Dealership Service Experience & Tire Issue Question
 

So today I took my FR-S in for a scheduled oil change and tire rotation to a dealership service center. I also asked if they could check my brakes to see how much life they have left. Everything went smoothly from what I could tell. I leave the service center and everything seems fine till I get about a mile down the road and pull into to grab some dinner. As I turn I start hearing this knocking sound, not from the engine but from front tire/suspension area. It got MUCH worse when I cut the wheel all the way to the left to park. I call the service center back and they tell me to bring back.

I bring it back and at first I think they thought it was as simple as lose lug nuts. The first guy comes back in and says we are taking into bay 1. About 20 minutes later the front desk lady comes back out and says we have to put you in a rental. They say that one lug nuts is on way too tight and they cannot get it off without damaging the stud. They don't have any studs in stock so they say they have to order the one and won't be able to fix it until Monday. I ask if the over tightened lug nut was causing the knocking noise and they said yes. I say fine whatever, give me the rental.

A few minutes later she is like we are going to put you in a tC. Now I am guessing they think since I have an FR-S I am a Scion fan or something and think I would prefer another one as a rental (I wouldn't.) At this point I am too annoyed to care and say fine OK. Then I remember seeing one of those god awful 9.0 series with the two tone paint job and realize that's what they are giving me. They hand me the keys to it and say "This is the closest thing we have to you're car, enjoy." I just laugh, take the keys, and walk out. Now I am stuck driving (embarrassingly) around in this gem until Monday.
http://i.imgur.com/wm8dYHt.jpg


Anyway, my question for everyone here is: Is what they told me sound legit? Could an over tightened lug nut cause the knocking noise? I could of swore I heard her on the phone moments before talking to me asking if they could order a tire rod. I'm not the most car savvy person out there so I have no clue how much you can screw up with a tire rotation and checking the brakes.

"tie rod", not "tire rod".

Well, that's an aggravating situation..........:(

How many miles on your car ..??

I don't reckon an overtightened lug nut would cause a noise. I figure you could twist that puppy off and as long as the rest of the lug nuts on that wheel were tight, it still wouldn't make a noise.

A tire rotation is a tire rotation, just take em off and put em back on. A visual brake inspection is usually just a look see deal.

What actually happened is anybody's guess.

I'll guess they bent the tie rod jacking the car up ...... :iono:

Well, that loaner ain't all that bad ...... at least it keeps the miles off your car.

Please keep us posted.


humfrz

My (wild) guess would be that someone tightened the lug nuts before the wheel is properly put on, on somehow the wheel or stud ended up crooked.

By the way, what kind of dealership is that? You need to ask them to check your brakes? Mine does it every time, together with a bunch of other things, from fluids (which they top off) to tire tread depth.

And that tC... there is one that parks often at my workplace. It looks funny, but not that bad imo.

Is THAT all ya got ....... :slap:

:D


humfrz

As a dealership technician, my advice would be to let them do their thing. Yes, your loaner is an ugly tC, but at least you have one. Situations like these are generally escalated, and they most likely have a more seasoned tech overseeing the problem. Drive the loaner and wait for their call back. Mistakes happen even during simple service. Just be vigilant for anything strange after you pick your car up.

HEY! I LIKE the tC RS9!!!!!!!!!!
It brings out my inner ricer.
In fact it was that very car that I was in the Scion dealer to see if they had one to look at when I stumbled over my FRS.

Well.... Sounds to me like they forgot to torque down a few lugs. The knocking sound could be the wheel just being loose.

Over tighting lugs cause no knocking sound. My guess stand corrected cause they orderd new studs. Cause the losses ones damaged the studs.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaa!...............Tcoat surfaces ......... :cheers:


humfrz

does the tC have a stick? if so gg im jelly

Hey my expertise is in IT, not cars haha.


This is my first time driving a tc and it definitely makes me appreciate my fr-s more. About the only thing I like is the flat bottom steering wheel it has. I thought the sun roof was going to be nice but it sounds like your in a hurricane with it open. My mom's sunroof in her camaro is nothing like, nice and quiet.

I wonder who at Toyota even thought this two tone job is a good idea.

I had a similar situation a month or two ago at the Scion Dealership in Santa Monica CA where I go in for my 15k checkup. Everything seemed great, it was just a 15k checkup/oil change. I get maybe 5 blocks and I hear this clunking noise from my back right near my wheel well and lots of vibration. Pull over and see that every single lug nut on my back right wheel is loose. I could spin every one with my fingers, two of them had actually fallen out and were lost (they found one but never found the second and had to replace it with just another black one that looks kinda similar to my aftermarket lug)

Call them up and wait 30min on hold, they ask me to drive back which I of course couldn't do as my wheel was near falling off and 2 lug nuts were gone. Wasnt gonna risk damaging my car. Needed to get it towed back and instead of helping me with the tow company they use the chick said I had to call them and scheduled a tow since they dont call for customers.

Get it to the shop, fucking pissed but I try to keep my cool as I am worried there is damage to my car and I want that fixed. Talked to the manager and the tech, was given a rental car while they worked on my car and made sure no damage was done to the wheel, struts or lugs. Told them I wanted to see photos when my wheel was off to make sure there was no damage as I was not about to take there word for it which they assured me they would.

Which of fucking course they didnt do at all. Got a call back the next day to pickup my car. Both managers that worked the previous day and tech conveniently didn't have work that day so had to go through a huge run around with a new manager on duty to get them to jack up up my car, take the wheel off and show me no damage was done.

Thankfully no damage was done but holy fuck was it an awful experience, really nothing was done for me or to make me ever think I could trust these people again and now I am gonna need to be paranoid about checking my lug nuts, my gas gap, my windshield wipers, really anything before I drive off a lot when picking my car up.

Never would have thought I needed to check to make my lug nuts at a dealership for a routine inspection but there you go. Lesson learned.

Should I go through this forum and pull pics of wrapped roofs, hoods and trunks?
The marketing guys that send surveys and read forums gave people what they wanted they didn't pull the idea out of their ass. Just because some don't like it doesn't mean there isn't a large part of the population that does. I personally like the two tone on some cars since it can make them look lower and sleeker.
In fact of the 30 or so cars I have owned my second favorite ever was a two tone.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dZlsPEKYu0E/maxresdefault.jpg

This Scion doesn't look good because they also painted the hood and trunk black but not really low enough so to me it looks like ass.

This is how you do a fucking proper Toyota two-tone @ 0:17

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLKsGT3Q7g4"]1985 トヨタ MR2(AW11)Toyota MR2 - YouTube[/ame]


This is the same idea as what you try to get across with that Eagle Talon.

http://img.favcars.com/honda/nsx/wal...nsx_1990_1.jpg

The pics of the tC do not do the real car justice since they all seem to be taken from a low angle. The real car actually looks much better with the two tone since I am not 2 feet tall and looking up at them all the time.

I just rolled over 39k a week ago.

Nah it's an automatic (like my fr-s.) I think they have a manual version of this car down on the lot. They have had 2 of these tCs since they were released, no one wants them I guess (not surprising lol.)

yeah :iono:

lol.

You're a good sport ...there, shiumai ....... :thumbsup:


humfrz

Another service shop horror story ....... :mad0259:

Like I've said before, during the "free" service period, I always mark the tires and oil filter before I take it in (to make sure they were rotated and the filter was changed) and check the oil level and for any drips under the car, before I drive it off the lot.

Now (after the free services) I take it in to a local auto shop and they let me watch them do the work, so I know it's done right. They are old guys, I'm an old guy, so we talk about the old days while they work.

Wanna here a back-in-the-day story .. ?? I thought not ...... :brokenheart:


humfrz

Especially like some of the back-in-the-day cars ...... ;)

If you don't think this car is perty ..... you're walken in the arguing side of me ..... :mad0259:

Yep, equipped with the "power pack" (4 bbl carb, mod heads & cam and dual exhaust) and a 3 speed standard transmission ........ you had a street machine to be reckoned with ...... :D


humfrz - stuck in the 50's ...... :respekt:

Under the 5 or 6 layers of different colour primer there were probably a few square inches left of those same two colours on my 55 Chev!

Your after market might be gone after you get your car back lol

JK =]

'89 Honda CRX Si, a buck twenty on the 401, and a sudden, brief clankity clank that sounds too loud for a tire spitting out a pebble. The oil warning light then pops, and by the time I was able to get three lanes over to the shoulder, seized engine.

They didn't tighten the drain plug during the service the week before. It used one litre per 600km after they fixed the motor. I then fixed them back when I traded for a '92 Acura Integra GSR, oil consumption discussion absent.

Mistakes happen. Be vigilant. No one, no system, is perfect. Think about the oversights any one of us makes while at work. It's life and it just sucks sometimes.

^ I had a couple of two toned vehicles that I loved, two Toyota FJ55's and an 81 Ford Courier that was hand painted blue and white so it kinda looked like an Israeli flag :iono:

My wife had a Cherokee Limited and got new tires at the local tire shop. She drove around and did a bunch of stuff that afternoon then when I got home she said it felt terrible by the time she got home. I went out to look at it and two wheels were ready to fall off, one had two lugs left the other had one. In the morning I jacked it up figuring I'd pull one of the ones that was left then go get some new ones and call it good but on all of the studs the threads were mashed from the wobbling. Tire shop said "yeah right, not our fault" so she went over there in my car and cried like a little girl until they sent a tow truck to come and get it. As it was rolling off the flatbed one of the wheels fell off and it crushed the rotor. Morons...

Yeah I would guess this is what happened. What annoys me is that they told the OP a different story. When a dealership screws up, fine it happens. But at least have the decency to explain to the customer how they screwed up and do what it takes to make the customer whole. Is it that hard to have a service rep get the story right and take the time to properly explain it to a customer who's understandably worried about his car?

Yeah that would annoy me as well. Hate when service providers promise to do something with no real intention of doing it. If you don't want to do something, fine but don't lie and say you will. What ever happened to doing the right thing and treating others with respect...

Small update, I didn't hear anything by lunch so I called them because it was supposed to be done today. Got tossed between 3 different people before being told the part isn't going to be here until tomorrow. Seems kind of odd it's taking 4 days to get a stud even if two of them were weekend days. Guess I'll see what happens tomorrow.

They are ordering wheel studs? any dealership service center should have these..

I just walked into my local Subaru dealership and purchased 5 for ~ $20 this past weekend

Stories like yours are the reason why i do everything myself. It has to be something major for me to seek help at a stealership.

After my first service (oil change, tire rotation and fluid check/top up) cost me $136 (no free service with Subaru), I just bought the tools to do it myself.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

I have been wondering the same thing myself. At first I was thinking they just don't carry many parts for this car as they don't get a lot of work for them and it's a Toyota service center and the part is most likely a Subaru part. Though when I pick it up I am going to ask for a complete right up on what was done and actually talk to a mechanic since I have been only dealing with a front desk person up to this point.

I would start doing this myself but not having the tools and living in an apartment complex sways me away from that.

Totally. I'm a condo dweller myself but the building has underground parking and locker facilities.
This might be a good time to befriend a mechanic or a fellow car guy.



Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

Floor Jack: $90
http://www.harborfreight.com/automot...ump-62160.html

(People bag on harbor freight, my family contains shade tree and professional mechanics for a combined 100+ years experience and this is the best jack any of them have ever used)

Jack Stands: $25
http://www.harborfreight.com/automot...nds-61196.html

Again, people say they'll never trust Chinese made jack stands, risking your life to save a few bucks, I say bollocks, mankind has been welding metal for >100 years, it's not rocket science, just inspect them every once in awhile, they're less sketchy than some 'Made in America before you were born sonny' crap I've used

Also: Make sure you inspect the shape of the stand so it won't damage your body work, some are flatter tops, others are deep 'C' shaped and end up not sitting on the pinch welds and rather end up digging into the frame rails (might be a better word for those but I forgot).

Oil pan: $13
http://www.harborfreight.com/waste-o...ner-97608.html

Basic socket and ratchet set: $13
http://www.harborfreight.com/hand-to...set-35338.html

Oil change DIY: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9221

Total cost of tools: <$150
Money saved per oil change if you're getting charged like above: $60 (I spend about $60 on oil + filter)
Cost of bothering your uptight neighbors who have never gotten their hands dirty: Priceless

Apartments suck, but in my experience the odds of someone getting pissed off at you for futzing around with your car for an hour is pretty low. It varies of course, some Nazi might be patrolling your complex in a golf cart for 60 hours a week ready to knock on your door if you haven't watered your plants that day, that might be a fight on your hands. Reasonable people will look the other way, it's not like you've got a clunker disassembled in a million pieces that only runs once a month lowering the value of the property which is why those rules are written.

Anyway, it's not much cheaper than the local Jiffy Lube or equivalent so the reasons to DIY are fewer and fewer, but I feel like I hadn't done one of these in awhile so good to get it out. Also I don't trust those places further than I can throw them, $40 oil change that probably cost them $15 for the oil and filter and a multitude of ways to totally destroy your car. And I've seen dealerships do shitty jobs to, but that's just me being crotchety.

:cheers:

Because it's a Subaru part, not Toyota. Nothing in Toyota's system uses the same stud.

Many dealers don't stock FRS parts unless they've sold a ton of them or have serviced a ton of them.

Yeah... SUBARU dealer.

I'd like to see someone buy Toyota wheel studs at a Subaru dealer.

-alex

Its the same stud..

drive to the nearest Subaru dealership, pick some up and bring them back to the Toyota guys to knock them in. (Still seems ridiculous to me they wouldn't already have these in stock)

Wait, OP's issue is something that the dealer will fix under warranty (or out of their own pocket), and you want OP to buy it on his/her own dime from a Subaru dealer?

I know it's the same stud, my point is that OP's car is being serviced by Scion/Toyota, and they do not have this part in their system for anything other than the FRS. Many dealers don't stock things like this, especially if it's something they rarely consume.

-alex

Dealer is fixing the issue, because they are the ones who cause it (warranty wont cover wheel studs)

Yes, sadly OP would have to shell out the literal $3 for the new stud.
But honestly id pay $3 to drive my own car for the 4 day period OP has been out his vehicle rather then the rental. I certainly would be PO'd at the whole situation.

Hopefully OP picks his baby up today without further issue.. and never returns to this dealership.

Got my car back today :) here is what they told me: Somehow the kid (their description) cross threaded the lug nuts on the studs. They got stuck before being torqued all the way down thus the wheel was loose causing the knocking sound I was hearing. They had to snap the studs to get the wheel off thus the need to replace them. They said the person no longer works there which I feel kind of bad someone got fired over it but if you can't handle rotating tires without breaking stuff, you probably should find something else to do. Mistakes happen I guess. Here are the part numbers that were replaced:
http://i.imgur.com/HNrKxZe.jpg

All part numbers are Toyota, not Subaru (from what a google search says.) Odds are they just didn't carry them in stock because I doubt they replace studs on an FR-S that often (if ever.) The second picture there is of a part bag I found in my car. According to google it's a floor mat clip. No clue why that was in my car, I'll have to check if they accidentally snapped one of the floor mat clips off and had to replace it. Anyway I am pumped to have my car back, driving that tC around for 4 days was not the best haha

Not my picture, and mine didn't have a sunroof, but this is one of the only vehicles I truly regret selling.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0011_large.jpg

so far the dealership stripped one of my lug nuts trying to remove the wheels for rotation and they broke my fancy scion keychain lol

other than that no real problems