Frustration with off road speciality shop shortcut

[TTU03]

Long story short I went to a highly recommended specialty off road shop to diagnose and fix death wobble. Shop was a hour and a half each way trip. I purchased a steer smart drag link and steer smart track bar from the shop. I also brought in a falcon steering stabilizer new in box that I purchased online. I wanted to wait until the death wobble was addressed before adding the new stabilizer.

Shop installed all three items. The owner is an awesome guy but never once left our conversation to check on the work being done. I mentioned the stabilizer had very specific install directions included in the box as I was concerned about the toque specs.

After the trip home(death wobble free). I decided to check out my new parts. First thing I see is a nut on the back of the stabilizer that has obviously been beat to death with an impact gun. The instructions called for 40 ft/lbs. So I assume all installed parts were also beat to death with an impact gun. The whole reason to search out a specialty shop is for this very reason. I assumed I was paying a shop that had some sort of attention to detail.

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[Banjo702]

You aren't the only one. I have always been a do it yourself type with all my vehicles till I got my Gladiator. I had my 2" Mopar, drag link and steering stabilizer and wheels and tires done at the dealer. I needed to takel my wheels off and could not. I used a very large breaker bar and still couldn't get them loose. They impacted the $&!@ out of them. Needless to say I ended up at the dealer and had a chat with the service manager. I told them what would happened if I needed to change a tire on the trail. I have now been reminded again that if you want it done right do it yourself.
Sorry you had to see their lack of detail. You Tube is a wonderful thing. You can definitely figure things out by watching ,multiple videos. Good Luck with future projects.

 

[DylanM]

If it was beat to death with an impact I'd expect to see all the corners of the nut rounded off the same. What I'm seeing there is the classic telltale mark of a slightly too large open end wrench (or crows foot) that's slipped past to the next flat while being torqued. There's a decent enough chance that they may have tried to torque it to spec, they just used the wrong size tool.

 

[TTU03]

You aren't the only one. I have always been a do it yourself type with all my vehicles till I got my Gladiator. I had my 2" Mopar, drag link and steering stabilizer and wheels and tires done at the dealer. I needed to takel my wheels off and could not. I used a very large breaker bar and still couldn't get them loose. They impacted the $&!@ out of them. Needless to say I ended up at the dealer and had a chat with the service manager. I told them what would happened if I needed to change a tire on the trail. I have now been reminded again that if you want it done right do it yourself.
Sorry you had to see their lack of detail. You Tube is a wonderful thing. You can definitely figure things out by watching ,multiple videos. Good Luck with future projects.

This is the first time I did not install items myself. Everything in my signature I have installed in my driveway except for todays additions. I bought the steer smart items from the shop and figured might as well have them install while I was there. With the purchase they were happy to also install the stabilizer. Just grumpy in my old age I guess. I suppose what the shop did would not be a large issue, but its on my mind enough that I'm going to uninstall/reinstall the new parts this weekend. Hopefully the over torque has not permanently damaged anything.

The next thing I did was bring the truck to an alignment shop and they could not figure out how to get the "service electronic stability" error to clear after centering the steering wheel. A quick google search gave several great suggestions. However, the shop said they had to wait for a guy to come back in who was out at lunch to clear the error. Another hour I had to wait. That alignment shop also did not print out the spec sheet nor did their system save the information. They had to get the truck back on the rack a second time to provide a sheet.

I'm just so tired of handing over money to people who don't care.

 

[TTU03]

If it was beat to death with an impact I'd expect to see all the corners of the nut rounded off the same. What I'm seeing there is the classic telltale mark of a slightly too large open end wrench (or crows foot) that's slipped past to the next flat while being torqued. There's a decent enough chance that they may have tried to torque it to spec, they just used the wrong size tool.

I think what happened is the tech tried to toque that nut down after installing the stabilizer. He probably did not have enough room to get square on the nut.

Instructions were to install the stabilizer(loosely), snug that nut up based on where it sits. Remove the stabilizer, put the stabilizer in a vice and finish torquing the nut. At that point there is no need to touch that nut again. Just reinstall the stabilizer and fully tighten up the assembly bolts.

 

[Sandman 4x4]

Back a few years I bought a new Z71 Chevy 4x4 in 2011, ext cab LT, that was a great trouble free truck. The first couple oil changes and tire rotations were complimentary and I had them done early, like I always do. But the second time I got a flat, that was a blessing in disguise. After AAA not being able to break the lug nuts free, I insisted they carry the truck to the dealer I bought it off of! That was literally just around the corner. When I arrived the service manager whom I asked to see was kinda having a day, so I went right to the owners office to get answers. He then called ahead and escorted me back. On the way down I asked him not to be too hard on the guy, that turned out to be his brother in law! So we get the vehicle up and took every lug nuts off the optional wheels! That were off the chart tight! Upon closer inspection under MY EYES I found cracks in most it the lug holes! That I knew were what could happen when tightened too much! I drove away that same day with 4 new wheels and tires! That a previous buyer had bought on a truck who wanted bigger 20” wheels, so they had been just taken off a few days before, by the same kid who rotated mine, who was planning on buying them! Since then I have bought 6 new Chevy trucks from that dealership!

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