Dealership says, No alignment unless you buy new tires

Factual Questions
21

I did not mean my comment as a personal insult to you, and apologize for lumping all mechanics together. Just the shitty ones, which it sounds like you aren’t.

A while back I put a thread on here asking about possible reasons my Grand Caravan wouldn’t start. Ah. found it.

After getting some opinions here, I talked to the head of the local community college’s auto repair school. He accessed the IdentiFix website, and was told it was likely a circuit board in the dash that controls the anti-theft system going bad. He couldn’t work on the van, so I took it to the local Chrysler dealer. Had to have it towed, actually, because it wouldn’t start. Among all the stuff mentioned in the above thread, all the gauges were wonky. The digital odometer was also dead. The dude behind the counter knew this because he tried to get the mileage reading to put on the work order. So I paid the dealer $115 for a diagnosis.

They called me a day later and told me it was the starter. I drove the shop, and asked the mechanic point blank why the starter would cause the gauges to not work. His response?

“Uh… [really long pause] we didn’t know the gauges weren’t working”.

Really? It’s right there on the goddamn work order, and the guy who took my $115 for you to do your fucking job saw it with his own eyes. What made you think it was the starter? [I didn’t say it that rude, I was playing stupid]

“Well, sometimes they go bad intermittently”.

Yes, I know this. I asked if they hooked it up to a code reader, see if any error codes had been stored in the computer. [i know this is something of a crapshoot, but seriously. Is there a modern auto shop that doesn’t hook up a code reader first thing, especially if there is nothing painfully obviously causing the problem?]

“No, we just figured it was the starter”.

Oh. Well, since it won’t turn over, did you bench test the starter?

“No”

Ok then.

Anyhow, I had it towed to an independent repair shop, who, actually, you know, did some research before starting to tear it apart (Specifically, they got on IdentiFix and started narrowing it down instead of guessing). Turned out to be the circuit board buried somewhere in the dashboard. Which is what IdentiFix said it most likely was, and what I suggested to the Chrysler dealer they may want to look at, or at least test.

So anyway, Rick, I apologize for offending you, but my experiences with dealers have been shitty. How service departments (at least the one in my hometown; I’ve had other problems with them - like putting on different sized tires when I buy a new full set - but nothing like the corruption I saw with my Chrysler) can stay in business is beyond me.

If you have happy customers you must be doing something right. Kudos.

22

It’s obvious you did your research. However, there are lots of people who go to professionals for repair of their gizmos (regardless of whether they’re cars, flat-screen TVs, or kitchen faucets) and go “I read on the Internet that …” In many cases, the professional just nods and thinks “Oh, great - another Internet expert”.

The person who writes the service order was probably chosen for their people skills, the person who works on the car for their mechanic skills. Communication between the two is generally by paperwork. Ideally, everything you tell the service writer will appear on the paper as “Customer states: <problem>” (often abbreviated to “CS”). But if it doesn’t get on the paper, the mechanic won’t know about it. If all they get is “won’t start”, they might start out by thinking the problem is the starter motor. See “diagnosis by replacement” later on.

My experiences with dealer service departments have been very good. On the rare occasion where something was done incorrectly, it was due to ineptitude rather than malice.

I have an unsual car (Ariel Atom) which uses a GM engine but nothing else from GM. In 30,000+ miles driving around the country, I’ve had to stop twice at GM dealerships for repairs. In both cases, the work was done quicly and competently at a reasonable price. The second incident required the dealer to trace out the wiring with an old-fashioned continuity test light, since the Atom’s wiring doesn’t match anything from GM.

With the complexity of modern cars, oddball problems can sometimes lead to “diagnosis by replacement”, where the shop will try replacing a part to see if it corrects the problem. If not, hopefully the original part goes back in and the next possible part is swapped. This can lead to an escalating labor bill from all the parts being substituted. For electronic problems, sometimes a dealer will be less expensive than an independent, since a) they generally have factory diagnostic equipment the independent may not, and b) the dealer can call on their parts department, while the independent will need to purchase parts in order to see if they fix the problem.

23

You put 30,000 miles on an Atom, on public roads?!? ahem I would like to be your friend.

24

Yup, 33,411 miles since August 2006. 4 full trips across the whole country, another 4 of 1500 miles or longer. And the cross-country trips were often “the long way” - the first one was over 7,000 miles.

Take a look at my trip blog (either of the 2 links in my post above will get you there).

25

Bookmarked, will read with gusto :slight_smile: