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General ChatChat about all things Blazer (and related vehicles). Off-topic stuff should be in the lounge, and all mechanical problems should be posted in the proper forum.
My wife has had that happen to her over the years. I would go down to the shop and ask them to show me exactly what was wrong, and of course they would say they had no idea what I was talkig about until I had my wife come in. I despise those kind of shops. Sorry it happened to you. I know you know your stuff. Had I been you, I would have asked for another tech to do the job, and then let them know you will take your business elsewhere. That's the only way these shops may change the way they do business.
Oh, I'll be having a long talk with their manager about this next week. Where I live is a smaller city and a good business know that they need to do right by their customers. Then again, I've not heard good things about the Les Schwab tire store on the other side of town. If true, I suspect they likely get away with preying on the college kids who don't know better.
I like to give people and businesses one fair chance to do the right thing. If they don't, then yes, I'll be shopping around and they'll know why.
Today I did a thorough check of my suspension. I should have done it while I had it in the garage last weekend, but I forgot. Besides everything felt nice and tight. But no, when I brought it my local tire shop for a tire rotation and alignment, a shop to which I have given a lot of business over the years, the tech said that he couldn't do the alignment because all my ball joints and idler arm needed to be replaced. I didn't have time to argue and just left. I had wanted to get it aligned because I just installed a new idler arm! (The 1-ton upgrade version to be exact.) If he had bothered to look, he would have see the new idler arm parts too!
So I spent the afternoon moving the cars around so I could put the Blazer in my one car garage and got out the tools and jack. I even borrowed a dial indicator and did all the tests as laid out in the GM Service Manual. And what do you know, everything is just fine and well within spec.
Either the tech is incompetent, or worse he thought he could pull one over on me since I was a woman and had asked for an alignment thinking I'd be primed to think I needed new parts and them to install them. Grrr!
A bit of a silver lining is that I did find and then fix a power steering hose leak. BTW, clean power steering fluid and new engine oil can look a lot alike! At first I thought I had an oil leak. I added an extra worm clamp to the original crimp one and it seems to be fine now.
Irritating that happened to you and when places just assume that you know nothing. It's very disappointing that a majority of shops do this. Take advantage and ripping people off. Very hard to find competent or honest workers anywhere now though. Every time I've taken my Blazer anywhere it has always been a disaster. The only thing I take my Blazer in for now are alignments, but I need to start to do those myself. The last time I got an alignment it cost me $135 and it took them three attempts over the span of couple days to get my alignment right, and this was them working with all new rust-free parts after I rebuilt the front suspension. And that's all they do are tires and alignments, and they can't even get that right! No clue how a lot of these place have high ratings.
Irritating that happened to you and when places just assume that you know nothing. It's very disappointing that a majority of shops do this. Take advantage and ripping people off. Very hard to find competent or honest workers anywhere now though. Every time I've taken my Blazer anywhere it has always been a disaster. The only thing I take my Blazer in for now are alignments, but I need to start to do those myself. The last time I got an alignment it cost me $135 and it took them three attempts over the span of couple days to get my alignment right, and this was them working with all new rust-free parts after I rebuilt the front suspension. And that's all they do are tires and alignments, and they can't even get that right! No clue how a lot of these place have high ratings.
Thanks for the supportive comments.
That is quite sad about your experiences.
I sure hope this is an anomaly, perhaps with just a single bad employee. I've had a good relationship with this business and hope it can continue.
I live in a smaller city, so I hope their reputation still matters to them.
Today I removed the lens to the instrument cluster and reset all the gauge needles except for the fuel gauge. I forgot to mark where the fuel needle was before I took it off when I rebuilt the instrument cluster. Now I need to fill him up and then put the needle on full. At least the fuel gauge appears to be working now though,
Last edited by BlazerDog97S10; Nov 28, 2024 at 05:00 AM.
New intrument cluster "calibrated" and put the lens back on. Pretty sure my gas gauge works now, but I'll put miles on him to make sure.
Also put a leather wrap on the steering wheel. I think I ordered a size slightly too big, but it works for me. Now my steering wheel matched my leather shift ****.
Last edited by BlazerDog97S10; Nov 28, 2024 at 05:32 AM.
I went to do a crank position variation relearn, but turns out that procedure isn't even supported on the 1997; only 1998 and newer. I wasted a lot of time figuring out what scanners would do that and tried several that said they would. I got annoyed when that option didn't even come up under the 'special functions' list. So using the VCX Nano with Tech2Win, I was curious and entered 1998 instead and the crank relearn option was there. I thought I'd be smart and try to do that procedure, but the program just stated my 1997 doesn't support this procedure. Luckily I got everything on Amazon and I'll just get my money back.
Installed new ACDelco water pump yesterday. Letting the new RTV cure before I add coolant and bleed the system. Will be doing that later today. Hopefully won't be leaking coolant anymore. Then it'll be onto the next project.
New water pump is good to go, no leaks anywhere now.
Adjusted "CKP Retard" as close to 0° as I could without having to remove distributor and making the hole in the mounting bracket bigger to allow for more adjustment. I got it to 1°. That's pretty great. Going for a drive now.
Last edited by BlazerDog97S10; Dec 6, 2024 at 05:36 PM.
Oh, I'll be having a long talk with their manager about this next week. Where I live is a smaller city and a good business know that they need to do right by their customers. Then again, I've not heard good things about the Les Schwab tire store on the other side of town. If true, I suspect they likely get away with preying on the college kids who don't know better.
I like to give people and businesses one fair chance to do the right thing. If they don't, then yes, I'll be shopping around and they'll know why.
Thanks for the supportive comments!
OK, so here's an update on my disappointing encounter with my local shop.
I finally got around to sending an email directly to the owner last Sunday evening. By 9:00 am Monday morning, the owner emailed me back saying that this would was concerning to him and that he wanted me to be happy. He also said he'd be contacting the manager. By about 9:30 I had a phone call from the manager asking when I could bring the truck back in. We set it up for the next day, Tuesday. It was pretty good that they tried to get me in since this is the time of year when they slammed with people changing over their tires to snow tires.
Well, the manager took the car and drove it in and then show me how they tested for any looseness in the front end. They used what looked like about a 4' long pry-bar with about a 1/2" diameter rod welded across it about 4" from the end where the flat part was. This rod was used as a pivot point for the prybar when trying to lift the front tire when the lower control arm is supported by a floor jack. He noticed the small amount of free-play, that I had confirmed was within spec. He also noticed that there was no free-play with the steering linkage and saw that my idler arm was new.
He then was able to get a guy to check the alignment. It came back just fine and there was no charge.
I suspect that their tech was being sloppy, assuming that any free-play with the ball joints is bad. However, I am still having a hard time imagining how he could have come up with the need for a new idler arm.
The manager did right by me so I'm happy. I have no idea what they told the tech.
Glad to hear the owner and manager took care of you. I've had some great mechanics I trusted over the years, but moving around the country so much when I was in the Navy always led me to trying to find another mechanic often. I do most of the work on the wife's vehicle and my vehicles, but when it comes to computer crap I throw in the towel real quick.
