Ford Dealership left out some bolts!

[Fleck 5]

I have been having troubles with my car shaking at higher speeds. It is similar to having the tires out of balance except it is intermittent.

When I had my car inspected last month, I told the mechanic about the problem I was having. I had him rebalance the tires and check out the car. He called me when the car was being inspected and told me that the front two bolts for the IRS were missing.

The local Ford Dealership was the last one to work on the car when they were trying to fix the creaking and wheel hop in the rear end. Apparently they had not tightened up the two front IRS bolts. The nuts fell off both bolts. The one bolt bounced out, and the other one was just bouncing around. I had driven the car for over a year this way.

I had approached the dealership about the problem and showed them the one remaining bolt, some pictures and a copy of my bill. They reluctantly reimbursed me because of how long it had been since the work was done at the dealership. The reimbursed me for the labor $70 but did not pay the $30 for the bolts.

 

[Mr. Freeze]

damn do i hate dealerships!!!!!! not all but some are just not there to help.

 

[WizardsCobra]

Man that sucks. I would be happy to get $70 off of a dealership.

 

[Fleck 5]

The car drives much better at higher speeds (of course). I was toying around with two kids in an Acura on Saturday When I was next to the Acura, I was doing 80 and they gunned it to act like they wanted to race. I tried to downshift to 3rd but hit 5th instead. By the time I got it into third they were way ahead. I pulled third until the raptor shift light came on, I might have hit the shift light in fourth gear but it all happened so fast. You should have seen their faces when I passed them. After I passed them, I looked down at the speedometer and realized oh sh*!, I am doing 130 mph. I quickly let off of the gas. It drove like a champ and getting to that speed was effortless. Nothing like a 130 MPH sprint to get you awake in the morning.

 

[SpectorV]

thats why I watch them work because you never know... and the tech i let work on my car is a friend

 

[FireRed04Vert]

That could have been ugly. They are very lucky the rear end didn't come loose and cause an accident. Many years ago, the Datsun dealer I worked at took a new 240Z and predelivered it and delivered it. The wife of the new owners took it up on the interstate and opened it up. One of the tires came off and she lost her life in the accident. The dealer was sued successfully because the pre-delivery sheet wasn't checked off on checking wheel torque. Sad. People can make mistakes...it's unfortunate when they can have such severe consequences.

 

[CobraBob]

That could have been ugly. They are very lucky the rear end didn't come loose and cause an accident. Many years ago, the Datsun dealer I worked at took a new 240Z and predelivered it and delivered it. The wife of the new owners took it up on the interstate and opened it up. One of the tires came off and she lost her life in the accident. The dealer was sued successfully because the pre-delivery sheet wasn't checked off on checking wheel torque. Sad. People can make mistakes...it's unfortunate when they can have such severe consequences.

I agree. But him driving it for over a whole year could have been an issue with the dealer since it would be very hard to pin the loose bolts on the dealer IMO. I would say he is very fortunate in two ways. First, that the loose bolts didn't cause an accident, and second, that the dealer reimbursed him even though he drove it for a whole year since they worked on his car.

This just reminds us how much trust we often put into the hands of the people who service our cars. Which is why I was always very careful about who I allowed to work on my Cobra. But mistakes do happen. No way to get around that even if you do the work yourself.

 

[S.C.P.]

At leased they didnt come out at the wrong time. Like at around 160mph

 

[Fleck 5]

The mechanic who they think left the bolts off is actually their SVT mechanic. He is a good mechanic and a gearhead. He has a mustang built for drag racing. Even the best of us make mistakes.

 

[FireRed04Vert]

You want to know what scares me to death? They have mechanics that work on airplanes too....

Think about it....

 

[Fleck 5]

You want to know what scares me to death? They have mechanics that work on airplanes too....

Think about it....

Not only do they have mechanics that work on airplanes, but they are built by the lowest bidder!

 

[CobraBob]

Another issue is that it is common to see only one person work on a car. To second set of eyes to check the work done. We all know that when we work on our cars with a buddy, a mistake like that is less likely because you've got two sets of eyes. JMO.