I whisked her down to the alignment shop at 9am. I took it to a shop that came highly recommended. The first thing the guy said was "if it needs parts, we have to do that before we can do the alignment." That didn't sit well with me. It sounded to me as though they were going to try to hose me. They also didn't seem happy that I brought in my own tires, instead of buying from them.
They told me it would be half an hour, so I decided to wait for it. A few minutes later the guy comes out with a scrap of paper saying I needed a new left side inner tie rod, $57 + labour. Fair enough, go for it. Problem: it wouldn't be there until 1pm. Fine.. I go home and await the call.
3:30pm, with the phone in my hand to call them to see wtf is going on with my car, the phone rings. Here's where things get weird...
"The alignment is all done. Its perfect... ...except for the right rear wheel."
Why?
"We, uh, couldn't align that one wheel... a bushing on an arm is bad."
An arm? What arm?
"One of the arms back there. But the good news is we can get a new one for $140. The only problem is we can't get it until tomorrow."
I'm coming to get the car now.
"ooookay.. we can fix it you know.."
Forget it, I'll be there in 10 minutes. Have the bill and the car ready.
I was really annoyed that on a $1300 car, I was spending $721 on 2 tires, a sway bar, end links, a tie rod, labour + an alignment... and now they wanted even more! What really ground my gears was that this pinball wizard of Honda alignments didn't check all four wheels before quoting prices. When he came to me with the tie rod, I assumed (as would anyone else), that he had done an inspection of the whole car, not that he was doing one wheel at a time. Who does that?
When I get to the shop, he gives me a print out showing that the alignment was pretty ****ed before... ...wait... ...where is the after?
"We couldn't do the alignment"
Ah, I must have misunderstood, when you said you did the alignment and it was all good except for that one wheel...the one I told you to watch out for.
I don't think they were expecting me to walk away. Suddenly their attitude changed, to trying to butter me up into staying. The problem is if you lie to me (or I suspect a lie), cheat me, or **** me around it's over. I'd install caterpillar tracks on it before I'd go back to that shop. The cherry on the sundae was when I got back to the car and found they tried to keep the left rear tire, which was still good. They gave me a hard time about taking it with me. Pricks.
The next day I took it to another shop nearby. They were up front with me, and did a full inspection before starting. Thy called me up and said the right rear toe arm was bad. They did the other three wheels, and I was on my way.
Before: This is probably why this car was such a hand full in the winter. The back end kept wanting to come around on me. The car would yaw to the right, so I would steer more and more left to counteract it, then it would snap left and want to go sideways.
After: Gimp...
I have a set of megan racing toe arms on the way. Hopefully they will be here soon so I can get the last wheel done, and finally drive the car again.
I installed this:
I also wired up my half mast antenna. It works like a charm. The only problem is, I have to find something to lubricate the antenna. It sounds awfully laboured all the time. Suggestions welcome.
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