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I guess I'm lucky, my clientele just doesn't have much suck. They can't park worth a damn, but then again so few people can anymore.
But this past week I had two complete blithering idiots in the same day, within a couple of hours of each other.
First one had sent his 1977 Ford F150 in on Tuesday. Bad fuel pump. To give you an idea of our clientele, this was only one of maybe three pre-1990's vehicles we've worked on all year. I wish he'd lose the sentimental attachment to having "an old farm truck" and just ditch the pollution-spewing gas hog.
Anyways, I put on a replacement fuel pump and to be honest, enjoyed not having to remove a gas tank to do so. The truck came back on Thursday. On a wrecker. My first thought was "ok, bad pump, it happens." I verified nothing coming out of the pump and ordered a new one. Then it hit me. Check the fuel gage. Empty. So I went across the street and got $10 worth of gas. The truck fired right up.
The customer told the boss he'd filled the truck up. When pressed, he admitted that yes he had but it had been some time before the original pump failed on Tuesday.
Facepalm.
Second one came in Thursday morning for an alignment on his 2002 Mercedes S500. I specialize in alignments on German cars unfortunately, and hate working on them. The customer had worked on it himself, replacing a couple of front end components trying to get rid of a squeak. I located the source of the squeak (ball joint of course) and showed him.
It would take me longer than this thread is worth to explain Mercedes camber/caster service bolts because the design is thoroughly jacked up. Suffice it to say, you DO NOT turn a service bolt when installing it. Doing so will strip out grooves in the part that it secures to the subframe. Based on where the part was installed in relation to the service bolt, I told the customer he'd turned the bolt.
He finally admitted to having done so but still didn't fully believe me about my warning.
The car had a very slight drift to the right, correctable only with installation of a couple of service bolts. He declined that repair so I set the adjustable alignment angles (front and rear toe) and sent him on his way with tire wear prevented and a straight steering wheel. I've been doing this for 20 years and have done 2800 alignments at this job alone. I don't send them out the door with a crooked steering wheel.
He came back a couple of hours after I'd "fixed' the F150 for the second time complaining that his steering wheel was off center.
He stayed in the office talking to the boss while I test drove to verify the wheel was off center (it was) and then set it up on the alignment rack to get the readings.
Well what do you know?! Left front camber and caster as well as front toe were vastly different than the printout showed from the alignment that morning. At that point the boss came out and looked at the screen and said "he tried to turn that bolt, didn't he?"
Yep.
I straightened the wheel and let the boss deal with him. Hopefully he was fired as a customer.
But this past week I had two complete blithering idiots in the same day, within a couple of hours of each other.
First one had sent his 1977 Ford F150 in on Tuesday. Bad fuel pump. To give you an idea of our clientele, this was only one of maybe three pre-1990's vehicles we've worked on all year. I wish he'd lose the sentimental attachment to having "an old farm truck" and just ditch the pollution-spewing gas hog.
Anyways, I put on a replacement fuel pump and to be honest, enjoyed not having to remove a gas tank to do so. The truck came back on Thursday. On a wrecker. My first thought was "ok, bad pump, it happens." I verified nothing coming out of the pump and ordered a new one. Then it hit me. Check the fuel gage. Empty. So I went across the street and got $10 worth of gas. The truck fired right up.
The customer told the boss he'd filled the truck up. When pressed, he admitted that yes he had but it had been some time before the original pump failed on Tuesday.
Facepalm.
Second one came in Thursday morning for an alignment on his 2002 Mercedes S500. I specialize in alignments on German cars unfortunately, and hate working on them. The customer had worked on it himself, replacing a couple of front end components trying to get rid of a squeak. I located the source of the squeak (ball joint of course) and showed him.
It would take me longer than this thread is worth to explain Mercedes camber/caster service bolts because the design is thoroughly jacked up. Suffice it to say, you DO NOT turn a service bolt when installing it. Doing so will strip out grooves in the part that it secures to the subframe. Based on where the part was installed in relation to the service bolt, I told the customer he'd turned the bolt.
He finally admitted to having done so but still didn't fully believe me about my warning.
The car had a very slight drift to the right, correctable only with installation of a couple of service bolts. He declined that repair so I set the adjustable alignment angles (front and rear toe) and sent him on his way with tire wear prevented and a straight steering wheel. I've been doing this for 20 years and have done 2800 alignments at this job alone. I don't send them out the door with a crooked steering wheel.
He came back a couple of hours after I'd "fixed' the F150 for the second time complaining that his steering wheel was off center.
He stayed in the office talking to the boss while I test drove to verify the wheel was off center (it was) and then set it up on the alignment rack to get the readings.
Well what do you know?! Left front camber and caster as well as front toe were vastly different than the printout showed from the alignment that morning. At that point the boss came out and looked at the screen and said "he tried to turn that bolt, didn't he?"
Yep.
I straightened the wheel and let the boss deal with him. Hopefully he was fired as a customer.
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