Hack mechanic also took out my wife this morning . .

[fastfredracing]

Who ever was working on our Cayenne before us was a class act. Everything I have touched has missing fasteners, clips, mis routed wiring, cracked air boxes. etc. Most of the problems this vehicle had was from shoddy maintenance.
As Im walking out the door this am, I get the frantic call from wifey poo. Cayene on the tow truck on the way, has zero steering . The steering wheel just freewheels .
She was pulling into the parking garage downtown when it happened, lucky , slow speed, no crash. Other than a bunch of po'd drivers honking at her for 15 minutes and her looking silly blocking 2 lanes of traffic in morning rush hour, she is fine .
However, if I know her, 5 minutes before this , she was probably blasting down route 28 at 80 mph.
Tow truck drops it off, I pull the lower steering cover, and the pinch bolt for the steering column is just laying there. It fell out! someone did not tighten it ! That is about the worst possible thing a mechanic could forget, short of the bolt/clip for the brake pedal. She had zero steering, it just free wheeled in either direction .
The clock spring is toast also, I am sure, as I now have air bag codes .

[fastfredracing]

"almost " can't edit title .. typing with gloves on this morning .

[asphaltgambler]

Fred - I'll say again because it's fact. Tech's or worse.........mechanics in the last 8-9 years or so have lost their way. Since the Great Recession, dealer principles and indie shop owners have ever decreasing margins and service opportunities. Today, more than ever, the 'tech's' are cheated on labor time, their own co-workers and the shop service administration.

For the few left with pride in their work - they suffer financially in the long run. So the work, the customer suffers. At the last indie shop I worked for, 1 of the heavy hitter mechanics would say at the start of the day: " Well for sure someone's gettin effed today.............but it ain't gonna be me..."

It's unfortunate but your situation ( ongoing) is the result..............

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I had the same thing happen to me once. I had just been driving about 70 mph. pulled into a gas station and the shaft came off the steering rack.

In my case, I was the culprit. I had replaced the rack and tightened the bolt, but had not noticed a PO had installed a slightly smaller diameter bolt in the shaft which did not physically lock everything together, so it slipped out. I remember tightening the bolt very tighly, thinking "Only an idiot wouldn't tighten this bolt." Evidently, I was the idiot. I never assumed there would be a smaller bolt in there, and evidently, I wasn't able to tighten it tight enough.

I still get freaked out thinking about what "could" have happened. Glad nobody got hurt. Still sends chills down my spine.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I have been pushed for time and have the RX7 all torn apart, so broke down and dropped off the F150 last week to have Bilstein 5100 shocks installed. Local indie shop that was recommended. I figured that anyone can work on an F150, right? First trip the front was set too low, possibly miscommunication on my part. Took it back and had the front set correctly, but now it's clunky. Found the front upper shock nuts loose on both sides, hence the clunk. Fixed it myself, now I remember why I DIY everything.

[id10t]

Similar problem exists on 356s, but it has to do with a 50+ year old bakelite steering coupler breaking/disentegrating/etc. Zim's in Texas used to sell a nice heavy steel replacement (I have one stashed for my car....)

[Neilk]

It's bad enough he screwed up the steering, good thing the hack mechanic didn't go out with your wife as well!

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Who ever was working on our Cayenne before us was a class act...

Do you know who the PO was and can you get in contact with them?

I'd at the very least send them an email explaining what happened.

Glad The Missus is OK.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by id10t

Similar problem exists on 356s, but it has to do with a 50+ year old bakelite steering coupler breaking/disentegrating/etc. Zim's in Texas used to sell a nice heavy steel replacement (I have one stashed for my car....)

My steering coupler currently has two stainless steel clamps holding it together.

I have the repair piece somewhere that Ab Tiedmann from Afterwerke sells.....going to install it one of these days....



Glad the wife is OK, Fred!!!

[speeder]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I have been pushed for time and have the RX7 all torn apart, so broke down and dropped off the F150 last week to have Bilstein 5100 shocks installed. Local indie shop that was recommended. I figured that anyone can work on an F150, right? First trip the front was set too low, possibly miscommunication on my part. Took it back and had the front set correctly, but now it's clunky. Found the front upper shock nuts loose on both sides, hence the clunk. Fixed it myself, now I remember why I DIY everything.

Good help is hard to find. I do a lot of my own work but luckily also have shops and people I really trust here.

I'm about to put Bilsteins on the F250 4x4, is your truck lifted? Pretty sure the 5100 listed for mine was lifted only.

[stomachmonkey]

Glad the wife is OK.

Maybe this belongs in the biggest screw up at work thread.

Had a Jeep as my winter driver. At the movies one snowy night with the Ms before she was the Ms.

Get in to head home and the transmission takes a dump.

Get it hauled to Moms house to sit while I decide what to do.

Find a guy parting out a V8 Qudratrac so have him drop it off intending to swap out the drivetrain. The rest of it he has sold to someone else.

Well mine was an inline 6 so of course nothing lined up on the frames. While looking at my frame I find a ton of rust in the back and call the guy back, make a deal to keep everything but the body, his is trashed, mine is good so was going to simply swap tops.

Thus begins the "while you are in there" slippery slope saga.

Sandblast the frame and recoat it, bent and ran all new brake / fuel lines, did a top end refresh on the motor, new heads, hotter cam, intake, carb. Added headers and glasspacks, thing was hella loud but I was in my 20's so it was cool.

One day my buddy Tim comes by and he's checking things out, I've got the body back on at this point and he notices the pinch clamp in the top of my tool chest. Say's "you should put that on before you forget" Replied "I know, I'm not an idiot."

Get the thing drivable and fire it up for a quick romp around the block and son of a ***** it won't shift out of 1st.

Mom was moving to Fl and was going to put the house up for sale so I needed to get my mess out of her driveway.

Tim, (he's got his own shop) comes by and flatbeds it to his place. Takes a look at the transmission and thinks it just the governor so drops it by the tranny shop he uses down the street.

Shop owner calls me a couple of days later, Jeep is fine, was the governor, simple cheap fix.

Then he says, "listen, I don't know what ******* worked on this thing last but it nearly killed me. I took it for a test drive and it shifted through all the gears so I went to do a u turn to take it back to the shop but it just kept going. Ended up on someones lawn and managed to stop it just before going through their fence. The pinch clamp for the steering knuckle is missing."

I said thanks for the heads up and I'll make sure to pick one up before I come get it, as I'm visualizing it sitting in the top of my tool chest.

[sammyg2]

Note to self: Don't sell anything to fastfredracing ....

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Maybe this belongs in the biggest screw up at work thread.

Beat you to it. But only by one minute.

[GH85Carrera]

My 86 El Camino came from the factory with a "rag" joint for the steering shaft. It works OK for the first 20 years or 200,000 miles then starts to look rather scary. I replaced it with a shaft and coupler that is a u-joint from some other vehicle that I don't remember. I learned about the fix from the El Camino forum. The old joint still worked but it was pretty sloppy. New setup is way better.

I decided steering was kinda important, almost like brakes, vital.

[legion]

[mattdavis11]

Not long after I had Firestone align the 944, the passenger side tie rod came off, on the rack side. Just prior, my brother had been driving 70+mph down the highway, then went over a cattle guard at the gate on a friends ranch, and it fell right off.

[sammyg2]

Several years ago my daughter's car had a nail in the tire and it was Sunday and she needed to get back to school, so i took her car to firestone (reluctantly).


I told them, "just patch the tire".

firestone: It's too close to the edge, you need a new tire.
Me: No, (a-hole), it's an inch from the shoulder, just patch the darn thing.
And don't be messing around with anything else. Just the tire.

Firestone: but sir, the 500,000 point inspection is free!

Me: NO I said, nothing but the tire. don't touch anything else.


Got the tire patched and my daughter took off to school 4 hours away.
she showed up back at our house less than a half hour later saying the engine was smoking.

Evidently the jr. technician at firestone did not get the word that he wasn't to touch anything and he touched the engine oil dipstick.

Not only did he touch it, he pulled it out and missed the freaking hole when he tried to put it back in.

There it was, tangled in the front suspension.
The smoking was from oil spitting out of the dipstick hole and getting on the exhaust.

I cleaned the dip stick off, and put it back where it belonged, problem solved.

And no I did not drive my truck through the firestone front door but I was tempted.

Places i will never ever go include firestone and big-o tires. And pep boys.


I'm sure there are at least 100 more that I can't think of right now.

[mattdavis11]

Just had another Firestone adventure yesterday. Had the Camry aligned after buying new tires (not from Firestone, but have a lifetime alignment there) and I told them all I wanted was an alignment, and I don't want anyone checking the joints with a pry bar and tearing the boots, they are new. Boy wonder calls later wanting to put dye in the oil to find a leak. I said there is no leak, it's going right past the valve stem guide seals, and please quit trying to find other problems. It has 310,000 miles man, it's fine.

[sc_rufctr]

You guys should do what I do... When you're not happy, complain.

Send them and email or snail mail. Do something. Don't just walk aways saying I'll never visit there again.
Tell them why you're unhappy and that if they don't fix it, they'll never see another dime from you.

You may think nothing happens but believe me it does. I mostly get replies of some kind.
Just recently I complained about the Spam TV's in a local gas station via email and guess what. They got back to me.

A few years ago I complained about the wait time on a general inquiry for a Qantas flight.
They had me on the phone for nearly 3 hours and then the line went dead... I tried calling back but in the end I just gave up.

I complained via email and they replied with a Grovel Gram and a free return ticket to Alice Springs!

[GothingNC]

Glad she is OK !

Last time I went to Firestone for tires I had my rear wheel roll past me on the drive home...