During routine maintenance at the Honda dealer, the dealer told my wife that her Honda needed front tires and the left front c.V. Joint boots were showing some cracks.
She took it to Tire Kingdom for new tires and also told them to replace the left front boots as well. She also told them to check the right front boots for cracking.
Later that day she received a telephone call from the service manager. He told her that the right front boots were o.K. He also told her that historically, the front axles went bad shortly after the boots showed cracks. She should replace the axle as well as the boots.
The next day she told me that the car vibrated when she accelerated. I drove it and determined that the axle Tire Kingdom put in was out of balance (not round).
I took it back and took their service manager for a ride. He agreed and then told me that they had put in a remanufactured axle.
My wife was really mad, because she had several Hondas and always had her work done by the dealer and had always been satisfied.
I told him that we were going to take the car to the Honda dealer to get the problem Tire Kingdom caused corrected.
He begged me to give them another chance to correct their bad work. He said that if they could not repair it, Tire Kingdom would pay all costs to have the Honda dealer do the work.
I finally agreed and he put it in writing. I asked him what he intended to do. He said he would put another axle in and if that did not correct the problem they would change the right c.V. Joint assembly as well.
I pointed out to him that the vibration did not exist until they put a remanufactured assembly in the left side; so the right side could not possibly be involved. He agreed with my logic.
The last words I left him with were: "do not, under any circumstance, even touch the right side assembly."
The next day when we went in to pick up the car, the service manager was not there, but the mechanic said that the vibration was still there and he had not only changed the left assembly, but had also changed the right assembly as well.
Needless to say, I was furious. I went to see the Honda service manager. He told me that if you replace the boots in a timely fashion, the axles never wear out. The only reason Tire Kingdom
changes the axles was because it takes longer to properly replace the boots by cleaning the old grease out and regreasing the joint.
I got the same exact story from an independent garage that specializes in Hondas. Their chief mechanic was Honda trained and certified.
The Tire Kingdom service manager told me to have the Honda service manager telephone him and he would give him a purchase order number to do the job. (they get a discount that way)
I left the car at Honda to have the after market garbage removed and genuine new Honda parts put back in.
When we picked the car up, the vibration was gone, the Honda service manager told us that it was just as he had predicted, the problem was caused because Tire Kingdom used garbage parts.
However, he said he had only replaced the left assembly because Tire Kingdom only authorized him to do one of them.
Now, Tire Kingdom will not pay to have the after market parts taken out and good Honda parts put back in the right side. The Honda people told me that the after market axle and parts only last a couple of years. So, they must be replaced on the right side as well.
You will recall, there was never a problem with the right side and I had given strict orders to Tire Kingdom's service manager to "not, under any circumstance, even touch the right side assembly."
Lord only knows how many customers have been lied to, cheated and stolen from, by Tire Kingdom by stealing the genuine factory parts out of their cars and louzy, substandard remanufactured parts installed instead of just changing cracked boots because Tire Kingdom can do it quicker by yanking out the factory assembly and installing a complete remanufactured assembly.
Obviously, they also make a much larger profit this way.
Bob
Delray Beach, Maryland
0 comments