So I've had this clunk in my passenger front suspension since day 2 of ownership. I figure, no big deal, I'll get it in when I get it in.

It had gotten a little worse since then, so today I went up to the dealer and scheduled a service appointment. Alright, can't get me in until Tuesday.

I figure it's a good time to learn how to jack one of these things up and remove the wheel (never owned a unibody before, let alone a car, or a lowered car at that). Pull it up on some boards to gain a little clearance, jack it up, remove the passenger front wheel... and I take a close look at the 2 retaining bolts that hold the strut to the knuckle. One of them I can see a gap between the bolt and the strut bracket. I grab the bolt and turn it, LOOSE. BOTH of them are FINGER loose.

Now, this isn't a factory problem, this is a service department problem. I had the dealer install springs before I picked up the car, and this should definitely not have been an issue. Some tech in that service department is going to receive a piece of my mind.

Things like this make me glad I do my own work.

 

Wow. That is seriously not good, even lawsuit worthy not good.

 

Speaking of dealer service departments, my car threw a really weird check engine code with only 695 miles on it. They called scion in california, and there's never been a report of a car throwing this code under warranty. It was for the crankshaft position sensor. So what did they do? well, no one had seen it before, so they said...well we don't really know what to do, so we erased the code and if it does it again bring it back in and we'll try to fix it.

Uh...how about you fix it NOW? Also, they tried to blame it on the cruise that i had my dad install-- they claimed it was sending the code. Why would a cruise module be sending a rare engine code for the crankshaft.

Needless to say, i was pretty ____ed with the service department.

 

easy Zach... I know the guy who did the install on your springs. He's a buddy of mine and he does all my Scion installs. Actually he's the only tech I trust completely. Im sure this was a once in a long time occurance. My guess would be he tightened them down but sometimes bolts like that come loose. Ive seen it happen on my car and on other rides. I will definately make mention of it to him when I see him on monday...

...Come to think of it I watched him install most of your springs personally. I had to help with the rear springs because the torsion bar was being a pain.

 

Well, since I caught it, I'm rather glad. However, I have reason to believe that they were never really torqued to spec.

Just tell him to doublecheck those bolts in the future... many people aren't as industrious as I and would go as far as ignoring it and having the knuckle separate further on down the road.