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So, I took my 96 Olds 98 to Sam's Club at lunch today to have the tires rotated. This is what happens when you use an impact to torque the lug nuts:
The Tire & Battery team lead said they would reimburse me, but I never got the chance to talk to the manager. According to the team lead it was going to be about $50 to replace the lug nut stud. The local tire and alignment shop doesn't replace lug nut studs, they only replace the entire hub assembly. They gave me a price of $108 labor + the price of the part.
It's about $2 for a lug nut stud at the auto parts store or $57 for a hub. Unfortunately, their hub doesn't have a lifetime warranty. They can order one with a lifetime warranty for $120 but they can only get 1. Plus, I have to pay up-front. Thankfully, the procedure to remove the hub isn't difficult. The hub has to come off to replace the lug nut stud. I never really considered doing rear hubs on this car until they were worn. I guess I should just drive it, the Tire & Battery team lead said it was safe with just 4 lug nuts...
I feel cheated. I've always spoken highly of Sam's Club on our website and other automotive forums I frequent. Maybe I need to rethink that.
One step lower idiots at Wally World. Daily driver 08 Impala with a bazillion miles on it. Needs new tires. They were the cheapest. Get appointment to get done and wander around for an hour. Long story short. They couldnt do it because I have swelled nuts. Get a full set of new lug nuts and set up a new time in a week. Bring everything in. When I get home I notice they only put on 2 of the new lug nuts. The rest were original.
Why is it that every time I pay someone to do something to be "fixed", I end up poorer, dissatisfied, and ending up doing the work over again myself anyways to do it right? Getting too old to do what I used to, and would like to think the "professionals" in whatever industry can do a competent job. Rarely if ever. *Rant over*
So, I took my 96 Olds 98 to Sam's Club at lunch today to have the tires rotated. This is what happens when you use an impact to torque the lug nuts:
The Tire & Battery team lead said they would reimburse me, but I never got the chance to talk to the manager. According to the team lead it was going to be about $50 to replace the lug nut stud. The local tire and alignment shop doesn't replace lug nut studs, they only replace the entire hub assembly. They gave me a price of $108 labor + the price of the part.
It's about $2 for a lug nut stud at the auto parts store or $57 for a hub. Unfortunately, their hub doesn't have a lifetime warranty. They can order one with a lifetime warranty for $120 but they can only get 1. Plus, I have to pay up-front. Thankfully, the procedure to remove the hub isn't difficult. The hub has to come off to replace the lug nut stud. I never really considered doing rear hubs on this car until they were worn. I guess I should just drive it, the Tire & Battery team lead said it was safe with just 4 lug nuts...
I feel cheated. I've always spoken highly of Sam's Club on our website and other automotive forums I frequent. Maybe I need to rethink that.
I am not sure what qualifies one for Tire and Battery team lead at Sam's Club, but vehicles are engineered with a balance of quality, cost and regulations. You can bet if the vehicle could have met those criteria with 4 lugs instead of 5, they would have built it that way. The 5th lugnut is not there for aesthetic purposes. To say it is safe to drive that way is irresponsible. It might be safe to drive to another repair facility with more competent technicians, but it would not be advisable to drive it any more than that.
Talk to them and see if they were willing to pay for the hub. Get the hub without the warranty, the current hub on your car doesn't have a warranty. Then replace the stud on your old hub and save it as a spare part.
I am not sure what qualifies one for Tire and Battery team lead at Sam's Club, but vehicles are engineered with a balance of quality, cost and regulations. You can bet if the vehicle could have met those criteria with 4 lugs instead of 5, they would have built it that way. The 5th lugnut is not there for aesthetic purposes. To say it is safe to drive that way is irresponsible. It might be safe to drive to another repair facility with more competent technicians, but it would not be advisable to drive it any more than that.
I don’t understand why the hub has to be replaced. And you can replace the stud with the hub on. You might have to remove the brake shoes or caliper and pads, but i would rather do that than remove the hub.
I don’t understand why the hub has to be replaced. And you can replace the stud with the hub on. You might have to remove the brake shoes or caliper and pads, but i would rather do that than remove the hub.
Gary you are correct. I thought the hub had to be removed to install the lug nut stud but I was wrong.
I spent $6 on a lug nut and stud and replaced it last night before dinner. It wasn't difficult replacing the stud. It was actually more of a pain piecing the rear drum brake back together and getting all of the springs, emergency brake and self adjusting mechanism to fit properly. I've only serviced drum brakes about 1/2 a million times.
Anyways, I drove the car to work today. I didn't want to drive momma's Kia for a week. I spoke to the manager after work yesterday and he said he would give me a $20 gift card or pay for a shop to replace ONLY the stud. We'll see if he makes good on his promise of a $20 gift card.
Why is it that every time I pay someone to do something to be "fixed", I end up poorer, dissatisfied, and ending up doing the work over again myself anyways to do it right? Getting too old to do what I used to, and would like to think the "professionals" in whatever industry can do a competent job. Rarely if ever. *Rant over*
i think this happens because many places pay techs for how fast they do a job....which ends up in shortcuts and eh good enough work.
I fear the day I am physically forced to have maintenance done by someone else. Between the shop rate and the absolute lack of quality/competency, one could easily be forced out of the hobby. I’ve found that during a restoration, half of the repairs you’ll do are undoing the crappy maintenance that was done in previous ownership. I thank God every day for good health and having the ability to function.
The tire chain I contacted; Hibdon's, said that I would have had to take my car to a specific location for the repair to be done. Supposedly, the manager at that location would "allow work like that" (i.e. replacing the entire hub) since that repair was forbidden by corporate rules.
I did have a different Hibdon's location install the General Grabber HTS on my 71 98. That was almost 10 years ago though.
I fear the day I am physically forced to have maintenance done by someone else. Between the shop rate and the absolute lack of quality/competency, one could easily be forced out of the hobby. I’ve found that during a restoration, half of the repairs you’ll do are undoing the crappy maintenance that was done in previous ownership. I thank God every day for good health and having the ability to function.
When I took my Crown Vic to the Big W to get my tires changed, the kids there didn't know how to use the machine to order tires and they beat the daylights out of my hubcaps putting them back on. Would never take my car to a Wal-Mart owned tire store again.
I doubt this would have ever happened at Discount Tire.
Ugh!! Don’t get me started on Discount tire!!
I use to swear by Discount Tire, about 5 years ago they promoted the manager and brought in a replacement manager to run things into the ground.
Bought tires for my wife’s Durango. Dropped it off before work, went to get it after work to find 4 new tires installed, and the spare tire also installed. When I asked what the deal was, they told me it had a cracked rim. Upon inspection, it did have a crack on the inside, only on the bead. Completely cosmetic damage. I asked about welding the crack, both the manager and the salesman put their hands up in a “we won’t touch that!” way. Completely over reacting. After lots of bitching and complaining, I got the rim welded, ground it smooth, polished to the point the crack was almost invisible, and got the tire mounted.
Issue #2: Had the tires rotated and balanced on my Ram. Since I purchased the tires there, they don’t charge for the service. I asked them to park the truck outside, and lock the keys in it. I would get the truck the next day. Went to get the truck, they did park it outside, with the keys in the ignition, but with the windows rolled down!!! When they opened the next day I called to bitch, they told me they windows were down when they got in it, so they left them down when they parked it. I don’t know what they would have done if it had rained. This Discount Tire store also is on the corner of the busiest instruction in town, in the parking lot of a mall. Who knows how many people drove or walked by?? I wonder what would have happened if someone drove off with it?? They said it was company policy not to mess with seats or windows because of people blaming them if they go down and then won’t go back up. I think that was a poor attempt to conver up someone’s carelessness.
I agree leaving the windows down with the keys in the ignition was stupid. But never underestimate the public. I worked at ford dealerships for over 26 years. I’m 6’1 and had to almost always adjust the seats to be able to drive the cars. I had some women customers in tears because we couldn't put the seat back exactly where they had it. There was one customer who would un plug the power seat so we couldn’t move it and I couldn't even get behind the wheel to drive the car into my bay let alone road test it. The people in these shops come into contact with all kind of weirdos asking for all kinds of things.
just passing on some perspective. Sorry for the mini rant.
My old man ran Monkey Ward into the ground. He had a lifetime battery there. Kid came out, looked at the 73 Econoline and said looks like a 14. My dad said 14...what? Kid looks at him like he's a dumbass and said "mil-eh-mee-terrr." My dad said it was a 7/16ths and that he wouldn't be touching the car. Kid came out with new battery and said it had to be installed there, implying he wasn't going to loan tools, so my old man pulled wrenched out of the glove box and changed the battery in 5 min in front of the kid and handed him the old core.
So, I went to Sam's Club after work yesterday. The store manager wasn't there. Luckily the Tire & Battery lead I met on Tuesday was there. I told him that the store manager offered me a $20 gift card if I did the work myself. After jumping through numerous hoops of fire he got approval from the assistant manager to issue me the giftcard. I took it and ran for the exit.
I spent a couple years working in a dealership. It hasn’t been long enough for me to forget how petty new car owners are. As far as the seat thing, if they don’t want me to move the seat to be able to work on it (or drive it) I guess they didn’t want their car fixed.
June 9th, 2020, 12:09 PM
