I have been a customer of NTW/NTB for about 35 years, and have been quite happy with them until recently.in the last two years I have found that the sales staff were rude, were not interested in serving customers, and did not attempt to have the work done in a timely manner.in my most recent visit to buy new tires for a 2006 Honda Civic, the new sales staff had greatly improved – they were very helpful and cheerful. They explained that the change in sales staff was due to a change in management. Unfortunately the technicians are a different story, as explained below:
1. I stayed in the waiting room for 2 hours (I was told 1.5 hours) and observed that the technicians (about 4) seemed to work in slow motion and spent much time talking – it took more than 40 minutes to replace tires on one car. This is very different than the old NTW where the mechanics hustled — they were always in motion.
2. When NTB finally started working on my car, a technician came to the lobby and said that my car needed a new air filter and brake pads. I questioned his statements, so he asked me to come to the service area and see for myself. He showed the air filter (I didn’t ask why he needed to remove the air filter to replace 2 tires) – it didn’t appear dirty, so he held it up to a light about 15 feet away and said that we would see light through a new filter. (This not true for new Honda filters when the light is far away). Then he and another technician showed me the front brake pads which were fairly thick, and the back pads which they said were quite thin and needed replacement. I declined the offer — more about this below.
3. At checkout, I was presented with a list of proposed work that totaled $456: $140 for brake pads (not labeled as front or back or both), $100 for “front” brake pad replacement labor, $51 to flush the brake fluid, $110 to replace the power steering fluid, $35 in shop fees, and $20 in taxes. (Notes: Honda does not include power steering fluid replacement on their maintenance schedule. New Honda Civic rear brake pads sell for $75, and front pads are $65)
After driving home I discovered the following:
1. The car oscillated laterally entering and exiting turns above 40 MPH turn. Using multiple tire gauges of different types (to verify accuracy), I found that the pressure in both new rear tires was 39 psi, one (old) front tire was 26 psi, and the other was 31 psi. The Honda sticker recommends 32 psi for both front and rear.in other words, the technicians put far too much air in the new tires and never checked pressure in the old tires even though they were rotated from the rear. The car handles much better with 32 psi in all tires.
2. Torques of the wheel lug nuts varied from 70 to 100 ft-lbs. Honda lists 80 ft-lbs as the recommended torque. NTB used an impact wrench rather than a torque wrench: if the torque had been much greater than 100 ft-lb they could have stripped the bolt threads. Years ago NTW had a sign in the waiting room stating that torque wrenches should always be used, and customers should complain if they observed a technician failing to use a torque wrench.
3. The Honda maintenance manual lists new front brake pad thickness as 9.6 to 10.2 mm, and the wear limit is 1.6 mm. Using vernier calipers, I measured the front pads as 6.4 mm. Using the average new thickness for front pads (9.9 mm), the fraction of the original pad remaining is (6.4-1.6) / (9.9-1.6) = 0.58. The new rear pad thickness is listed as 8.3 to 9.4 mm, and the wear limit is 1.6 mm. I measured both rear brake pads as 5.0 mm thick. Using the average new thickness for rear pads (8.85 mm), the fraction of the original pad remaining is (5.0-1.6) / (8.85-1.6) = 0.47.in other words, the rear pads that the technicians said needed immediate replacement actually had 47% of the usable thickness left. At our current rate of driving, the rear pads would not need replacement for another 4.9 years, and the front pads would not need replacement for 7.6 years! Furthermore, I last replaced the air filter 5000 miles ago: the Honda Owners Manual says that filter should be replaced at 30000 mile intervals for normal service (which our car operation is). Thus the filter had 83% of its life remaining!
4. The driver’s floor mat had several oily black footprints from a workman’s boot that were very difficult to clean. Those footprints were not present when I brought the car to NTB. The footprints were so prominent that I wondered if it was done intentionally because I had declined to do the work they recommended.
To summarize, NTB said that I needed $405 of totally unnecessary work (only the brake fluid flush was needed). The NTB sales staff may have improved, but apparently NTB Beltsville technicians have been told to con the customers into replacing parts that clearly don’t need replacement. I never again plan to visit NTB Beltsville, and suggest that you also avoid the store.
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