My Baby

["Perry, Christopher" <christopher.perry@cotelligent.com>]

Hi all,
I recently took my 89 90Q in to have the front tires balanced.  While
this may seem trivial to some, I - like many of you fellow listers- do
most of the work on my cars. I've done engine rebuilds/replacements,
brake jobs, suspension, electrical wiring, stereos, alarms - is this a
disease?  However I do not own any balancing or alignment equipment so I
had no choice.  

The thing that surprised me was the feeling of apprehension, distrust,
fear, etc. that I experienced when I handed the service guy my keys.  I
actually stood in the cold and rain(Seattle summer - people in Seattle
don't tan they RUST!!) outside of the shop bay to watch the kid take the
tires/wheels off my car - wanting to be inside telling him "remove the
lug bolt cover with a small flat blade, lug bolts with a 17mm, there's
no set screw in the rotor so it can get out of line with the hub...".  

Anyway, the job seemed to go OK except that I still have some vibration
at hwy speeds - apparently from my LF being out-of-round.  I still went
home and looked at the underside of the car, checked the lug bolts, etc.
 I guess my fear stems from the fact that when I tell them "it's at
Quattro" they reply with "'zat a mexican car?"  Anybody else out there
this paranoid?

chris perry