I dropped my truck off at Greenway Ford in Orlando this morning so they could take care of my brake booster hose recall. The service tech asks me if I want to change the air in my tires with Nitrogen. I told him no, I like free air much better.

He called me about 4 hours later and said that is was almost done but there were a few service items that I should have taken care of. He starts off by telling me I need new brake pads, rotors turned and new brake fluid. I told him thanks but either I will do it myself or have a brake shop do them. He then tells me that I need to replace two nuts. Huh? I asked him what he was talking about. He paused and he said that he thought it meant lug nuts. Again, huh? He then calls another guy on his other phone and then tells me that there are two nuts that I have to replace when I replace the pads.

The second thing he wanted me to do was to flush the transmission (I have 40k miles). He told me that it looks like it has never been changed. I told him that I had it flushed and replaced 3000 miles ago. He said maybe it was some residual left over. Huh?

The last item was the air filter. I have a K&N with the sticker alerting them to not even open it up. He said it needs to be replaced. I told him that I just cleaned it 1 month ago and to please tell the guys to read. Do not open up my air filter. I can bet that they did not even look at it. It is just a standard item.

Now I know why I never go to the dealer for anything other than recalls and warranty issues. I will stick with my local guy to work on my truck.

 

So, aside from the nitrogen thing, they told you that you needed front brakes, and recommended a transmission service based on mileage, and recommended an OEM air filter to replace the POS K&N, and they're the crooks?

Am I missing something here?

 

I just thought it was funny that they obviously did not even look at things and just thought I would fall for it. I will take a K&N over the pos paper filter any day. Buy it once and use it for the life of the truck.

Whatever floats your boat, though.

I know the guy was just trying to make his commission but when he told me he thought I was missing some lug nuts I just had to laugh.

 

K&Ns don't seal worth a flip in the OEM air box.

And I bet good money that if they hadn't said anything about your brakes, and you careened through an intersection and hit something or a few weeks after the recall they hit metal to metal, you'd be raising holy hell, bitching and screaming, "My truck was just at the dealer and now the brakes are wore out!"

 

The recall had nothing to do with the brakes pads or rotors themselves. You are mistaking me for some clueless airhead driver. I actually know how a truck works and will probably take my rotors off to be turned and replace my own pads. I have done it numerous times along with pulling entire engines, rebuilding them, etc.

I have had no problems with the K&N and it is worth the money because I keep my trucks 7-8 years. Well worth it over disposable filters.

 

Okay.

But back to the original post, they recommended repairs based on what they saw and your truck's mileage...I'm still not seeing the problem here. Nitrogen in the tires is BS, and I dunno where they get off with needing two lug nuts (you sure they didn't mean spindle nuts?), but otherwise I'm not really seeing what they did wrong here.

Times are slow in the automotive business, so folks are inspecting everything that comes in the door, whether it came in for a recall or whatever.

Additionally, there's a certain liability that comes with working on cars professionally nowadays; what if they had missed something critical while performing the recall, and something on your truck fell apart? The brakes thing, for instance. You ain't stupid, but a lot of people out there are, and in today's society people get sued for walking across the street during the wrong time of the day. Making sure everything's dress-right-dress and pointing out the things that aren't before the vehicle leaves the dealer's hands keeps sue-happy people from coming after them.

 

I just noticed im coming up on 30,000 miles - Time to get the blinker fluid replaced again

 

I see your point. They said retaining nuts for the brake calipers. I am still not sure why they would need to be replaced.

I know why they point these things out and it is mainly to make $$.

 

haha i pulled that one on a fellow student (drives a Chevy 1500) and he fell for it

 

Of course they want to make money. However, as Quintin said, they need to cover their @$$ so they don't LOSE money due to a lawsuit. Let's agree on both reasons, ok?

You ever had a brake job done at Midas? They used to advertise a brake job with a lifetime guarantee for something silly like $89 an axle. You would never get out of there for $89 - in reality they would not give you the lifetime guarantee unless they replaced pads, rotors, calipers, hoses, and all retaining hardware whether they needed it or not.

 

mike you want want to check out those muffler bearings too...

 

mine actually went bad last month. i put a new set of aftermarket bearings in. muffler works 100 times better now!

 

I only checked off what really needed to be done on a vehicle, never went by 'milege'. . . Milege just tells you what to inspect more throughly

 

we got a kid in my autos class with blinker fluid its still his nick name to this day. haha we looked at a head and said DUDE go get some blinker fluid its so low! we told him it was in a blue bottle he asked the autos teacher and the teacher just said.."Those kids are ****s..." ah good times.

 

When I went to the dealership once, the idiots there played with my rear airbag assist and let out ALL of the air. I had to ride the bump stops home since when I have no air, I have no suspension...

Needless to say, I'm never going back there.