I apologize for the length of this but it is a eye opener to say the least.

So I had to bring my truck into the stealership on Monday to get a new steering gear put in again only 8K on this one... ARGH!!! After they installed the new parts they informed me they could not align the front end with my big tires on as they were afraid they would damage the custom rims, and the only way they could do it was with the factory rims... So I had to leave work go and get the stock rims from work, using a buddies truck to get them to the stealership and then they would do the alignment. Well picked up the truck late that afternoon and they had it all done with the custom wheels back on and the stockers in the bed of the truck. Now comes the good stuff, they wanted to charge me a extra fee to take the tires on and off twice, I told them, you never said anything about the extra fee until NOW???? I was pissed to say the least, so I paid the bill and took the truck home. Noticed a weird noise coming from the front end every once and awhile, sounded like a clunking but didn't do it all the time. Mostly when I hit a larger crack in the road or went up into my driveway. Though I would let it go and see how it played out, well I found out what it was today. "Dodged" a bullet for sure here. As I was going to get my son from school this afternoon my front drivers side tire was one lug nut from falling off. It happened all of a sudden, First I heard a loud clunk and then another, then the steering wheel shook back and forth like I was driving through a road coarse with cones lined up. Scarred the living crap out of me and as I was pulling over I looked out my window to listen where the noise was coming from and I see my tire come 6" out from the side of my truck and then slap back in. Scarey thing is I just had gotten off the highway at speeds of 70mph about 3 blocks before this happened. Not to say the numerous other times I was on the highway after picking up my truck.
Long story short, I called the dealership and reamed them a new A$$hole and told them to send someone out to see this immediately and get it fixed. They had someone out with in 15 minutes and upon removing the wheel we found it bent 3 studs and stripped another and wrecked my rim. Worst part is when I walked around the truck to the passenger side I found 3 more lug nuts only finger tight and the backs were, only slightly tighter than that after putting a wrench on them. They never torqued them down, and this was at a Dodge Dealership. I even thought of checking the torque when I got home but said to myself I am sure they checked it (lesson learned). I am so pissed they could have killed me, my family and any other person in the path of my truck if I were on the highway and it would have came off. Needless to say it will be all fixed but, I am with out a truck and probably wont get anything but a apology out of it.
To make the story longer the person that came to help me from the dealership was the service managers son. He said to me that he can not believe this happened however they have been having trouble with there impact wrenches since they installed a new compressor. To me that is admitting guilt... He was a young kid and probably didn't even realize what he was saying. He was telling me that they always use just a impact to tighten the lug nuts... I said are you crazy, those things are never right???? He said that is how they always do it. What the hell happened to double checking your work or better yet like most tire places do have someone else double check with a torque wrench. I am still steaming mad about this and can not wait to go to the dealer tomorrow to have a good word with them. Life is a precious thing you never know when something will take it, and I quite frankly think I just road that fine line. If this would have happened just 5 minutes sooner I would have been on the highway traveling 70mph, and who the hell knows what would have happened? Guessing the force of traveling at that speed and in a pretty much straight line kept the rim on and prevented it from practically coming off. I am just glad it turned out the way it did instead of a disaster.

 

that sucks. i hate letting anyone else work on my truck for that reason. i even double check stuff my dad does to it. if you had to pay for them to swap your tires i would be asking for a refund. if you wanted your lug nuts to fall of i am pretty sure you could have taken it to the local high school to get it done and they wouldn't have charged you as much.

 

If that was me I would own that dealership before I was finished with them dumba$$


And as for the kid what an idiot to sit there and straight tell you they are dumba$$ and lazy not to check there work to insure safety and quality of the work they do

 

That's why you shouldn't use dealers to do this stuff. We own a 1995 Mercedes benz sl600 (With a V12 ) and we take that to a special mechanic who specializes in bmw's. I also take my ram there for work and they do a great job. I have a buddy who worked at a dealership, matter of fact, it was a dodge dealer! Anyway, he told me some lady came in because her car was making squeaky noises. They kept it for about a 4 days before they ever looked at it, found that the noise was just coming from the u-joint, so they sprayed it with wd40 and also gave the car or truck whatever it was a lube job. So they had the lady come back, told her the "fixed it" charged her $500, and went on with their day. I will never ever ever ever support a dealership of any kind unless I'm friends with the owner, like the one I bought my truck from.

 

By the way, I just hapened to look at your sig, what kind of rims are those? Sorry way off topic but they look freakin awesome

 

thread buster, huh.... Just kidding I am happy to tell you the rim that is on my rig. It is a eagle alloy wheel, not sure they still make this series but I know you can still get them, in fact the guy I bought mine from still has some. They are 18" x 9" with 35" Nitto's Trail Grapplers on them.
Eagle Alloy 197 Wheel

 

Oh cool! I just realized it was in your sig too lol.