jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

...If all this crap that I have gone through with this car had not happen to me, and someone told me the stories I would have called bull **** a long time ago.

If you have been on LS1tech long enough you should by now know me as the X factor. In fact I think I need to change my screen name. If you can dream of some stupid, retarded out of this world stuff happening, it has happen to me with every little thing I do on this car for the past 4 years. I have said the car is cursed but that may be an under statement.
Ok, latest installment...

Rebuilt the front end and had major problems after the local Ferman Chevy dealer "Aligned it". I told the tech I just rebuilt the front end so it needs to be completely set up. Camber caster toe. This was over 2 years ago. After they finished it drove great for about a week and then it slowly started to dart real bad left and right especially while braking over the next month. I took it back and they said they would just realign it. Did this over and over for about 6 months and I said F-It and parked it for the summer due to boating/Fishing season. Next fall I took it to a local Good/Year and had them do an alignment on it. They did it and It again drove great for about a week and slowly started to dart real bad and the wheel was noticeably off center by the end of the second month. Since this car was wrecked I thought OMG this POS isn't straight and I have wasted money on it. I took it back 3 to 4 times over the next 8 months. I have driven this car with new tires after the rebuild a total of 3k miles. At this point the right front is worn bad on the shoulder so I rotated front to back. I took it back to Good/Year and finally someone said the carriage is off and needs to be pulled. Said I needed to go to the dealer. So off i go to get the carriage aligned at FERMAN CHEVY. dropped it off and sure enough they did a carriage adjustment and re-setup the front end again. I drove less then 10 miles and I thought the car was going to kill me. It was everything I could do just to hold on to it and not bounce off other cars. Just up in arms I parked it and did not drive it for another 5 months. I was ready to part it out.
Out of the blue I decided to get out my framing levels and string. I strung the cars tires and decided I was gonna make my own damn adjustments to the toe so I could drive it again. It had way to much toe in it so I backed it out to around zero and took it to my buddies hot rod shop. Told him figure it out because I am stumped. It had only gotten worse the more I tried to figure it out by taking it to shops. I told him something is moving under there and I have no idea what. Come to find out that the local chevy dealer when they initially "Aligned the front end" had done a Carriage adjustment as I found on my invoice... and left the freakin bolts loose. Not only that but in some strange IRONY they had left everything else so damn loose durring the last alignment the lower A arms where sliding around in the slots. I was standing under this freakin car with my jaw about to hit the flipping floor as my buddy uses a small pry bar and moves all of the lower A arm adjustments around.

Yet Another LONG *** story that I wouldn't have believed if it hadn't happen to me.
Took the car to a polish guy who owns his own shop and he spent 3 hours making sure he got it as good as he could for me. specs are now

Caster L 4.1 R 4.7
Camber L 0.3 R 0.3
Toe L 0.00 R 0.00

That is the best he could do on the camber with out loosing the caster on it but I think some adjustable lower A arms should fix that in the future. For now though she drives great even with both right side tires worn out on the out side shoulders. If you live near New Port Richey FL look up RPM Auto. Ask for Mark. He gave me my car back. I took a 1 hr cruise in it today for the first time in over a year. It feels right and I can drive it with one hand on the wheel, something I have not been able to do for years now.

Blue Knight

iTrader: (4)

Nice....thats one way to get a repeat customer

high impact

iTrader: (5)

The crap you went through from what I read is called incompetence. Those alignment techs need to go flip burgers!

duh

iTrader: (16)

Personally I'd have called the dealership screaming! Not only is it incompetent, it's down right deadly. If you had driven that car in that condition it could have had extremely dire results. When I put my front suspension on and drove it to the alignment shop, I was glad I only drove it 2 blocks. I can't imagine driving it for 3K mile like that. I'd call them and see what they are willing to do. If nothing else try to get them to reimburse you for the current alignment and work. I'd try to get them to refund your money that you spent with them since they didn't do the work properly. Make sure you take the paperwork from the last guy with you and hopefully it details the k-member being loose and the suspension parts being loose. If nothing else it's worth a shot.

trilkb

iTrader: (4)

Call them and talk to the service manager, tell him your story and go from there. Doubt you will get your money back. At the very least tell him you want him to know it happened and that his employees need to watch what they do befor someone gets seriously hurt or killed.

I hate using shops, HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE using them. Last one I went to the guy did a burnout in my car. Full on brake stand after he pulled it off the lift. Ive had a lincoln dealership tell me they need 8 hours of labor to do a fuel pump on a lincoln LS. I did it in 15min because the back seat comes out and hey the fuel pump is right there! I shoved that in their face.

It isnt their car, they dont care, and most of it is young people who REALLY dont care. I dont trust any shop anywhere. If I do go to one im the guy freaking out that they have my car. I dont let my own family drive my cars because I dont trust them to take care of it, or to monitor everything.

alignments are one of those things though, average joe cant do them so you gotta go somewhere. I used tire discounters last time, they managed to break a lug nut stud...doing and alignment?!?!?!?!

Blackbird-WS6

iTrader: (15)

if you have problems again PM "mrr23" on here, he does some badass alignment/suspension work in orlando

i know how you feel about shops ******* your **** up, i had a vendor on this site do a **** poor job on my car, $2000 later i had all there mistakes fixed

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

Yea I really shouldn't be surprised. This is the same shop that managed to bend my lower A-Arm changing the lower ball joint. It was someone different working on it but again same messed up result. So far it's all good. Drove all around and even with crap tires it's a thousand times better then it has been in two years. Thought this car had seen it's last days but she comes back from the dead again. Now It's time to get back to work and get this thing driving daily again.
I'm just glad that
A. I'm not crazy, **** WAS MOVIN UNDER THERE.
B. I'm actually able to do this work. I was seriously questioning if I did something wrong.
C. She's paid for, and she can be driven again.

stevo9389

Reputable shops in the Hillsborough/Pasco/Pinellas areas are few and far between. A friend of mine in your area had good things to say about a shop somewhere off Moog Rd not sure if it is the exact same one.

SAPPER

iTrader: (10)

Damn, I'd have been screamin. But the time that lapsed is way too long.
I work at a dealer and for the most part, ours guys are damn good. We have 2 master techs that are badass. The younger guys do real well too. We have one guy that holds a master tech certificate but is a complete moron. Our oil changer knows more than him.

What I can't get over is the cost of parts. All our parts are marked up anywhere from 100 to 300%. GM doesn't make their money on selling cars. They make it selling the parts. How's $192 for a battery sound? or $540-580 for a starter or alternator??

I'm glad I work here and my wife is a General manager for Advance Auto parts.

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

Your first mistake was taking it to a dealer for an alignment. Your second mistake was taking it to some chain shop. Your third mistake was taking it back to the same dealer that started this mess. The only places that really do a good alignment anymore are those shops where the employees are interested in working on and have their own performance cars. The way it was handled was your curse. **** like this happens all the time.

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

Agreed. Lesson learned. Back when I started working on cars, performance shops didn't want to waist their time on most of my cars and what seemed to be petty maintenance to them back in the 90's and early 2000's. Times have changed a bit and I hear them tell me to give them a shot but thought it to be still petty to them until a couple of weeks ago when the owner went out of his way to get it right. You wont see me taking anything to chains or dealers anymore not even for tires. Found my fab shop and general repair shop. Mark from RPM Auto also says he has a good machine shop and engine shop so think I might have finally found what I need to do just about anything I can't handle. Time to start working on the F-Body again and getting back to having fun and enjoying my LT1 again. Next step Some interior work lol.

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

That is really close to RPM. In fact the only shops on Moog that I know of is ICE cold air and Rigz Automotive. He is about 1000 feet away from Moog Rd. south on Grand Blvd on the east side of the road right around the corner from Rigz.

noice

Most alignment shops suck, even when they have the electronic units they have idiots using them so it doesn't matter. You can align a car with a piece of angle iron, plumb bob, and a machinist bubble level. That is how my drag car was aligned and it launches true with a 1.31 60ft NA and stops true at 136MPH.

Also I wouldn't waste your money on tubular suspension parts. Spohn and BMR uppers both bend with normal street use. Spohn lowers bend with street use. If you want to upgrade at most I would just do BMR K-Member and Lowers, stock uppers are better.

NewOrleansLT1

I try to stay away from the Stealership.. There only good for warranty work and parts..

speed_demon24

iTrader: (6)

This. Took my car to him and from now on he will be the only one who touches my alignment.