...and no, I'm not being facetious, I mean I
literally could have been killed today due to the incompetence of a
lazy ass worker at Upton Tire Pros near Target. I brought the 2 in for
a 4 wheel alignment, and I noticed some knocking, and told Donny (my
MR2 mechanic) about it (he replaced the shocks and told me to let him
know of knocking after I get it aligned. so, I did, and he told me to
bring it to his house after he got off work. so, around 6:30, or so, I
took off, and took the highway to Pearl. I had no idea, but when Donny
took a look under the car, he exclaimed "HOLY CRAP!!!!!". as it turned
out, the top knuckle bolt on the left front suspension was completely
loose. not even finger tight, it was only a few turns away from coming
completely off. I was doing around 85 at times, with traffic around me
pretty consistently. Donny tightened it up and looked around the rest
of the car and found that the right sway bar end link was also just as
loose. so, they got really careless, and it COULD have cost me my life,
or at least a while in the hospital.
so, I went up there today to get them to redo the alignment, and give me a refund. and after waiting for about 20 mins, or so, the manager came out and spoke to me. he proceeded to tell me that there was nothing they could do about it, and that his guys didn't touch the camber or caster. I told him that to adjust the camber, you have to loosen the top knuckle bolt (which is what was loose), and move the wheel in and out. he was adamant that his guys didn't touch it because the factory specs said that "caster and camber wasn't adjustable." I laughed and told him that it is possible because I've personally done it. and then he tried to pin it on Donny, and I stopped that immediately because I watched Donny torque the bolts down, as did Ben Smith. Donny did his job, and the last people to be anywhere near the bolts after Donny swapped the shocks were the people at Upton Tire Pros near Target in Jackson. he eventually gave me my money back, but didn't redo the alignment because he said all they do is change the toe. and that apparently takes an hour and a half to do, and they have to charge me $80 in the process. so, I'm pretty pissed at Upton. defiantely don't go there if you want your stuff working right.
now that rant is over, can anyone recommend a place that they KNOW does a good job, and adjusts caster, camber, and toe?
here are pictures of the potential disaster after I got to Donny's:
Front left - loose
Front left - tight (after Donny properly torqued it)
Right front sway bar end link:
Joseph.
"use more gas, less brake"
-Juan Manuel Fangio