About 2 months ago, i noticed a vibration at speed and a squeaking at slow speeds going over bumps. I took the car in and they said the hydro bushings were bad and replaced both front control arms. After that it was so much quieter and smoother and felt like a new car again. I dont drive the car much, but do drive it everyday. Well, this morning at 530 i get in it to go to work, hit the freeway and when it gets to 60 it was the worst shaking and popping noise i have ever heard from any car. I mean i thought the wheel was about to come off. I pulled over and checked all the lugs and they were all tight. I decided not to go on in to work cause im scared to drive it anymore now. I made it back home and waited for a friend of mine who has a shop to open so i can put it on a lift and check it out. We start checking it out and sure enough the control arm bolt had been left loose and was just about to fall out. I know i need to go back to my dealer but im scared to drive this thing now. What do i do?
advice please......think my dealer tried to kill me!
- Thread starter 96lasersvt
- Start date
Tighten the bolt and drive it.
We did tighten it, but now im worried about it staying tight and could it have damaged anything else.
U should've taken pics. And go talk to service manager. That is a mistake on their part but damn u could've lost control and crashed. Good luck
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Def gonna be talking to the service manager, i was freaked out when i saw the bolt just hanging there. Could have killed me!
Idk if i should have the car towed in or what. Will the bolt stay tight now, could it have damaged any of the threads from being loose and just hanging there. Im lost and kinda pissed lol.
Tow it in and give them the bill.
Thats kinda what i was thinking.
Just drive it and relax. Its just a bolt, they probably just forgot and left it on there hand tight or something. As long as your buddy torqued it, you are good.
We torqued it and all is good so far. Still gonna call and let them know about it.
This is what I'm saying. It's okay dude you'll be alright. If you're really that nervous, I think you can, call ford for a tow to the closest dealer at the no charge. I think it's either 2 or 3 years it comes with that
if it torqued to the proper spec, itll be fine man, if youre buddy owns a shop, he'll know if it took the torque properly or not, but Id raise all kinds of hell with that dealership! who knows if the other side is even done right? smh hate shoddy work!
What exactly do you expect to accomplish by having it towed to the dealership, other than wasting a bunch of your time? The bolt was loose, it has been tightened. It's over. If you are so paranoid and fretful about driving the car now, pull the nut back off and throw some thread locker on it and retorque it. But in reality there's nothing more the dealer or anybody else can do at this point. Holy crap you sound like a little girl whining over a loose bolt that has already been tightened.
Just because the repair is covered under warranty doesn't mean its been done and or done correctly. Always check the work after its done, chances are those pin head techs were thinking about whats for lunch then fixing your car. Don't trust, soon as you do you get screwed! make yourself the final determining factor of whether the work has been done and done correctly! I don't think you realize how close you were to being crippled or dying and potentially taking someone with you!!!
Well...we torqued it and it seemed to drive fine. I guess thats one of those things like the caliper bolts on my old sn95 cobra. Check with every oil change. Still kinda pisses me off that it happened.
you serious man? is there only one bolt involved in control arm bushings install? he has a reason to have the dealership look at this car, they need to go over it and be certain all fasteners are properly torqued, if there's one loose bolt, there's is atleast a small chance of others........
Being as I'm a recovering alcoholic (13 yrs sober) I've been schooled in the definition of insanity. That is repeating the same behavior and expecting different results.
With that in mind, you think the solution for this issue is to return it to the dealer so the same mechanic that slept through the install the first time can look it back over? I don't think so! He had his chance already and has shown his incompetence. I would never let that mechanic ever touch my car again. But if you return it to the dealership, they are going to make the same mechanic fix his mistakes. That's the way they work. Therefore I would simply never return to that dealership.
And maybe I'm stranger than most but I do own a couple of wrenches and I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I would be more comfortable crawling under my own car and checking it out myself rather than blindly trusting some unknown stranger who has never seen my car before and may never see it again. If you're afraid there may be loose bolts then just check them! I am not seeing the big deal here.
With that in mind, you think the solution for this issue is to return it to the dealer so the same mechanic that slept through the install the first time can look it back over? I don't think so! He had his chance already and has shown his incompetence. I would never let that mechanic ever touch my car again. But if you return it to the dealership, they are going to make the same mechanic fix his mistakes. That's the way they work. Therefore I would simply never return to that dealership.
And maybe I'm stranger than most but I do own a couple of wrenches and I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I would be more comfortable crawling under my own car and checking it out myself rather than blindly trusting some unknown stranger who has never seen my car before and may never see it again. If you're afraid there may be loose bolts then just check them! I am not seeing the big deal here.
first off, congrats on 13yrs sober man!!! and secondly lmmfao great point!!
Like skwerl said, tighten your own bolt this way you know its tightened. Chances are you'll be crawling back under your car after you get the car back anyway. Now if it doesn't tighten and keeps spinning I would have it towed back to the dealer.
I wonder if those bolts are tty and maybe reused the old ones when they replaced the control arms. Either way, car is going back to be checked over under warranty and when it gets back ill check it over myself this time. To me though, this is a safety thing and shouldnt need checked. I should be able to trust whoever works on it. If that makes me a cry baby so be it. I have 2 teenage kids that i pick up from practice and school in it everyday too as its my only car.
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