Didn't we have a member here who had some work done on his truck...

[Great-Kazoo]

Then what does the manager if not inspect and supervise the work of the employees?

NOT every single job that goes out the door. If one has to micro manage (which is what your suggesting) the employees, they have no business working there.
One has to trust the level of workmanship they turn out , not stand over them .

You ever manage a repair shop? Between billing, parts ordering, answering phones, delegating work load AND owners or upper management. The only time one gets to eat is road testing or ordering in.
One sure as hell doesn't have time to run a torque wrench over every lug nut, hydrometer every coolant replacement, etc. That tells the tech You as the manager don't have confidence in their level of work. See how long a good front end or transmission guy sticks around doing that.

[sniper7]

Reading this really confirms my mindset about people working on my stuff. If I didn't own new vehicles that came with free tire rotations and oil changes they wouldn't see my vehicles in a shop unless it was super specialized. But even then when the dealership rotates my tires or changes my oil, I don't leave the parking lot without verifying lugs are tight, oil is at correct level, and the oil filter was actually changed.

If it's anything more than that I check everything I can or am knowledgeable about or what a quick google search lets me know I should look for.


This has developed over the years from my first car at grease monkey that left a oil filter wrench and slammed my hood down, luckily no damage but I noticed the hood wasn't lining up so I got a free oil wrench out of it.

Then Johnson auto plaza had to do a warranty repair on my 1 year old truck that had a small oil leak from the pan. I came to pick it up, it was sitting outside so I got keys and paperwork, started it up and as I was getting ready to pull out a mechanic runs out yelling he needs to put oil in it still!!!....ahhhhh WTF! So....how did it get out of the shop over to the parking lot? How much damage was done in that short run time and then when I started it to leave? Needless to say I got a smoking deal when I traded it in almost immediately and I don't go back there after that. Now I don't trust any of them.

[Erni]

I just had my tires rotated. They tried to get me to buy new lug nuts because the stupid sleeves that Dodge puts on them like to fall off. I declined. I'm also not going to check if they torqued correctly.

Sleeves get destroyed by the wrong size or a loose wrench. I sort of did that to the Sienna but then found a 21mm wrench at HF that fits perfect.

From my experiance as a boat tech it is surprising how few people do things right. Many times price has nothing to do with quality. This is why I do most of my own car work nowdays. I may be alow at it, but I do it right.

[Irving]

Reading this really confirms my mindset about people working on my stuff. If I didn't own new vehicles that came with free tire rotations and oil changes they wouldn't see my vehicles in a shop unless it was super specialized.

The only reason I have them rotate the tires (it is easier for them to do it than me) is because I don't like the company I bought the tires from and don't trust that they'll ever honor their warranty unless all the rotations are documented. I drive so much that I change the oil and rotate the tires about once a month.

Sleeves get destroyed by the wrong size or a loose wrench.

That was this guy's angle. He said people will round off the sleeves and I don't want that to happen on the side of the road. I've got a tool kit and in my experience they just fall off and then I use a different socket.

[Erni]

What tire company?

[Irving]

Les Schwab. I've decided that I don't like them at all. When they first moved into town, they went on and on about how great they were so they could get a bit of the market share. Now that they're established, I don't like their attitude. It really bothers me that they don't have their tire prices listed online either.

[TheGrey]

Geeze. I need to put new tires on my JGC, and I'm now I'm more than a wee bit concerned about lazy mechanics.

Think the manager of wherever I decide to buy them would get ticked if I asked him or her to take me back in the garage and show me how to check the tightness of the lug nuts?

[jmg8550]

If he does, go somewhere else.

[Irving]

When I worked for AAA, broken lug nuts were a common issue. My boss at the time always said that he would ask a tire place up front if they would torque the lugnuts to spec, and if they didn't, he's shop else where. I'd just ask.

[DenverGP]

My son had his previous shop manager give him shit because he'd run the lugnuts on with an impact set on it's lowest setting, then finish each lug by hand with the torque wrench. Manager didn't like it cause it took him an extra minute or two per vehicle. Shop procedure was just to use impact with torque sticks.