I'm driving down the road in my little pow-dunk town and I miss my turn, and because I'm late I'm already pissed off so I flip a U-y pretty quickly. Well as I'm driving, I hear a little pop, since I have been driving on low-pro's for about 3 years, I know that is the sound of the tire blowing. As I'm slowing down to pull over, I hear a loud floppy/poppy noise, look over, and there is my TIRE on RIM, just rollin the other way. I pull over and thank god I was already on my way to the side and the car only road on the roder for about 4 feet, before hitting soft dirt. Apparently when I took my car to discount tire to get a screw out of it, they didn't put the lug nuts on all of the way because when I turned, they came off. Is that not the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard? Needless to say, Discount will be paying for a new rim, new roder and any other damage my little neon has. My luck just keeps getting better!!!!

I think me and Lil Spark need Hummers . . . .


Amanda

 

I have heard of that happening.....to a red srt here in RI, only his damage was far worse than a rotor and a wheel/tire combo, he pretty much needed an *** end, because BOTH of his rear tires come off.

My issue with shops working on my car....if im not IN the shop, next to the car, they aren't doing jack. I've come to trust my tech, Colin at my Dodge dealer, therefore I dont ALWAYS have to be there, but its nice to be there.....and help out.

Ive driven Hummers....I couldnt afford the gas in that bish!

 

That happened here not too long ago, but not to an SRT-4. Guy took his truck to Big-0, driving home and his tire flies off and hits a car does a bunch of damage and all that. One of many reasons I hate to have to take my car to someone for work.

 

speaking of doing things for yourself, I have a question.

Let's assume that I wanted to change my own oil, and yes, I do think I know how to do this. Now,,,my question is, if I go to Walmart, will my car work using those ramps to drive your car on? I only ask, because it seems that my car sits too low for it to drive up on those things. If those won't work, what's a cheap alternative to the ramps?

Next question. Hmmm,,,how do I ask this. Now,,,,,I am almost 100% certain that if you are checking spark plugs that you just have to pull the rubber things off the plugs. I am almost certain that you do that. However, when I went to see if my plugs were tight, I started pulling on that thing and it didn't want to come off, so I started pulling a little harder and it still didn't want to come off. Soooo,,,there isn't any trick to it or anything is it? I just need to yank harder on them, right?

 

My best friend's 99 eclipse is too low for a jack, those ramps, or even the old drive one tire up on the edge of the driveway trick. He eventually figured out that you can make some really shallow "stairs" with wood and drive up on those. I've witnessed it, it works. BUT it takes about 45 minutes just to get the thang up in the air. Even my car is too low to jack, so I just take it to the guys with the full car jack that you just drive on to. it's only 15 bucks here, so I've been doin that.

 

I go the "Rhino Ramps"... My car doesn't make it up them at stock height though., but it's only by about 1/4" or so, so I just place a small peice of wood infront of both ramps that lifts the car plenty to clear the front bumper and pull up them.

Not sure how it'll work when I lower the car, but I plan on making something like this setup


(http://www.reefcorner.com/Viper/catback.htm)

Realistically it's not hard to jack up the car, I've done an oil change both ways and other various things, and I prefer the ramps. Jacks and jack stands take up space to move around. Though also it's probably a good idea to have someone spotting you driving up the ramps... Especially the first few times. I read of a guy on SRTforums who drove over his!

 

That sucks when you get passed by your own tire. Hope everything works out for you.

Word, as far as the plug wires go, they can be stubborn. Just try to pull mostly by the boot that covers the plug, and not just the wire itself. A few twists can help too if the rubber boot has bonded itself to the porcelain. Most will say not to pull on the wire at all, but I usually can't get it off by just pulling on the boot. Also, coming from someone with scarred knuckles, watch for sharp objects along the path that your pulling. Once it breaks free your hand/s will go fly'in. Just in case you might want to keep some gauze and an artery clip close by. Just kidding, you won't need an artery clip..... as long as you have vice-grips. They can close off a severed artery as good as anything, and you can operate them with one hand! [sm=drlove.gif]

Scott



PS:


................... Nah, I better not [sm=noooo.gif] [sm=smiley35.gif]

 

That royally blows SRT4Babe....and I've heard similar horror stories......amazingly enough tho....when it comes to my tires and such....I carry a torque wrench...and make sure it's all properly tightened before I even leave the shop.

That really pissed off the Asst. Mgr at a Tire Barn here in Indianapolis....but when I found 3 lugnuts not 100% tightened down while he was standing there arguing with me....it shut him up with a quickness....not to mention a partial refund....

Taking your car to get it worked on by other people is always a catch 22, you'll find good and bad work...the key is finding the good....

 

wow - sorry about your bad luck on that one - glad it didn't do worse.

Good luck with everything.

 

That sounds completely ridiculous and I'm glad you didn't get hurt Srt4babe. Hopefully they will pay for a new rim.

Btw, rant to the manager about it


-Matt-