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One reason not to do DIY

3K views 34 replies 24 participants last post by  IS JOE 
#1 ·
I've learned the hard way DIYs can turn horribly wrong.

I was on my way to NYC from VA last night, when I started hearing a rattling sound from my left passender side wheel. I made an emergency stop, and looked at the wheel, and found one bolt on the rim missing! And another bolt was kind of hanging lose! And when I tried to put the bolt back in there, I realized that the threaded part actually broke off inside the bolt!

Now, i'm in a hotel room in Towson, while it's been worked on in Towson Lexus dealership. They have a very nice facility, but we'll see how well they fix it. The service consultant told me that the threaded part broke off because the bolts must have been screwed in incorrectly, and that's the only reason the studs would break off like that. So, their car warranty won't cover it. :(

I've been working on the rims a lot, adjusting the height of the car etc. so it's very possible I didn't bolt it in straight. I asked him to try to take care of it, but it does not seem it will happen. They are charging $95/hour so I hope they fix it quick!

Anyway, if I had asked a shop to lower the car, and this happened, I can blame that shop, but now, I have noone else to blame but myself. Well, guys, just know when you put your rims on your car, make sure they are bolted in straight!!
 
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#2 ·
That's not a reason to stop doing stuff yourself... it's just a reason to make sure you do stuff properly.
 
#4 ·
Should say "this a reason not to be a tool" Mechanics will make the same errors you do and still not fess up for it.
 
#9 ·
shit happens. one time i was trying to swap my aftermarket wheels back to stock, i broke front left wheel lock. the half piece of wheel lock was on the threaded part, other half piece was on the floor. i was like wtf. i took it to lexus dealer, there was a service manager who has the same birth day as me. anyways he took care of my car for warrenty work even though it was my fault. they even gave me new wheel locks for free. he was like they come with 4 pieces in one package. so they changed all four wheel locks. from this case l have learned not to tighten the wheel lock so hard. :)
 
#10 ·
Crester said:
That's not a reason to stop doing stuff yourself... it's just a reason to make sure you do stuff properly.
I'm not advocating that people don't do DIY, but just illustrating that things CAN go wrong if you do DIY. Like I said in the post, if it went wrong, and a shop did it, at least you can blame them and ask them to fix it etc.

I've been pretty much doing everything on my car by myself, and overall I'm satisifed because they were free! But besides this problem I just had, I hear noises all over my car, and I can't seem to figure out why that is so. Again, if a mechanic worked on the car, I can blame him, and he can try to locate the problem himself for free.

Basically, if a mechanic works on your car, if things go wrong, you have a person to blame, so it's much less worry free. If you work on it yourself, you are to blame, so you worry much more. And chances are unless you are a real good mechanic , a good professional mechanic will do things better than you MOST of the time. This may not apply to many of you who are good mechanics.

But then again, unless you do DIY, you will never learn to work on your car, which is actually half the fun of modding! There are plusses and minuses.
 
#12 ·
happened to me too. and guess what lol. when i stopped at the side of the freeway, i had lugs missing, and 2 studs fell off.

so it was like $2.50each for the studs and $3 per lug..not that bad..just gotta take off the rotor and hammer out the stud at an angle, the put the new one back in, but u gotta make sure the new one comes out all the way or else the studs will all be different length. and dan..$95 seems kinda high...but yeah they better get the job done.

good luck =D
-Aaron
 
#13 ·
oh yeah and my incident was also my reason for:

whenever i work on my car and it requires me to remove and replace the wheels, the next morning i always go to the local "Just Tires" to have them torque my lugs in properly..i mean what..they gona charge me for that? takes like 5 secs...but yeah you should try that...just for safety.

=D

-Aaron
 
#15 ·
well cuz bakc then i didnt have the lug wrench thing..the one thats X shaped..

i used the one that came in the back with all cars..its like shaped of an L so it always gets crooked...never use that POS anymore...

-Aaron
 
#16 ·
For you guys with the broken studs... is it that you are over-tightening them?
 
#17 ·
onyxaltezza said:
oh yeah and my incident was also my reason for:

whenever i work on my car and it requires me to remove and replace the wheels, the next morning i always go to the local "Just Tires" to have them torque my lugs in properly..i mean what..they gona charge me for that? takes like 5 secs...but yeah you should try that...just for safety.

=D

-Aaron
No offence from me either but why don't you just buy a torque wrench? :rolleyes: Very often these 'Just Tires' type of places are the culprit for using too much torque with their air tools. They can really mess up the wheel locks. I will absolutely trust my torque wrench over any shop.


But that really sucks Tony but you are lucky that you noticed it before your wheel fell off.....because that would have really really sucked. Hope it doesn't cost too much....but at $95/hour for labour one is still way ahead of the game by DIYing it, even when this sort of mishap occurs.....and these are all lessons learnt and shared so it is a one time affair in theory.
 
#19 ·
..yup.. happened to me very recently.
i had just finished putting my side skirt back on and i had removed the 2 wheels on that same side to check the pads and what not. I hand tighten the lugs on both wheels or so I thought. I'm driving down the road and I'm hearing a terrible wheel noise. I pull over and check the lugs, rear is fine, the front lugs are loose. I use my wrench, tighten them, drive back to the garage and torque them down. But now either my 1) my alignment is hosed (gonna get it aligned for free) 2) my wheels is focked. But at high speeds there's no vibration, but on accelleration there is.. whats it sound like?
 
#21 ·
monkeypee said:
I've learned the hard way DIYs can turn horribly wrong.

I was on my way to NYC from VA last night, when I started hearing a rattling sound from my left passender side wheel. I made an emergency stop, and looked at the wheel, and found one bolt on the rim missing! And another bolt was kind of hanging lose! And when I tried to put the bolt back in there, I realized that the threaded part actually broke off inside the bolt!

Now, i'm in a hotel room in Towson, while it's been worked on in Towson Lexus dealership. They have a very nice facility, but we'll see how well they fix it. The service consultant told me that the threaded part broke off because the bolts must have been screwed in incorrectly, and that's the only reason the studs would break off like that. So, their car warranty won't cover it. :(

I've been working on the rims a lot, adjusting the height of the car etc. so it's very possible I didn't bolt it in straight. I asked him to try to take care of it, but it does not seem it will happen. They are charging $95/hour so I hope they fix it quick!

Anyway, if I had asked a shop to lower the car, and this happened, I can blame that shop, but now, I have noone else to blame but myself. Well, guys, just know when you put your rims on your car, make sure they are bolted in straight!!

I hope this doesnt sound bad.... but you sound pretty stupid to me for discouraging DIYer just because you cant do simple things
 
#24 ·
dang, i was just charged $260 for the total.

and to find out onyxxalteeza did it for like $20 total..

DIY rulz. lol.

bigdaddyrich, relax man. I dun deny that i'm stupid, but this thread is more a "warning". I'm not particularly discouraging DIY, but letting people know, shit can happen.

As many said above, do it right or pay a mechanic to do it is basically the message here..
 
#25 ·
monkeypee said:
I'm not advocating that people don't do DIY, but just illustrating that things CAN go wrong if you do DIY. Like I said in the post, if it went wrong, and a shop did it, at least you can blame them and ask them to fix it etc.

I've been pretty much doing everything on my car by myself, and overall I'm satisifed because they were free! But besides this problem I just had, I hear noises all over my car, and I can't seem to figure out why that is so. Again, if a mechanic worked on the car, I can blame him, and he can try to locate the problem himself for free.

Basically, if a mechanic works on your car, if things go wrong, you have a person to blame, so it's much less worry free. If you work on it yourself, you are to blame, so you worry much more. And chances are unless you are a real good mechanic , a good professional mechanic will do things better than you MOST of the time. This may not apply to many of you who are good mechanics.

But then again, unless you do DIY, you will never learn to work on your car, which is actually half the fun of modding! There are plusses and minuses.
This logic is completely flawed. It doesn't matter who is to blame, it won't make your situation better since you can blame it on someone else. Sure mechanics can do the job, depending on the job they can NOT do it any better than any joe schmoe with the right tools, especially mounting a tire. In fact is worse to have mechanics mount tires, because they rarely apply the correct amount of torque to the lug nuts after they put the tire onto the car. They set their air gun to 100+ lbs and bang away. Mechanics are paid to do their job as fast as possible, not as good as possible. This is worse than any one would do by themselves.

Better change your title to, "If you get a flat, it's better to wait and pay a mechanic to change the tire, just in case if you need someone to blame. You will feel better".
 
#26 ·
just go out and hit on some fine towson chicks while your waiting and continue to DIY...if it makes you feel any better I found quite a few loose bolts on my car from letting other people work on it, bet I wont have any this time why? because I wont forget and double check everything.
 
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