I thought it might be interesting to see what kinds of headaches people have had with mechanics or repair work done on their trucks, and I have a fun story to share to get started.
My roommate's girlfriend works the Renaissance Festival every fall, so he spends most weekends out in Shakopee.
Because I'm a nice guy, and he drives an RX-8, I loan him the Avalanche for parking off-road.
Last weekend, he and my brother borrowed my truck, and managed to somehow murder the battery. They were fortunate enough to be near an auto joint in town and one of their techs rolled out the power cart to test/charge my battery and ruled that it was shot. Roommate bought a replacement which the shop installed. It was at this point that they noticed the radio no longer powered on, but I guess that's not important...so they proceeded on with the day. When they got back we futzed with fuses and the battery connection, but were unable to get anything from the receiver.
Next, I need to get to work and it's raining in the morning. This is when I notice I have no headlights either...
I discovered that I can fake it with my fog lamps so as to not die or get pulled over (hopefully) and surrendered that I'd have to go back to that shop and see what the problem is.
But the Avalanche had other plans, decided that steering is over-rated, and the front drivers side hub assembly failed.
I'm able to gimp the truck into a different mechanic, and ask them to take care of the hub and look at the electrical for me too.
Turns out (if I'd bothered to think and check) the headlamps were literally exploded, and the radio is fried. After interrogating my roommate, he said that its possible the other shop tried to charge my battery at 24v rather than 12; although I'd imagine their equipment would be smart enough to step down, or my fuses would have blown before that...
Anyroad, new hub assembly and headlights later, now all I'm missing is my tunes, but I have to find a way to get the CDs out of the changer manually too...
Hope you enjoyed the read, and don't let people borrow your truck.
My roommate's girlfriend works the Renaissance Festival every fall, so he spends most weekends out in Shakopee.
Because I'm a nice guy, and he drives an RX-8, I loan him the Avalanche for parking off-road.
Last weekend, he and my brother borrowed my truck, and managed to somehow murder the battery. They were fortunate enough to be near an auto joint in town and one of their techs rolled out the power cart to test/charge my battery and ruled that it was shot. Roommate bought a replacement which the shop installed. It was at this point that they noticed the radio no longer powered on, but I guess that's not important...so they proceeded on with the day. When they got back we futzed with fuses and the battery connection, but were unable to get anything from the receiver.
Next, I need to get to work and it's raining in the morning. This is when I notice I have no headlights either...
I discovered that I can fake it with my fog lamps so as to not die or get pulled over (hopefully) and surrendered that I'd have to go back to that shop and see what the problem is.
But the Avalanche had other plans, decided that steering is over-rated, and the front drivers side hub assembly failed.
I'm able to gimp the truck into a different mechanic, and ask them to take care of the hub and look at the electrical for me too.
Turns out (if I'd bothered to think and check) the headlamps were literally exploded, and the radio is fried. After interrogating my roommate, he said that its possible the other shop tried to charge my battery at 24v rather than 12; although I'd imagine their equipment would be smart enough to step down, or my fuses would have blown before that...
Anyroad, new hub assembly and headlights later, now all I'm missing is my tunes, but I have to find a way to get the CDs out of the changer manually too...
Hope you enjoyed the read, and don't let people borrow your truck.
