Dealership Service Experience & Tire Issue Question

[mynameisnick4]

Originally Posted by Icecreamtruk

With all of these problems, why do you people keep bringing your car to the dealers? Its more expensive, and they do a shittier job than most garages anyways...

In my case it's that I haven't invested the money into tools to start doing it myself. Plus living in an apartment makes it a little harder to wrench on cars and I am lazy haha. The price wasn't terrible, $64 for oil change and tire rotation. The upside of doing at the dealership (at least to me) is that if they do screw stuff up like this they will fix it. I also like the documentation they give me for my records after they are done. Eventually I will start doing it myself as come winter time I need to buy a jack anyway to put my snow tires on now that I have two sets of wheels.

[FX86]

Originally Posted by mynameisnick4

In my case it's that I haven't invested the money into tools to start doing it myself. Plus living in an apartment makes it a little harder to wrench on cars and I am lazy haha. The price wasn't terrible, $64 for oil change and tire rotation. The upside of doing at the dealership (at least to me) is that if they do screw stuff up like this they will fix it. I also like the documentation they give me for my records after they are done. Eventually I will start doing it myself as come winter time I need to buy a jack anyway to put my snow tires on now that I have two sets of wheels.

yup having records is the most important part...anytime there is an issue i tell them to put it on record and i make sure they do it so there won't be any BS from them later on

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Floor Jack: $90..................

OR, the redneck way:

2 cement blocks (scrounged from a vacant lot) (free)

2 pieces of 2"x6" (from a construction site) (free)

Crescent wrench (from the hardware store bargain bin) (.99 cents)

Turkey roasting pan (from a grocery store) ($1.29)

Funnel (from a garage sale) (.25 cents)

There ya go ......... $2.53 ........ you're in the oil changing business




humfrz

[daiheadjai]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

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)

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).

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.

I second the HF 1.5ton aluminum floorjack. Nice and compact (you can take it to track days in your trunk), and lightweight (I think it's about 30lbs).
The only snag is if you're lowered, you might have trouble getting it under the front subframe jackpoint. I like jacking it up from the side, using a 1-2ft 2x4 to spread the weight along the entire pinch weld.
This makes accurately lowering the car onto the jackstands (minimizing risk of damage to your pinch welds) significantly easier in my experience.

As for your apartment, this is why I make it a point to chat with my security/concierge guys, and make sure I'm on good terms with the staff - it pays to have friends on the inside.