Yesterday I took my car back up to Firestone to have my alignment checked, because my back tires looked like they were sitting in to far and my tires are wearing faster on the inside. After waiting about 45 minutes, the tech comes in and takes my car for a spin. The guy just takes off without asking me to ride along, and he's not much of a driver. Well about five minutes later he returns and there's smoke billowing off my back wheelwells :eek:, and the tech is telling everyone my back calipers are locked. I walk up while the guy is still in the car and look and see that the emergency brake was up, he just didn't understand that it folds out of the way. The guy sits there and keeps arguing with me that it's broke (demonstrates moving it up and down with no resistance) I kept telling him that it's like that when the brake is engaged. Then the guy tries to refuse working on my car, and I got a little livid, and had a few choice comments to add :mad , mostly about how the guy was mad at me for his mistake. Finnaly they realign my tires, and put new rear brakes on my car. But now my emergency brake is too tight, and my steering is generally straight but my wheel is cocked to the right when driving straight. I know this is just a lack of adjustment on the brake, and probably a bad adjustment on the steering but I'm just sick of fooling with this crap. How come a large majority of auto pros can't do their job:confused: .

I'm fed up. :(


[Modified by Midnight, 7:59 PM 8/14/2001]

 

F$*%ing hoosiers.I hope you didnt pay them,Id consider writing the owner of the firestone franshise,Id demand an apology & my money back & threaten to blasfeme them across the internet if they offer anything less.
I hope you find someone you can trust.

 

No, I definitely did not pay them. I would probably be even more upset but one of the managers is a cool guy that has cut me a deal on mounting and balancing a pair of drag radials I had previously with another car. I also know a guy up there that I went to high school with, and he was telling me the tech that messed it up was talking smack about mommy and daddy paying for my car. It sucks that because I'm young and drive a corvette that everyone assumes I don't pay for it. I know the stereotype is sometimes true, but I work and pay everything for this car, and I don't appreciate some two bit redneck screwing up what I take pride and care for.

Oh well, life I guess.

 

Sorry but it looks like you didn't do your homework. If you had you may have learned that this was not the right shop to do work on your VETTE.
I hope everyone has learned from this. :(


[Modified by mackeyred96, 9:29 PM 8/14/2001]

 

I remember a topic here before about alignment costs and a lot of people had used Firestone without problems, so I felt comfortable going there. But true, I made a mistake. Hindsight's 20/20.


And they also put organic pads on, Is this OEM?



[Modified by Midnight, 8:33 PM 8/14/2001]

 

It doesn't matter where you take it to get work done. One Firestone is not the same as another...the techs are different and so is their experience level. One thing I have learned messing with these cars over the last 10 years is to ask questions first. If the guy hasn't aligned a vette lately or maybe even never...why let him screw with yours. I usually ask allot of vette questions first and if the tech seems like he has his head on straight...I usually take the chance. But, to just give up the keys is ludicrous. No offense...but the guy working on your car should have some vette experience before he fu**s with it.

 

I would be mad too. That's enough heat to cause warpage, but I don't imagine they thought about checking runout. Do they even have a dial indicator?

I was more fortunate. Last year I couldn't get an appointment at the garage with the vette alignment specialist so I used the local Goodyear franchise. Mechanic finishes, does his test ride, and then manages to get the key out without going into reverse (4+3). No damage done, and I've since adjusted the cable - no harm, no foul, just unprofessional. Flash forward to this year, just after replacing all the bushings, I went back to the same Goodyear, same mechanic and I ask him to leave the key in the ignition at the end. Surprisingly, everything measures in spec, but just barely, so he takes over an hour to bring everything to the center of spec - including shimming both control arms. Glad I didn't get in his face last year, all things considered. Oh, and the key was right there in the ignition when he got done...