Rather irritated at the dealership where we picked up our slightly used Daytona Sunset Orange 2005 coupe. It had a slight rumble from the rear end but only when starting from a dead stop. I figured a slightly dry bearing from sitting on their lot for almost a year. Well today I finally got the chance to go over it with a fine tooth comb (ie change the fluids, bleed the brakes, and generally check it out to make sure all things were fine). Well, when I went to take the left rear wheel off I found the cause of the rumble. All five of the lug nuts were only finger tight. So, we have been driving around for 600 miles (and several times well into triple digits) with a loose wheel. The dealership is going to get a serious one-way conversation with me as they told me right before we picked it up they had new tires put on and the tire pressure monitors serviced.. We could have gotten killed because some *** in the service department either got lazy or distracted!!

 

Wow...Glad nothing bad happened/

 

That happens more often than one would think,in Dealerships and repair shops.Sad but true.Glad no one got hurt.

 

That is why more and more folks are trying to service their own rides if at all possible and probably doing a better job. And dealer prices TOTALLY SUCK.
Side note::: Had my trucks oil changed last week, cool, they have a special so not worth doing it myself, until I got home and checked my oil out of habit, had a bad experience.
Stick reads "add", recheck 3 times yep, "ADD OIL" Call dealer and take it back, same reading, apology, adds 1 quart. Now I like this dealer but come on this could have been bad for them, a simple mistake that could have been avoided by CHECKING.
Got phone calls from every body there saying so sorry, no problem, tech was fired for multiple mistakes, I use the term "tech" loosely
NSF

 

Glad you are OK. Whenever I take any of my cars in for any service I check things out because I don't trust anyone with my car. This is why I do almost all of my own service.

 

And that's precisely why I insist on being there watching what is done to my car whenever I take it in for any service.

As was once said, "Trust, but verify."

 

WOW! Just wasn't your time to go yet. Very lucky. Do most of you use a torque wrench when putting on your wheels? I just snug them down good and tight with my 4 way . Am I asking for trouble? Thx

 

yes your looking for trouble!buy yourself a torque wrench.cheap insurance

 

Glad you caught it. Definitely sounds like someone was sleeping on the job.

 

I keep a torque wrench in my pickup and and all my vehicles lugnut's are checked on a regular basis.

 

I had my rears off yesterday to put on the GM splash guards. I did torque them back to 100 ft/lbs. But it seemed that they were much tighter than that. Is 100 ft/lbs correct?

 

That's what I torque mine too.

 

THX IROK will do and soon.

 

You should always check and re torque your wheels after a few miles even if you change them out yourself. And yes, a cheap torque wrench should be in everyone's tool box.

 

I'd say, it's been happening since wheels had to get put on with some kind of nut! I won't say how long ago, but a new car I had used to go to the dealer for service such as tire rotation (no place to do it for me). I always took off work to watch. I turned my back once ....and had the same thing happen as OP. The next day, I went back, and became.....

 

WOW, glad nothing happened.

 

We all need to check the lug nut torque from time to time especially on a car you just bought.

 

My 4-cylinder daily driver has been to a number of different places for service or oil. Every single time, one of the dopes working at these places screwed something up. I've had scuffed wheels from one service place. Discovered coolant recovery tank cap missing from another. Broken TPMS sensor at another tire change service. Along with a number of other things. Decided to change my own oil on daily driver because of such horrible services in the past, and discovered that the drain plug was overtightened from before and a plastic guard under the car was split in half. I was so pissed.

I just came to the conclusion that 90% of the people that work at these types of places, including dealerships, are all the same type of idiot or dope. They're usually trashy types of individuals that are not abstract thinkers and could careless about what they are doing. They either damage something or forget to do something.

Unless I have no choice but to take my vette to the dealership for something while crossing my fingers, I won't let some 20-something year old degenerate dope working at any other type of service place touch my vette. I'll just service my own car.

About a year ago, my buddy took his cammed 2004 Z06 in for some brake work at a non-dealership service garage. He had to drop the car off because they couldn't get to it right away, and he even told the manager he doesn't want the car driven anywhere. The next day when he went to go pick his car up, a block away from the dealership, he saw his Z06 going down the entrance ramp to the highway. He was pissed and flat out livid, because obviously one of the service dopes took his car out to "see what it could do". He gave the manager an earful, but there was nothing he could do. The car was already driven, can't undo what happened.