Another dealer thread rant and rave

[Kumba]

I've got bearing noise coming from the back-end of my car. On top of that when you floor it it pushes (not pulls) to the left and when you have heavy engine breaking it pushes (not pulls) to the right. Something is loose in the ass of the car basically.

So I drop it off at the dealer to let them do the oil change and ask them to check it out. Their response is that the car has no problem. That it's got 100K-mi on it and it's not supposed to feel like a new car. That they extensively went through the car and could find nothing wrong. Then I start getting told how clean the car is and how well maintained it looks.

Sigh.

So, while the service writer is telling me all this, I walk around to the back of the car with him in tow and point to the toe link as it's clearly visible through the wheel. I ask him if the split open boots on the toe link looks ok. Walk around to the other size and it's split as well. Then I tell him that the LCA's have had the seals for the bushing split for a while and that there shouldn't be noticeable bearing noise coming from the rear of the car regardless of age.

So, guess i'm going back to doing my own work again. Just wish I had a garage. Working in a driveway in Florida heat sucks. Only got about 3-4 months to do anything outside and not sweat like crazy. It sucks doubly hard cause I gave most of my tools to my sister's baby-daddy a year ago so he could get promoted to mechanic at his job instead of tire monkey.

 

[stugots]

I guess it's better than them shaking you for thousands of dollars of mostly unneeded work. I wouldn't say you have to do your own work, it's relatively easy to see what the problems are yourself. Just buy the parts and take them some where to be put on.

 

[Kumba]

Yeah, but I might as well put them on myself too. So much for being lazy

 

[chris2523]

even new, the dealers in my area were not particularly familiar with the dew98 cars.
so now that time has passed, i am not surprised to see that the few that were familiar have left or moved on.
there was 1 guy in my local dealer chain that was knowledgeable on the LS/S-type.

 

[Telco]

... cause I gave most of my tools to my sister's baby-daddy a year ago so he could get promoted to mechanic at his job instead of tire monkey.

Sounds like somebody with a shop owes somebody a favor...

 

[02LincLS]

Throwing the car on a lift, putting it in drive and taking it up to 50mph, and using a stethoscope to listen will very quickly reveal if/which bearing is bad. The noise may be louder while you are cornering a certain direction as it becomes side loaded. I have replaced the left rear twice. You may want to be sure there is an axle available near by in case the threads are too far gone.

The stabilizer links are likely bad. I bet it feels great again after these two things are replaced. Mine felt really unstable around corners and would even cause the back to squirm driving straight over wet manhole covers.

 

[Kumba]

Sounds like somebody with a shop owes somebody a favor...

I don't want to see the guy cause it would be premeditated. Long as he keeps making his child support payments he can keep the tools. I can respect that enough to not worry about a couple grand.

Throwing the car on a lift, putting it in drive and taking it up to 50mph, and using a stethoscope to listen will very quickly reveal if/which bearing is bad. The noise may be louder while you are cornering a certain direction as it becomes side loaded. I have replaced the left rear twice. You may want to be sure there is an axle available near by in case the threads are too far gone.

The stabilizer links are likely bad. I bet it feels great again after these two things are replaced. Mine felt really unstable around corners and would even cause the back to squirm driving straight over wet manhole covers.

Yeah, the toe-links are getting replaced. Even if it's not what is causing the ass of the car to rotate the torn boots are never a good sign. It seems like you are only ever going to get 50K-mi out of a set on these cars anyways. Last time I replaced them it was around 40K-mi as well.

But the drivers-side rear wheel bearing has been replaced once already around 70K-mi. The car recently took a nasty hit in a parking lot that got into the drivers rear door, the dog leg on the body, cracked the rim, and bent the forward LCA mount on the frame a little. I am pretty sure that also did the bearing in cause it DEFINITELY sounds like drivers side. It's not the typical driveshaft vibration/noise I've always had and it doesn't change when accelerating, cruising, or engine braking. It's pretty much constant with wheel speed.

Found the failing bearing last time in a similar way except we used 2x4 on top of two floor jacks and carefully lifted the rear of the car by the lower control arms/shock mount. Did it that way in case the bearing noise was CV axle angle or loading in the pumpkin.

Time to go back to an old independent mechanic I've dealt with forever. At least he'll throw it up on a lift and let me poke around while it's slow. He'll also do any crazy **** I think up as long as I sign a "I told you so" waiver.

 

[RigsLS]

Throwing the car on a lift, putting it in drive and taking it up to 50mph ...

^ This is NOT a good idea, telling you now!

 

[M4rk]

^ This is NOT a good idea, telling you now!

It's fine, I did it one side at a time with a jack.

I cannot be hold liable if anything goes wrong. My opinion is herein provided without any warranty or legal liability.

 

[RigsLS]

Sure, the sudden loud clunking sound is going to be a cheap repair. NOT!

Although I might have been misinformed, it's not "best practice" to run the wheels at excessive speeds while the axles are hanging.

~ Ferris Bueller-style

 

[joegr]

The very important thing to remember is to turn off AdvanceTrac or traction control, whichever you have.

 

[Robot]

Become a vampire mechanic like me!

 

[02LincLS]

The very important thing to remember is to turn off AdvanceTrac or traction control, whichever you have.

Agreed; it was a while ago but I think it puts the brakes on around 5-10 mph if it is left on. Obviously, all 4 wheels off the ground.

Including originals, I'm on my 4th driver front, 3rd driver rear, second passenger front, and original passenger rear bearings. Maybe I take right hand turns (exit ramps etc) faster than my left turns?

 

[Kumba]

The very important thing to remember is to turn off AdvanceTrac or traction control, whichever you have.

That, and you are going to get a nasty lil indicator light and the message center complaining. It goes away after a few minutes of normal driving. Basically the car freaks out cause the rear wheels are spinning and the fronts aren't.

When I did this I had the rear of the car on jack stands, and lifted the suspension with jacks til it was just BARELY on the jack stands. That way if the jacks dropped suddenly nothing happened. Worked great. Just use a 2x4 and carefully lift by the LCA where the shock bolts up to it. That's the major loading point that supports the weight of the car anyways. Just work smart.

 

[Telco]

I don't want to see the guy cause it would be premeditated. Long as he keeps making his child support payments he can keep the tools. I can respect that enough to not worry about a couple grand.

Sorry, didn't realize it was one of THOSE situations, thought they just weren't married yet or something and you just did the guy a favor when I posted. My bad.

 

[Kumba]

Sorry, didn't realize it was one of THOSE situations, thought they just weren't married yet or something and you just did the guy a favor when I posted. My bad.

No worries man, you didn't know, I took no offence. But long story short he's the second baby's daddy and has issues with holding his booze and keeping his hands to himself. I gave him the tools a while back so he could move from the tire dept to the mechanic dept and make more money. Basically set him up with everything short of air tools and specialty stuff. But anyways, as long as he makes his payments he can keep them. She needs the money more then I need a few grand in tools.

 

[RigsLS]

Good on you Kumba, always nice to lend a helping hand to those in need or those that deserve. +1