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Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » Tighten the lug nuts, how hard is that?

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June 29, 2009 11:14 a.m. pinchvalve UltraDork

I took one of my cars in for service to my local Monro a while back, they were having a special and I am always looking for an honest mechanic. They guys were pretty good, honest, and the work was well done. I have been taking cars there ever since. Well, I guess the turnover that is common in shops has replaced everyone at this location, and the shop now is dangerously inept.

My wife picked up a car, and drive away with her front lug nuts hand-tight. Luckily, she noticed it right away and turned right around and took it back. No apologies, no worries, they just laughed it off and tightened them and sent her on her way. I had a car in for inspection, and dropped off a second car when I picked that one up. Driving away, I noticed the same clunk of a loose wheel, especially bad on the hub-centric MR2! I tightened it with my own wrench, but took it back to let them know about their screwup and to have them properly torque my wheel. Again, no apologies, no "sorry we could have killed you". I had to ask them to torque my one front wheel. They decided, just to be safe, to torque all of my lug nuts down as far as their impact wrench would go! Why? Of course, they broke a stud. No one tells me this, they just let me sit in the waiting area, wondering why something that should take 5 minutes has stretched to 20 minutes. Long story short, they are an using impact driver and a blow-torch after an hour or so, and then give up and move on to other cars. An hour and a half later, I am still sitting there and wondering WTF??? I had to bum a ride from another customer just to get home and make my next appointment. No apologies, no explanations (until later) just a bunch or morons.
June 29, 2009 11:22 a.m. 93celicaGT2 Dork

If you rearrange the letters in "Monro," you get "Moron."

Just sayin'.

I also think you're being too nice about it. They endangered your life, your wife's life, and two of your cars. Get mad. Chances are you'll never have to do it again if you do it right the first time and leave a lasting impression.
June 29, 2009 11:24 a.m. ClemSparks UberDork

Unfortunately...I've found in life that if I get to the point where I will pay someone else to do something (and I'm not just talking about cars), I will learn that I would have done a better job myself. Unfortunately, that's not a healthy mindset for me to have.

Clem
June 29, 2009 2:46 p.m. minimac Dork

How many times do you have to get kicked in the nuts before you say "enough"? When it comes to stupid, they get one chance. After all, eveyone makes a mistake. After the first time, shame on them. BUT after the second time, you went back? Shame on you!
June 29, 2009 4:18 p.m. pete240z Dork

yeah, 20 years ago I had one of those waiting room stretches and I found out that one of my "wheel studs" somehow had "stripped threads" and they were calling around to get a new stud to "help" me out...

When I needed tires on my 1966 Datsun 1600 roadster, I showed up at Sam's Club with four tires/rims in the back of my daily driver. They were wondering why I didn't bring the whole car.......
June 29, 2009 4:42 p.m. benzbaron Reader

My Grandma almost was killed when the wheel came off her car on the freeway in Riverside California. She got off the road and a driver coming up the emergency lane on the cell phone hit her. Two broken arms at 83 years old. God was on her side though and she has since made a recoverty but will never be 100%.

I decided awhile ago that if anyone is going to make a mechanical mistake which leads to my death or injury it should be me. My trusted mechanic is a one man operation because he doesn't trust other peoples work from past experiences with ineptness.
June 29, 2009 5:09 p.m. 2002acr New Reader

Best thing a dumb tire guy could have is a Chinese impact gun. If they have an Ingersoll Rand, that is when the damage is done.
June 29, 2009 6:27 p.m. porksboy Dork

I hate to admit this but. Once upon a time I worked in a large shop for a major dealership of a rather infamous automobile brand. I went to work sick as a dog because we had a huge workload. Mid afternoon a light bulb went on in my brain that told me I hadn’t torqued the wheels on a customer’s car I had serviced that AM. I got on the phone to the customer and told her not to drive the car. I got directions to her house about 5 miles away, hopped in my car with my torque and was there in about 10 minutes. When I put the wrench on the lugs every one of them was… TIGHT. I just couldn’t remember torqueing them and no way could I have slept until I knew every thing was correct. I guess doing things in sequence pays off. You just have to be smart enough to develop the routine on certain things.

The lowest bidder in the repair business is the cheapest because he has a low overhead; one way to reduce the overhead is to pay less. Now when you pay less you don’t get the best techs. So why would you take your car to the cheap place and expect world-class service? The world-class techs cost more and you get charged more. I’m not saying its right it’s just the way thing are.

I am no longer an auto tech (not because of the above reason) and on the rare occasion when I have had to take one of my vehicles in for tire work I take my own torque wrench and torque my own wheels. I have had more than one person ask me what it is.
June 29, 2009 7:59 p.m. Wally UberDork

It can happen to the best of us. I had a right front wheel come off my Dad's Monte in turn three at Freeport Speedway. He still hasn't let me forget it though in my defense I swear that was as tight as any seven year old was goingf to tighten a wheel.
June 29, 2009 9:15 p.m. Jensenman MegaDork

Lucky for me, I am very anal and triple check everything I do. But even so there was the time I didn't properly put the mats back in my brothers' girlfriend's 300ZX after replacing the heater core... can you say 'flatspots'?
June 29, 2009 10:35 p.m. Toyman01 Reader

Took one of my work vans to Sam's for tires. They have a check board at the front of the stall. Every item on the board has to be checked by two people. Lug nuts are torqued twice, once by the tech doing the work, and again by another tech before the board gets signed off and the car released.

You reckon Sam's got sued a few time to make them implement that system.
June 29, 2009 10:35 p.m. Toyman01 Reader

Double post because I'm impatient and hit the Add Post button twice.
June 29, 2009 11:28 p.m. MitchellC HalfDork

Should have had someone else double check it first.
June 29, 2009 11:48 p.m. 2002acr New Reader

Toyman01 wrote:

Took one of my work vans to Sam's for tires. They have a check board at the front of the stall. Every item on the board has to be checked by two people. Lug nuts are torqued twice, once by the tech doing the work, and again by another tech before the board gets signed off and the car released.

You reckon Sam's got sued a few time to make them implement that system.

Torque wrenches are only good if they tighten the wheels gradually. I have had my wheels zapped with an Ingersoll Rand (my estimate, over 250 lb/ft) and then "checked" with a properly set torque wrench.
June 30, 2009 1:46 a.m. Wowak Dork

I took the wheels off my Miata and took them in the back of a friend's SUV to get my new tires mounted. When I first got the car, I took it to a dealership I did work for as a subcontractor, to a tech I was FRIENDS WITH, and the bastard still managed to snap a wheel stud. That was the last time anyone but me took the wheels off my Miata, or put them back on with anything but a torque wrench. The other techs used to laugh and shake their head at me hand-threading the lugnuts, dropping the lift so the tires were touching the ground, then tightening them with a torque wrench, but I didn't have an 85lb/ft torque stick and neither did any of them. In a professional shop, every lug nut gets tightened to 100lb/ft, no matter what the spec is.
June 30, 2009 6:24 a.m. Jensenman MegaDork

Ron White used to do a bit about Sears not tightening the lug nuts on his van. He said the guy who screwed up had been to 'tire college' but obviously had played hooky on 'lugnut day'. That has GOT to be an exec's worst nightmare: screwing up on a job for someone like him.
June 30, 2009 9:56 a.m. mith612 New Reader

Wowak wrote: In a professional shop, every lug nut gets tightened to 100lb/ft, no matter what the spec is.

I disagree.

I work at a regional chain store that does parts, tires and service. Before any vehicle is allowed in the bay, the service writer has to note the tire air pressures and lug nut torques on a card that goes to the techs.

We have torque sticks in a dozen different size/torque rating configurations, from 65ft/lbs to 140. There are half a dozen torque wrenches that the techs use to follow up with, again from 65 to 140, with an adjustable one for those oddball ratings. Also, we have two techs check the torque to make sure things are kosher and our butts are covered.
June 30, 2009 10:04 a.m. mad_machine UltraDork

guy I used to work for. The rear two wheels on his 16foot box truck came off while he was driving down the highway.

It was not that the lugs were not tight, they were. The techs who had done the work had overtightened them and pulled them loose from the hub (pressed in) and over time (2 days), they wiggled loose
June 30, 2009 11:30 a.m. awebb New Reader

That sucks for ya man. I've always been of the mindset; If I'm capable of doing it, I'm going to do it myself. I don't wanna pay someone to mow my lawn, work on my car, or fix anything around my house. But that's all because I'm really cheap...
June 30, 2009 12:07 p.m. foxtrapper SuperDork

In a professional shop, every lug nut gets tightened to 100lb/ft, no matter what the spec is.

That's just lazy incompetency. A pro torques the nuts to the proper value.
June 30, 2009 2:09 p.m. pinchvalve UltraDork

That was the second time, and the last believe me! If I had not had such a tight schedule I would never have left the other car there. I figured they might even do it for free after screwing up the first car, but no such luck. I torqued the lug nuts with a big shiny wrench right in their parking lot before I drove it away. Never going back. And reading above, it is not that hard to have a checklist or similar system to ensure that this doesn't happen, I can't believe that Monro doesn't have such a thing. So the search for a decent repair shop continues, not many options left in my area!!!!
June 30, 2009 2:16 p.m. joey48442 SuperDork

minimac wrote:

How many times do you have to get kicked in the nuts before you say "enough"? When it comes to stupid, they get one chance. After all, eveyone makes a mistake. After the first time, shame on them. BUT after the second time, you went back? Shame on you!

Wont get fooled again!

Joey
June 30, 2009 5:46 p.m. wbjones New Reader

mith612 wrote:

Wowak wrote: In a professional shop, every lug nut gets tightened to 100lb/ft, no matter what the spec is.

I disagree.

I work at a regional chain store that does parts, tires and service. Before any vehicle is allowed in the bay, the service writer has to note the tire air pressures and lug nut torques on a card that goes to the techs.

We have torque sticks in a dozen different size/torque rating configurations, from 65ft/lbs to 140. There are half a dozen torque wrenches that the techs use to follow up with, again from 65 to 140, with an adjustable one for those oddball ratings. Also, we have two techs check the torque to make sure things are kosher and our butts are covered.

help us all here.... name that chain store.... this is the best type of advertising they could ever hope for
June 30, 2009 7:50 p.m. jimbob_racing HalfDork

I've had the opposite problem. I had my wife take a car in for state inspection and then a month later she drives over something and gets a slow leak. I tried to take off the tire to put on the spare but I couldn't get any of the lugnuts to budge with a three foot cheater pipe on the wrench. I checked and all the lugnuts on the car were that tight. I filled the tire with air from my compressor and quickly drove it down to them and asked them to remove the lugnuts with a hand wrench. Nobody in the shop could do it. Thankfully they apologized, fixed the punture for free and made sure all the lugnuts were tightened correctly. Still, I never went back.
June 30, 2009 8:31 p.m. psteav Reader

Jensenman wrote:

Ron White used to do a bit about Sears not tightening the lug nuts on his van. He said the guy who screwed up had been to 'tire college' but obviously had played hooky on 'lugnut day'. That has GOT to be an exec's worst nightmare: screwing up on a job for someone like him.

"They're gonna have to change the name from 'Sears Tower' to "Ron White's Big Goddamn Building".

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