More Fun With Repairs

[cyclone03]

:mad2:

Well after having my Marauder down for 7 days to change a steering rack under warranty I went to pick it up this afternoon.

During my normal walk around before driving out I note the 3 locations on each tire where the wheel ailianment fixture was attached,then I note the scratches and guages in my wheels!
6 marks per wheel.:mad2:

I calmly walk back inside and get my service writer,he looks,says I'll be back with my manager and walks off.

Manager comes out shakes my hand looks at one wheel then says they'll schedule an appointment with the body shop to repair the wheels.I reluctantly agree.

Then I get home.

Again I walk around my car and have a look under the car to check the work that was performed.More on this later because I think they put the wrong steering rack in my car.


Any way back to the wheels, the left front wheel has a 3/4" scratch in one of the spokes:mad2: Other wheels also have fresh scratchs.

I call the service manager a tell him that a repair will not do it for me.

Am I out of line to demand new wheels?
3 of my 4 wheels were perfect before I took my car in.

The way I see this is,due to the fact the tech used the improper fixture they/he caused damage to my car.

We won't even talk about the greasey hand prints centered over each tire on the fenders:mad:

Oh well. :alone:

[Zack]

To everyone on this site!!!! Do not have your car aligned until you are sure the dealership has the right adapter for our wheels.
As of today, NO dealership in america has the adapter and they dont know when it is coming in. I had my wheel scratched too but my service manager replaced it by 9 am the next morning with an apology. Demand new rims, period.

[cyclone03]

You know I was going to warn them about this,but I thought,no,they know what there doing..................

The new Mach 1 and Cobra also have lip less wheels.
I think I screwed myself from the start because I took it to a Ford dealer.............

[Bob Mathis]

Guy's I had to have are second MM aligned because the tire's where worn bad on the inside, they had to get adapters and they did. they have a Hunter Machine.

[jgc61sr2002]

cyclone03 - The dealer damaged the rims so demand NEW ones. Keep us posted.

[Zack]

Bob Mathis--
You say your dealership has the adapters need to align our cars?
My car pulls to the right and I cant stand it anymore!!
If you wouldnt mind, could I have the name and phone # of that dealership?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

[MERCMAN]

My dealer sent mine to a Goodyear dealer, great alignment, no scratches

[Marauderman]

My dealer has done mine twice and each time he takes off the MM wheels and puts on those from a GM so they can use the normal "clamps"..then return the MM tires --all is ok--may want to have them do that for those of you having the dealers do the alignment....

[jgc61sr2002]

Tom - Sounds like a very sharp dealer. Good dealers are hard to find. Most could care less.:D

[cyclone03]

You know now that I've had a few Shiner Bocks I feel better............

[RF Overlord]

m-m-m-m-m-m...Bock beer...hard to get in New England...

[Bigdogjim]

Dealer they just don't understand. To us it MORE than a car.

[MAD-3R]

"If you value your life as much as I value my car, you will not damadge it."

"Useing the wrong equipment to balance my wheels, and I will use the wrong equipment to remove your brain."

[cyclone03]

Well my Shiner has worn off and I have none left.
Wheel damage day 2.

I called,(did I mention this dealer NEVER calls me?)around noon and left a message.An hour or so later I get a call from the service manager.
Says he,I called my service rep at Ford and he says they (Ford) do not have an addapter or fixture to alian a Marauder with stock wheels without damaging them.
I say Really?When do I get my new wheels?
He says no Ford wants to repair mine to my SATISFACTION.
I say you can't repair them and make me Happy,YOUR service Dept.Damaged my property,you admited it,I DO NOT WANT YOUR LOW COST,TO YOU,REPAIR I WANT NEW WHEELS!!!!!

I'm thinking this will end with me getting nothing.I don't want any sanding,refinishing on my wheels.There's no way any spot repair will look good down the road.

[RF Overlord]

cyclone:

That is absolutely unacceptable...how can Ford sell a car they're incapable of servicing correctly?

My mechanic, who also does my alignments, says he's used to dealing with wheels like ours...he deflates the tire, and has some kind of adaptor that allows his alignment jigs to grip the wheel from behind the edge, between the lip and the tire...so this is obviously some kind of super-secret custom-made adaptor that Ford knows nothing about? :rolleyes: :shake:

[SFMarauder]

RF is exactly fight that's what my shop does as well. Most proformance alignment shops will be able to handle your wheel lip without damaging your rims. :up:

[cyclone03]

Having worked in the wheel allainment business I can't understand why the tech didn't flag somebody and say this isn't right?

Why would someone knowingly damage anothers property?
It wasn't the techs first day was it?

[SFMarauder]

Oops, exactly "right" I can't spell!

[UncleLar]

RF,that super secret adapter that nobody knows about sounds like it must be prefaced by the word Marauder which is Fords codename for ULTRA SECRET-DENY EXISTANCE or ANY KNOWLEDGE THEREOF! !

[MI2QWK4U]

I am not an alignment expert, so you tell me.... I was told that when I install the new front springs, I will need an alignment with that. When I mentioned the info from this thread, they told me not to worry about it, they have a "touchless" alignment machine and my rims wouldnt even be touched..... Is this correct?

[Warpath]

Yes, you should have the car realigned if you change springs. Camber may get to the point where tire wear becomes a problem.

I don't think you'll find any touchless alignment machines out there. They are too expensive.

There isn't any secret to aligning an MM. Its not like its the first vehicle with 18s on it. I think the new Navigator has 18s. There is even an adapter that basically grabs the tire. I think your dealer is blowing smoke.

[Bigdogjim]

Dealer blowing smoke Hell thats what they do best!!!!

Yeah fix the wheels ok? right? :mad:

[SergntMac]

Well, I'm glad some kind of blowing is related to the MM...

[Dr Caleb]

Originally posted by MI2QWK4U
I am not an alignment expert, .... they have a "touchless" alignment machine and my rims wouldnt even be touched..... Is this correct?
I'm not an alignment expert ethier, but every alignment system I've seen needs to physically touch the car somewhere to measure it. Unless you believe in Quantum Mechanics. :bs:
Ethier that or sacrifice a chicken without blemish with 5 priests chanting kinda Voodo stuff to get it to align. :lol:

[MI2QWK4U]

Warpath, where abouts are you from in Michigan? Macomb county here....I was talking to the manager at one of the Belle Tire stores, he was kind enough to order me up the Eibach spring kit and was the one that told me he had "the most expensive touchless alignment machine". He also told me about the Camber issue and the alignment. He is a good guy and knows Lidio personally, so I trust him. Is there such a machine?!

[jgc61sr2002]

Originally posted by cyclone03
Having worked in the wheel allainment business I can't understand why the tech didn't flag somebody and say this isn't right?

Why would someone knowingly damage anothers property?
It wasn't the techs first day was it? Either the tech was stupid and/or he didn't give a sh**. :down:

[Warpath]

MI2QWK4U - Western Wayne county. I only know about the touchless alignment machines the OEMs use. Their machines use lasers to measure camber and toe. They're very accurate. I cringed when my dealer told me he had my F150 aligned before I picked it up. He probably made it worse. Anyway, I don't know of any touchless "aftermarket" alignment machines. But, I never looked. Its possible Bell Tire has something similar. I'll have to take a look at my local store.

[cyclone03]

well well well.............

More back ground first................

Yesterday (wed) I called my service rep,oh already told you all that..

Today:Thursday.

Get a call at work,note on the caller ID where it's coming from and choose not to pick up.The days bad enough I don't need any more flak.
Get home return call,leave message.Tag your it.

Service manager calls back within 15 mins!

Now time for some back ground.....
Every time the SM talked to me ,up tell today,his tone has been the same one we use on our kids when we know they've mis-behaved.We all do it,so did our parents.

Today he sounds like my kids..........hum.........

SM tells me Ford has agreed to replace all 4 of my wheels!this one time(?) I think this last part was in the email directed to service department,not me.
Anyway wheels are on order,I hope.
I'll give them tell Monday then check status.

BTW I posted over on BON my little tale and I received the response I expected.They sided with the dealership.
My favorite was "if they scratched the paint would you want a new car?"
My response?
I told them what I did at my dealer ship when the SM posted the SAME question to me.
I said nothing, then walked around my car looking for scratches.
I then told the SM this makes me wonder what damage may have been done that I can't see.

[RCSignals]

Why would you post your tale on BON?

[cyclone03]

my mistake,it was flat rate tech.

[RCSignals]

Oh yes, those guys would side with the dealership. They are the dealership techs :)

[cyclone03]

Last post for me on this thread...
Today I got my new wheels.
Except for the dealer trying to send me to the wrong shop everything went off without a hitch.

Believe it or not I think my SM was forced (by me) to pressure Ford to cover this.They did addmit they had no procedure to align the front end without cousing damage.