Alignment ordeal

I would be upset also!
Mr White Coat would have been talking to the customer and it would not take all day.

 

Do you want it good or cheap? You would have been better off going to the MD shop as they’re held to Mike’s standards and practice what he teaches. When I took my truck to Chad in KC I was $425 or so out the door.

 

What is it with this site and ####ting all over mechanics lately? You folks do realize there's a fair few of us on here that are mechanics, right?

Just getting sick of all the badmouthing and #### talking I hear about the career I work my ### off at to pay my bills.

 

Most of the MD alignment shops are trained very well and do a tremendous job.
One of the top shops is out in Kansas City.
I would recommend that the next alignment you get to schedule one when your going to be in a known city with an MD shop.

 

As an owner of both a mechanical repair shop and a trucking company...
There are very good mechanics and very poor ones...
We do a fair amount of repair work in our shop that comes from other shops that could either not be repaired or were miss diagnosed.
On the trucking side I have also seen very good drivers and very poor ones...
A case in point was the driver who backed in to me three freaking times in the middle of the night in Winchester VA a few years back.
In the end it’s not the career that is the issue but definitely the individual person.

 

I know there is a lot of dislike for TA/Petri around here, bit there are four shops I trust to handle road service and stuff my home mechanic can't do for lack of equipment: Petro Perrysburg, OH; TA Lodi, OH; Petro Girard, OH; and TA Niles, OH.

Of the four, TA Niles, OH has done the best three axle alignments for me. Their alignment guy (a specialist in alignments) is very thorough.

All four do an excellent job with PM's and DOT inspections, but I think Petro Perrysburg, OH does the best overall.

I also like that all four have not been the typical "throw parts at it until the problem disappears". They will actually dig in and get their hands dirty and (shocker!) TALK to the driver if the driver shows he/she is somewhat knowledgeable about his/her equipment.

Not all that surprising since TA/Petro is apparently headquartered in Cleveland, OH.

 

Ive had a oppertunity in the last three years of bad roads to take car in for work on alignment. For us the problem is very basic.If she wont align that means somewhere one or more of the control parts are broken and will not accept or hold a alingment to spec. That is where it gets potentially expensive.

In big trucks Peters in Baltimore downtown has done work twice in my lifetime on two seperate trucks. And after the bill is paid (Usually a bigger one due to parts being replaced that needed it) the truck comes out with pretty good manners more or less. The most recent problem with one was when the sidewall on one of the steers failed on ice and that was a factory defect. a new steer took out the vibration. However it was sufficient problem back to the shop in Texas (Should have been replaced in Nevada on the spot...) to worry about it hurting the rest of the front end. Fortunately it did not at that time.

To this day I do not allow a mechanic to physically work on the vehicle until first inspecting to find the root cause of the problem. I don't mind paying for inspection first as long we find the problem. One time we had a bad engine, where the crankshaft ate into the main bearings deep inside of itself. They found that too. (Car was junked, there was no crate engines available for that particular model in those days.) which was really too bad, that supercharger equipped V6 was a joy to drive in such a big car back then. (No good off the line for 1/4 mile. A real boat... but at top end? whoo doggie.)

I once took cars to a bigger chain shop and they kept raping us for lack of a better word. Sure the #### thing is fixed now. But not the original problem that we brought it in for. We stopped going to that one soon enough.

 

If you want your truck aligned properly it needs to be driven. Just set it to specs and go isn't an alignment. Heck I won't take my truck to a shop that just sets it to specs. That's why I prefer the MD Alignment system. I go to one guy and he's 350 miles away from me. I'll dead head there if I have to. Chad charges $350 period. Nothing more unless you have extra work done.

Now the charge for the fitting is a little ridiculous.