Show Off Your Prior Owner Surprises (1 Viewer)

[2001LC]

Improper assembly of wheel hubs, can be deadly. Imagine travelling at 70MPH on a HWY mountain passes, when a wheel falls off!

Wheel hub oil seal in backwards, resulting in false preload. Which protruding metal of seal grinds into flakes contaminating bearings. Also bearing which would have felt to tight during assembly and thus set too loose. Loosen more very fast. This can result in wheel hub wobbling. So much so, the pressure can result in rotor disk separates from rotor hat. Add in improperly assembled wheel bearings adjusting nut, lock washer and or lock nut can produce same results. Then, wheel hub/wheel can falling off!

Old pictures from mud, of a rotor that separated.

 

[2001LC]

Pictures taken from mud.
I suppose they didn't have a hub flange snap ring or groove for it, was eaten/gone. But they had a welder! Hope the next guy doing a wheel bearing or FDS service, has some very good cut off tools.

No brass axle bushing, and resulting face of FDS outer axle worn down. Which increase hub flange gap, greater than the thickest snap ring can handle. Someone just cut a new snap ring groove, rather than correcting issues. I wonder if they also had extra deep grease cap.

 

[2001LC]

Steering intermediate shaft spider joint, cut open during Rack & Pinon R&R. Was left in the vehicle like this. This was on a heavy & lifted 100 series with over-sized tires. Which all works to increase torque on steering system. Can you imagine if this spider joint, let go on a HWY pass. You'd have no way to steer.

 

[2001LC]

Bottom line. When you buy a used vehicle, base-line it! If you don't have the skills or time, find someone that can/does. Take your time and or look-over the service work once done, with whomever did the service.

I could post 24/7 for days, and still not show all the "surprises" I find. Fact is a great deal of the service work I do, is correcting what others have messed up. Not just DIY, but pro shops specializing in Toyota/Lexus, Dealerships, Corner INDY, and the worst is a Muffler shop doing more than a mufflers R&R or a brake shop touching our rigs in anyway, even Grease Monkey and Tire Shops mess us up..

What most aren't unaware of, when they pick-up their vehicle after a service. Is service work done improperly. They drive off happy most times, thinking all is good. But what they don't know, is all to often, booby traps are left. Which will result in reduced reliability, increase in long term service cost or even a very dangerous failure.

Why does this happen:

1. Owner doing DIY without mechanical skills or proper tools, manuals, parts, etc.
2. Some are on the road/off-road when a failure (most are preventable with proper PM) happens, and doing a field repair(s). Than not properly fixing once home.
3. Tech in a hurry to beat flat rate (When you pay a shop $ 120 to $220 hr (Denver rates), its based on a book of flat rate hrs. for each service). The tech maybe gets $27 to $37 and hour of the flat rate. If tech cuts time he spends on a service to 1/2 of flat rate, he doubles his income.
4. Tech not specialized enough on particular vehicle, and feels he/she doesn't need to read the factory service manual. Which doing so would eat into his time.
5. Shops that work on all makes and models can't know them all. In modern vehicle they're are so many more and different designs, than we had in the 50s & 60s.
6. Cheap China made parts.
7. Mistakes! We all make them, we are human after all. But more so when in a hurry or tired.

But than there is the Shop/Techs that claim to have performed a service. Like lubing properly shafts & spiders, when they have not. Or flushing brakes or AHC, when bleeders are frozen and they can't. So they just bleed around frozen ones. But fail to tell the client, yet charge for service. Frozen bleeders happen due to not keeping good rubber caps bleeders. In time this will damage the brake caliper more than anything. Mostly the seat of bleeder in caliper. Than instead of $2 bleeder cap. We send $250 (X 2 or 4 calipers) on new caliper, plus labor, fluid, etc. Or overfilling brake reservoir, which many of the most seasoned Techs thinks is okay. It is not! It is the leading cause of sudden brake failure.

 

[awesomeissquid]

Bottom line. When you buy a used vehicle, base-line it! If you don't have the skills or time, find someone that can/does. Take your time and or look-over the service work once done, with whomever did the service.

I could post 24/7 for days, and still not show all the "surprises" I find. Fact is a great deal of the service work I do, is correcting what others have messed up. Not just DIY, but pro shops specializing in Toyota/Lexus, Dealerships, Corner INDY, and the worst is a Muffler shop doing more than a mufflers R&R or a brake shop touching our rigs in anyway, even Grease Monkey and Tire Shops mess us up..

What most aren't unaware of, when they pick-up their vehicle after a service. Is service work done improperly. They drive off happy most times, thinking all is good. But what they don't know, is all to often, booby traps are left. Which will result in reduced reliability, increase in long term service cost or even a very dangerous failure.

Why does this happen:

1. Owner doing DIY without mechanical skills or proper tools, manuals, parts, etc.
2. Some are on the road/off-road when a failure (most are preventable with proper PM) happens, and doing a field repair(s). Than not properly fixing once home.
3. Tech in a hurry to beat flat rate (When you pay a shop $ 120 to $220 hr (Denver rates), its based on a book of flat rate hrs. for each service). The tech maybe gets $27 to $37 and hour of the flat rate. If tech cuts time he spends on a service to 1/2 of flat rate, he doubles his income.
4. Tech not specialized enough on particular vehicle, and feels he/she doesn't need to read the factory service manual. Which doing so would eat into his time.
5. Shops that work on all makes and models can't know them all. In modern vehicle they're are so many more and different designs, than we had in the 50s & 60s.
6. Cheap China made parts.
7. Mistakes! We all make them, we are human after all. But more so when in a hurry or tired.

But than there is the Shop/Techs that claim to have performed a service. Like lubing properly shafts & spiders, when they have not. Or flushing brakes or AHC, when bleeders are frozen and they can't. So they just bleed around frozen ones. But fail to tell the client, yet charge for service. Frozen bleeders happen due to not keeping good rubber caps bleeders. In time this will damage the brake caliper more than anything. Mostly the seat of bleeder in caliper. Than instead of $2 bleeder cap. We send $250 (X 2 or 4 calipers) on new caliper, plus labor, fluid, etc. Or overfilling brake reservoir, which many of the most seasoned Techs thinks is okay. It is not! It is the leading cause of sudden brake failure.

It’s really difficult having trust for shops sometimes. The local dealer I typically use replaced my alternator last year. I didn’t suspect anything and it worked pretty well.

Recently I swapped my alternator for a higher voltage one since the other was failing. When I pulled the alternator I found the plug broken apart but shoved back together by the previous tech. I was pissed so brought it to the shops attention. They fixed it, but the point stands that it affects the trust in the shop.

 

[DirtyPepper]

It’s really difficult having trust for shops sometimes. The local dealer I typically use replaced my alternator last year. I didn’t suspect anything and it worked pretty well.

Recently I swapped my alternator for a higher voltage one since the other was failing. When I pulled the alternator I found the plug broken apart but shoved back together by the previous tech. I was pissed so brought it to the shops attention. They fixed it, but the point stands that it affects the trust in the shop.

This.

I took my DD (2011 Avalon Limited) to my TOYOTA DEALERSHIP for an oil change here in Portland...after spending $95 for the oil change, it came out without the oil changed (which I screamed about and they changed, saying it "got lost in the mix" whcih is BS) AND they mentioned, "Your power steering is out..." and showed the reservoir. And it was empty...which was odd because I had checked all my fluid levels 24 hours prior and everything was topped. They wanted $3k for a power steering pump replacement. I declined and went to my "normal" shop and told them what happened. They were shocked but also said, "Dealers are like that" - they verified nothing was wrong with my PS pump.