Re: Half Shaft U joint torque method
Ridge------
There's nothing new about this. This is why my biggest concern when buying a new car is and has always been the prospect that I might have to return it to the dealer for service work. One of my biggest complaints is that repairs are rarely done "by the book"---they're done the old fashioned way of the mechanic just "digging in" and going "by the seat of his pants". Car manufacturers spend millions developing service procedures and they're rarely, if ever, followed by mechanics or, even known by the mechanics.
For instance, my 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP which I purchased new in May, 2003 had only ONE problem during it's entire life to-date. That problem was an extremely noisy supercharger drive belt. I returned the car to the dealership FOUR times for this problem. The first time, they replaced a pulley and bracket which was the fix spelled out in a service bulletin they had. That didn't fix it.
I returned the car three more times. The last time it was out of warranty but I told them that the problem should still be covered because the problem was un-corrected from when it was in-warranty. They said they would try one more time. However, they told me that even if they didn't get it fixed this time, I was on my own after that because the car was out of warranty.
On this last visit I showed the service writer that I felt the belt was improperly installed on the crank pulley (it was "one groove off"). When I picked up the car, I think they had done, basically, nothing to fix it but they told me that the belt was properly installed.
I took the car home, replaced the GM Dayco-manufactured belt with a Goodyear belt AND installed it correctly on the pullies. End of problem.
Now, if dealership mechanics can't get a drive belt problem corrected in FOUR service visits, just how much confidence would I have that they could properly repair and correct a really serious problem with a complex system in the car? It makes me shudder just to think about it.
Ridge------
There's nothing new about this. This is why my biggest concern when buying a new car is and has always been the prospect that I might have to return it to the dealer for service work. One of my biggest complaints is that repairs are rarely done "by the book"---they're done the old fashioned way of the mechanic just "digging in" and going "by the seat of his pants". Car manufacturers spend millions developing service procedures and they're rarely, if ever, followed by mechanics or, even known by the mechanics.
For instance, my 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP which I purchased new in May, 2003 had only ONE problem during it's entire life to-date. That problem was an extremely noisy supercharger drive belt. I returned the car to the dealership FOUR times for this problem. The first time, they replaced a pulley and bracket which was the fix spelled out in a service bulletin they had. That didn't fix it.
I returned the car three more times. The last time it was out of warranty but I told them that the problem should still be covered because the problem was un-corrected from when it was in-warranty. They said they would try one more time. However, they told me that even if they didn't get it fixed this time, I was on my own after that because the car was out of warranty.
On this last visit I showed the service writer that I felt the belt was improperly installed on the crank pulley (it was "one groove off"). When I picked up the car, I think they had done, basically, nothing to fix it but they told me that the belt was properly installed.
I took the car home, replaced the GM Dayco-manufactured belt with a Goodyear belt AND installed it correctly on the pullies. End of problem.
Now, if dealership mechanics can't get a drive belt problem corrected in FOUR service visits, just how much confidence would I have that they could properly repair and correct a really serious problem with a complex system in the car? It makes me shudder just to think about it.
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