How bad is this..........feedback requested
 

Hi all,

Firstly a sincere thank you, I've never been much of a forum poster, I'm deeply indebted to all those who don't share my affliction, the knowledge I've been able to glean from here has been instrumental in keeping our ZG and JK Rubicon going strongly. Replaced front wheel bearings on the JK last weekend, ordered them from Rockauto the previous Sunday evening, at my door Thursday morning, standard freight! Found out about them on this forum.

The following incident happened to my son and his girlfriend recently, car is a twin turbo Nissan, booked in for rear shock replacement only, they decided to do a wheel alignment as well, forgot to tighten the lock nuts on the adjustable front camber link, car lasted about four hours before suspension collapsed, thankfully at walking pace.
I accept mistakes happen, even really bad ones, I was just grateful at the time nothing really disastrous happened, especially considering they'd almost completed a quick round trip Melbourne/Morwell in the rain.
What happened next is the really alarming part to this little story, the workshop's ridiculously incompetent attempt at repairs and their apparent inability to comprehend the dangers involved, just to save a few dollars.

What followed was two weeks of absolute BULL, both at workshop and management level, head office refusing to escalate beyond state manager level to alleviate stalemate.

The first picture shows the camber link, movement has allowed the threads to work against each other until its just let go.
First solution..........deny threads are stripped, well maybe just the first one or two, and wind adjuster in beyond damaged threads, stating car must have had previous damage that their unable to locate, ignoring the fact that they have apparently successfully conducted a wheel alignment that their now unable to confirm was completed because "it's been lost in the system".
No explanation as to how a car with such an absurd amount of negative camber has four tyres wearing evenly across the entire tread.

Second solution.........as shown in second picture, put washers between mounting bracket and chassis rail! No thanks!

It's been about a week now, they've made two attempts to hand back a car that's clearly not acceptable and probably downright dangerous, management are backing claims of previous damage and want to know why I'm keen to argue over a "shitty little wheel alignment".

By now I've done some research and request camber arm be removed, which revealed an outstanding example of an expert technicians' professional workmanship to the mounting bracket!
I then measure length of camber arm on bench, 165mm. - stock is 178mm. No wonder the wheel is at such a stupid angle. Disassemble camber arm, sure enough, the threads are stripped, only engaged by a few inner threads beyond damaged area.
Next proposed solution..........re-cut damaged threads, Ah..... no thanks!

Management agree to install new camber arms, stating it's a goodwill gesture as the car has previous unidentifiable damage.......real professionals!
Repairs take another week, "we can't locate parts", refuse two requests to install standard components - "we're looking after you, just want you to be happy", then it's Express Post has not arrived, refuse to quote tracking number.........

BULL, BULL,BULL.

Eventually car is returned with wheel alignment print out, so far, so good.

My dilemma is, I'm feeling an increasing sense of responsibility to somehow cause some degree of accountability to be applied to these clowns before something really bad happens to someone less fortunate, however there's no registration/licencing authority to lodge a complaint with, seems they're able to stick a uniform on any moron and advertise him to be a highly trained expert technician.

Am I being overly alarmist?

Your thoughts appreciated.

Cheers

& people wonder why jeep owners like to do their own work.
It is a futile exercise to complain to any industry group.
The only thing you havent done is to name the people involved so that no one on here falls victim.

Name n shame !!!

How bad is this..........feedback requested
 

Hmmm. Sounds like a rough ride (no pun intended)... Really feel for you.

Even though it was a close call with safety to begin with and try did repair the damage, do you feel the evolution was unsatisfactory? Or was it simply the unprofessionalism of their service throughout that left a sour taste?

Thanks for the responses, I thought I was making the culprits ID fairly obvious, as stated it's over now for us hopefully, my concern is the next victim may not be so lucky, it may even be you coming in the opposite direction when some poor buggers wheel falls off in front of you.

I notice post says I just registered, that was years ago when I purchased the ZG on a whim from ebay sight unseen because oldest kids were getting into 4WD and wife thought it would be family fun - still got it!

Thought it was THEM, got a few similar stories on AJOR bout them.

Ahhhh. I know now.

Well Itchy, I have a story too. The Geelong branch is shit too.


We had a Rexy. I fitted all Whiteline alignment and suspension gear under it myself.

Went and talked to them about doing the alignment, and it was all about aligning the wheels to suit a track day at Philip Island. With competitive tracks days, the cars all the same, if you want to win you need specific perfect alignment settings or you are behind to begin with. With Rexxies, you need rear end toe out 2mm, the right camber and stuff like that to be able to turn in real sharply.

The main point we talked about was that the two front camber pins had to be installed and the front camber set to a certain figure. They totally agreed to do this, and have the specs 100%.

Went to pick it up, paid for the service and low and behold he hands me my two new camber bolts back. They didn't need them he says. Got it very close. Stupid stupid me trusted him. Hey, it's the biggest suspension business in the media and that hey. I am just a carpenter.


Well, two front brand new hoops totally ********ed after one track day. $800. Scrubbed through on the outside. Not quite enough negative camber. Who would have thunk?

Ever since then I have 'steered' every single person I ever know away from that business. No bull.


If you want a killer alignment done in Vic ---->>> Trutrack in Nth Melbourne. Brilliant. http://www.trutrack.com.au/