since the wait was supposed to be 1 hr.  Got back in 25 min,
saw the lad had just started working on the car.  Something didn't look
right.  Went out for a close-up, and saw that the car was supported only
by the center cross member, and was tipped a bit.  When he got the
wheels back on, we put the car on a real lift, and the damage appears
minor-- the studs on the right side appear to have been pulled a bit,
and one of the metal washers is compressed into the cross member.

Asked I, "Don't you look under the cars before you lift them?"

Replied he, "Of course.  But we've never had a problem before."  Hmmm.

Car doesn't drive weird, but they did a crummy job balancing-- a bit of
vibration at 63 mph.  At least they didn't charge for it, and they wrote
on the ticket they had damaged the chassis.  Will take it to the dealer
(whose techs I know, and who are not monkey lads) next week to pull the
cross member and see how bad.  I'll be taping drywall the rest of the
weekend.

Moral:  don't ASSume anybody knows what he's doing. If you can't do it
yourself, find a competent guy (they do exist, although they ain't
necessarily where you'd expect to find them) stay with him, and
_pay_what_he's_worth_.

--Dave Weiss
  '91 V8 5-spd
  '93 90CS UnQ