I went down to LA this weekend to visit some friends. I decided to put new front tires before I left since they were nearly bald. Got them balanced and an alignment done since it follows every rut in the road. Also had them dismount the rear tires from the rims and flip them so the inside is now the outside.

It took a while but the car has never driven this well, not even when new. It has never been this perfectly smooth at 70mph or tracked this straight. Steering is lighter and it's much more stable. Toe once again was way off and the dealer was the last to do the alignment about 4 months ago. They actually set the toe at 0 instead of just close enough. Steering wheel was centered, the car just felt better than brand new.

So I hit the freeway and i'm enjoying the new alignment, balance, and tires. 20 minutes into my trip, the plastic under body covering hits the ground and I'm dragging it down the freeway. This sounds very bad inside the car. I get out on the side of the freeway to see what it is and spot the plastic dragging the ground. I try and tuck it up but it won't stay. I'm in a Gucci suit and working on a car on the side of the freeway. After a minute I just ripped the plastic off and threw it in the trunk to bring into the shop on Monday. In the 5 years I've owned this car not once have I taken it to a shop and had anything done right without causing additional problems.

 

Yeah sounds about right. Sucks that you cannot rely on anyone else to work on your car especially stuff that we can't do ourselves like tire mounting and balancing. Well the good news is that it was just a plastic panel that can be easily replaced and you can also keep enjoying your new alignment and smooth balancing.

James

 

I can definitely relate to this problem. When we use one tire store near me, the techs rooted through the car. We found registration and insurance papers had been handled. The next time, we brought it to another tire store. We experienced great service with no problems. My wife brought the car back to this second store for another alignment a year later and they tell her that the tires are completely worn out and try to scare her into new tires. She asked to speak to the owner and for him to show her the "worn out" tires and they back-tracked and said that they had the wrong car that they were talking about!

As a former mechanic, I am greatly disgusted at the crap that goes on at some shops. I cannot say that I never made a mistake, but the few times that customers brought their car back because of my screw up, I would always apologize. It was always a matter of pride and honesty. I just don't see that with most people in the service industry anymore. Anyway, I hope that it resolved to your satisfaction.

 

That sucks

 

Sorry to hear, Matt. Hopefully you'll be able to fix it without any unnecessary drama.

 

This could be a thread name for the year! Glad it was only a shield.... You just can't trust folks anymore to just do the job to completion... All I ask (mechanics) is when your finished, you torque your lugs, replace all removed screws, bolts and PARTS.... and clean your dirty paw prints off my clean car....Is that really too much to ask????

 

God I love the feel of brand new balanced tires.

 

That does suck. It is a shame that many mechanics are happy with just getting a job done instead of a job well done. Most people that work on our cars (besides us) never do a thorough job tacking things back together. On the flip side of shitty work done, The guy who did my HFPC's put everything back together and made it better then when I got the car out of the showroom. He had a bunch of those shitty ass Honda clips and replaced the old crack ones and put clips in the spots where there were none. I just have to remind myself that there are still a few honest and hard working mechanics out there who still take pride in there work.

 

I didnt let any one know but I had just put my tires on and hit a steep drive way a little faster than I should have and it bumped the plastic shield knocking it loose.

I then drove on the freeway and both plastic wheel wells shredded against the tires.

 

Honda mechanic had left ALL lug nuts loose on my accord, There I was doing 75mph down the NJ pike, got off @ exit 4 then the car felt like it was about to fall apart. Last year acura mechanic left the bolts loose on my front brake calipers after changing the pads.

 

when it rains it pours my friend.

we have been on a rollercoaster ride for 2 weeks now at work. first after tuning a s600, it wont hold boost because it needs new plugs, book time is 8 hour install. next fixed a cl55 with crankwalk, once we start it an oil line bursts going to the oil cooler. funniest thing was that the oil hit this douche tow truck guy that parks his truck in the back right in the FACE

F-ing insane bro, although my problems have nothing to do with shoddy workmanship, they are huge headaches!

 

The under body in my audi is one whole piece.
I've been in this situation so many times. I ended up just carrying zip ties in the trunk.

Now whenever I work or have someone else work on my car ( change oil ) I always double check the under panel is secure.
I'm definitely not going to use zip ties on my TL. That's going to remain only for the S4. lol

 

You're right about this being a smaller issue. I'm used to things like the lower ball joint pulling out of the control arm because they used the wrong nut. This is minor and the rest of the work they did was so good that I'm tempted to not push them too hard. I was mostly irritated that I was wearing more than $1500 worth of clothing and laying there doing a one armed pushup and trying to work on the car with the other hand while trying not to touch the ground.

You have to love the boosted V12s. You can't hurt them, any little thing will cause the boost to go down. We now automatically install meth injection on every one of them. It shows about 70hp and 125lbs of torque down low and then leveling off to near stock power levels after 3500 with no other changes. The meth seems to keep the ECU happier especially when raising the boost with the undersized intercoolers on the non AMG cars. Do you tune them in dyno mode?

 

That would really suck. So I guess you can't just rip it off like I did mine if it falls down?

 

I totally agree about the clothes, my father always told me to have extra clothes just in case or atleast a few towels. I didn't listen untill I had to change a tire wearing a suit. Now I always have something, presently an old winter jacket I can kneel on

I love them but they are such a pain in the ass, need to take everything apart to work on it. No meth on this one. A previous s600 we went balls to the wall, meth, rerouted the intercooler piping, huge heat exchanger but this one was basic, tune, and these horrible design skorpion tubes, ill post a pic tomorrow.

We actually don't dyno tune the majority or the cars because our tuner is in california and has different maps for every mod so its just a reflash. This customer just wanted something basic so nothing else was needed except the addition of the heat exchanger.

 

I have always had a hard time trusting other ppl when it comes to my cars

 

Gucci suit

Eff it... Just buy a new car!!!

Seriously though... I hate that. When u get something accomplished and another tging goes wrong.

 

What a baller.

 

I remember when my shield wasnt put back together correctly and i didnt realize until i checked. this was on my old acura, a white 01 CL. did the same thing with zip ties lol. it worked and kept it off the ground. never with my TL will i ever do that though haha

 

thats some F'ed up shiz....like my self im sure that you only let a mechanic put his grubby hand on your car when u get an alignment, and the one time u do let 1....hes got to mess up ur shit....

IHC you got room in ur inbox? iv been wanting to ask you about exhaust. i tried txting but you have changed your # since you mentored me on suspension long ago, master lol

BTW it handles amazing thank you...koni SP3/eibach type S FSB/progress RSB polyurithane bushings for anyone wondering.
I literally hate driving any other car, even my mother's S-class with air suspension

 

Dealer broke one of the mounting bolts on my skid plate and decided to zip tie it. I spent the day chasing rattles when I found this. I've got 2 more to find. One somewhere near the fan and one on the back deck.

 

Were you wearing a pair of 'gator boots as well?

 

^four fifteens didnt see no wires/
then I heard boom from the amplifiers

 

you always have to double check things before leaving, we just can't take things for granted, most places are always in a hurry leaving things hanging.

 

Yeah I hate when that happens. Got pics of that Gucci suit btw??

 

Yep. I have the jacket anyway, the pants got covered in vodka and cranberry by some drunk chick. Almost got covered in her puke later that night.

It's conservative, nothing flashy that was bought back when I used to party a lot, had a good job and very few bills. If something happened to this one I could never afford to replace it.

 

I usually do but I literally went straight to the freeway to leave town after the shop.

 

i guess this explains why you hate cars, lol

 

O.g.

 

GUCCI!

hahahaha


Sorry for the hassle. Same thing happens to me all the time; fix one thing only to find another problem.