Why did you take it in for an alignment?

 

he just lowered it

 

I am gonna have to agree with superfords although he seemed to change his opinion a little bit . Im a tech and not roadtesting are car is digging your own grave. Do you double check your work in your profession ? i do thats why i have a job. The second roadtest could be a double check but it does sound fishy. did you confront the tech working on it ? mabye he had a logical explanation for it. i have driven cars and not felt 100% about the repair and let someone else drive it . did you see them thrashing your truck do you have wheelwells full of rubber??? i dident hear you say that i must of missed it ?? Not for anything but it could have been worse. Im not agreeing with what they did but these days crying over 2 guys that got a hard-on for driving your truck around the block and calling the bbb etc ???? dude you got to much free time on your hands ... be happy to own the truck and honered to know that someone would enjoy driving it as much as you do ... im not saying that i wouldent have bitched a little but it sounds like you kinda went overboard .. but thats just my opinion ... got luck kyle

 

My alignment guy also test drives every vehicle after alignment for the same reasons as superfords stated. Bear in mind, I used to work with the tech that does my alignments , but we did lots of high performance vehicles. If the car wasn't done right, the owner of the vehicle would know. These were street racers, SCCA drivers, etc.

My point is, there has to be at least one tire/alignment shop in your town or city, that the high performance vehicle owners take their cars to. Find it and you will also find an alignment tech that does his job and does it well. A good alignment man will test drive the car after working on it. And if it isn't right he will make it right. And he doesn't get paid for doing it twice.

 

This happens more than you can imagine, I use to own a 1995 Impala SS, which was heavily modded.

I fell victim to this as well, once at the muffler shop, and again where I took my car to get washed in the winter, I caught a 16yr. old kid hot doggin my SS at the car wash, and then when he was doing the final hand drying and the interior cleaning, he kept reving my motor to like 4-5 grand, I let the manager at the detail shop have it, its one thing to do this but its another to do it directly in front of the customer.


Most of us, and certainly you "L" owners don't even trust our best friends or wives to drive our toys, why should you trust some guy at a shop you don't know.

>

 

That is what is sounds like....

 

I have a "buddy" that rides along any time I drop the L off for service. It's called "Autowatch". I hook it up and drop it off. I download the data into my laptop in the parking lot of the dealer (it displays throtle position, RPM's, top speed attained, and whether the unit was disconnected from the vehicle at any time). I download the data in the lot so I can chew *** if necessary before I leave the dealer.

The only downside is that it plugs into the OBD2 connector. If they need to perform tests that require them to plug into the OBD2 (to find faults/codes) I'm screwed. There is a way to hardwire the device (there's a kit, haven't researched it though), to bypass the OBD2 problem.

There's nothing better than a little black box that I purposly put on the dash with a note to Bubba. The black box has a big label that says "AUTOWATCH, IT'S THERE WHEN YOU'RE NOT". My note taped to the rearview mirror, says "Do not disconnect the autowatch without contacting me first, the autowatch will report to me if it has been disconnected, top speed, throtle position, and engine RPM's."

I bought it after my 98 Cobra Vert came back to me with 75 miles more than I dropped it off with. ****** 'em. No problems since.

Pat
2001 Silver L
(Bone Stock)

 

That's beautiful !!

 

Yes, it is true, all SVT owners are morons. Jeffy up here is upset because his alignment man road tested his truck. Get real. Road testing is the most important part of any repair or adjustment made to any vehicle. I get sick of people that have no clue as to what is going on and then they get mad because of some perceived issue that they don't know anything about. Don't worry Lightning and Cobra owners are all alike. Like the customer that got upset because the tech drove his Hot Car for a whole eight miles when he was in for a rattle. For one thing techs are not impressed when they FEEL THE POWER of your dumb a$$ed cars. We drive them everyday, they ceased to impress after the first two or three we saw. You drive your vehicles to the race track and pretend your John Force and then come crying because your tranny is slipping or your engine is blown. It's not my fault that your street car is not able to compete in the top fuel competition and not require repair afterward. Why should we help a brother out after you tear it up? You add chips and pulleys to make your car something it was never meant to be and get upset because it can't handle it. Do you think circuit city would warranty your home stereo after you hooked it up to 220V because you wanted it to be louder? I doubt it. Just because you read and post on the internet make you a master technician. Why would you bring 'your own specs' for an alignment? If you want it aligned let the man do his job, chances are he knows a h*ll of a lot more about what he's doing than what you do. Just a guess. I hope that one day someone gives me a car with the AUTOWATCH box on it. I'll have that thing on my lift in the air doing 150mph quick as I can. Have it revved to the limit, and laugh in your face when you come in crying.

Here is the spotters guide for an SVT owner. First off, they are a dork. Dead giveaway there. They are wearing glasses and using a magnifying glass to inspect their ford emblems for scratches. Second, well that's it, can't think of anything else. So now you know how to spot your fellow SVT owners.

Well enough ranting for now. That pretty much covers almost everything I've wanted to say.

 

FordTek,

Having had the distinct opportunity to grace you and/or one of your so-called know-it-all 'kin's' presence on more than one occasion, I have a question. Which one are you? Cooter or Gomer....

Come on now....be honest....

 

Actually, I'm Goober. you've seen my face before. You all have...

 

first the second "ride" seems very fishy, however had you confronted him he would of said " oh needed second opinion on work"
fordtek yep i know one of your bros to. thanks to him my girlfriends last vehicle now wheres a lemon badge. very simple repair and when i explained it to him he told me all about how ase certified mechanics know more about cars then i do. maybe old guys like me could work on old cars but not the new stuff. just want to say thanks to you and all those like you. i hated that vehicle. oh the repair was pretty tricky. a belt pulley was out of alignment thereby shredding the belt. the last time in they called the engineer who came out and showed him the exact thing that i had showed him 4 trips to the shop earlier.
yes when i got my survey from the manuf. i thanked him properly. my girlfriend wouldn't allow me to send him a personal thank you card though. she said that would be rude.
even though some mechanics think all vehicle owners are stupid this is not always the case. we live with these vehicle everyday and believe it or not some of us actually know where the hood latch is.
don't get me wrong there are many good mechanics out there, but there are many idiots out there as well who just couldn't get any other job.

 

amen brother

that is the best quote describing the varying skill levels of auto mechanics/technicians that I have heard in a while.

chris

 

Yeah Fordtek, we all lost our FEEL THE POWER after driving them 2 or 3 times also. Once or twice to the track brings on boredom too. Anyone who doesn't get excited with that much HP under their butt probably doesn't have a pulse. Maybe a bad case of Penious envious? Remember who's making the payments, yeah, the one who has a right to get upset. I've seen them take it for a "test drive" for the infamous front end clunk which is strictly a parking lot/driveway phenomenon. What do ya suppose that moron was checking?

 

HEHEHHE I know the feeling. Worked for supershops when I was in college. Hell everyone was an expert, but hey they were the customer and they are always right?