Dealership Trained Lube Techs

plainvanilla · June 24, 2009

I have grown too lazy to change my own oil and the local dealer will do a filter and oil change for me, if I bring my own Mobil 1 oil, for $15.. fair enough

I just put on some new Cooper LT/AT tires with 50 PSI rating and being as I tow my travel trailer and I like the stiffer ride, I run around 45 in them.

I watch the guy from the waiting room today and there he goes deflating my tires to 32 psi!

I went out there and nicely pointed out the rating which is printed on the side wall and told him to just leave them be.

I have seen tire shops and service shops and I have caught many so called "techs" putting 32 PSI in just about any tire.

do they not know better? Can they read?

If these guys were all 50 plus year olds, I could see where everyone was taught years ago when everyone had 14 and 15 inch tires but these are 20 year olds and I think they are not trained well at all.

I finally got them to stop putting 3000 miles on my oil change reminder decal....

s_n_a_f_u · June 24, 2009

ya thats a major problem with most of my generation. they simply dont think. there minds arnt on there jobs at all. the down side is most of them dont get trained right there trained in about 2 hours and thats not enough even just for servicing. the dealership up here uses Certified Mechanics in the lube bays for that reason

brims · June 24, 2009

When I used to take the Chevelle over to the quick lube place, I would tell them "don't touch the tires" most of the time they still would. I had them set the way I wanted and checked them myself. But those guys liked to put air in them. They would put different amount of air in each tire. Love those people.

BlackOut V8 · June 24, 2009

I work as a Lube Tech for Toyota and we fill each tire to the recomended psi on the sticker inside the door which is from the factory. Beleive it or not most smaller vehicles run at a recomended 32psi and trucks etc are 35 psi. If you have aftermarket tires / need the pressures adjusted to your towing needs then just mention it to the service advisor / manager. They were probably just trying to fill your tire to what it is recomended to be filled at.

Note: The 50 psi rating you are seeing on your side wall is a maximum pressure. This is not the recomended air pressure for your tire. It is the tires maximum psi pressure it can handle. This is so that an uneducated individual does not overfill the tire creating a serious hazard.

Just my 2 cents

BlackOut V8

Stylous · June 24, 2009

Here's another one for you...why why why do these kids put the hub caps face down on the ground when rotating the tires!?!?! And then they use them as a cup to hold the lug nuts!

I had the local dealer here buy me a new set of caps after one of their lube "techs" scratched the shizzz out of mine. The service manager was not to happy with his tech!

Didn't we all learn from pop you keep the nice side up when rotating the tires or fixing a flat? If I had done that my dad would have smacked me over the head with the cap! My kids are 14,16 and 18 and they know that is a heat getter!

MS3DALE · June 25, 2009

Beleive it or not most smaller vehicles run at a recomended 32psi and trucks etc are 35 psi. If you have aftermarket tires / need the pressures adjusted to your towing needs then just mention it to the service advisor / manager. They were probably just trying to fill your tire to what it is recomended to be filled at.

Note: The 50 psi rating you are seeing on your side wall is a maximum pressure. This is not the recomended air pressure for your tire. It is the tires maximum psi pressure it can handle. This is so that an uneducated individual does not overfill the tire creating a serious hazard.

+1

plainvanilla · June 25, 2009

Beleive it or not most smaller vehicles run at a recomended 32psi and trucks etc are 35 psi. If you have aftermarket tires / need the pressures adjusted to your towing needs then just mention it to the service advisor / manager. They were probably just trying to fill your tire to what it is recomended to be filled at.

Note: The 50 psi rating you are seeing on your side wall is a maximum pressure. This is not the recomended air pressure for your tire. It is the tires maximum psi pressure it can handle. This is so that an uneducated individual does not overfill the tire creating a serious hazard.

+1

Yeah, that is a good idea to tell the service adviser to write it down on the sheet.

maybe they will take time to read the note

plainvanilla · June 25, 2009

Here's another one for you...why why why do these kids put the hub caps face down on the ground when rotating the tires!?!?! And then they use them as a cup to hold the lug nuts!

I had the local dealer here buy me a new set of caps after one of their lube "techs" scratched the shizzz out of mine. The service manager was not to happy with his tech!

Didn't we all learn from pop you keep the nice side up when rotating the tires or fixing a flat? If I had done that my dad would have smacked me over the head with the cap! My kids are 14,16 and 18 and they know that is a heat getter!

oh my yeah, that sucks.

I had a jeep repainted once and one of the shop monkeys was in charge of cleaning off the back of the Jeep emblems and reinstalling with new 3M tape

this moron puts the shiny side letters on a non skid surface so they won't move around on him, while he takes a razor blade scraper to the back where the old glue tape is.

ruined all of the factory emblems.

I was furious

I told him to knock off 50 bucks and we would be square then I went to a wrecking yard and got more and put the freaking things on myself

grampadirt · June 25, 2009

I guess I'm lucky here.I bought a set of Goodyears from our local America's Tire store and couldn't be happier.I bring the Burb in every 5,000 to have 'em rotated.These young guys are very carefull with the center caps and lugnuts and ALWAYS ask me how much air to put in the tires.The tires are rated for 45lbs. so I tell e'm 40.OK,no prob they say and do it.They also torque 'em to 140lb. ft.The tech said the tires are wearing better than expected(they check for wear every time I bring it in).That's good news cuz I don't wanna spend a bunch of money on new tires any time soon.

Z45 · June 25, 2009

Couple years back I had these Engineer interns working for me on my survey crew in the summer. One them had a little Toyota truck with oversize tires and wheels. I asked him once how does it ride with those tires? He said, rides hard and wanders a lot but it makes the truck look tough. I started to look closer at the tries and they are 15in so I ask what tire pressure do you run? 60psi he tells me. Too much I tell him, he argues that its not and his buddy who had similar tires told him to run 60 psi. So I point out on the tire where it says max inflation is 50psi. Finally convince him to go to 35 psi. Next day he says, holy cow the truck rides great and it don't wander all over the road anymore. Typical engineer. He had been driving like that for nearly a year.

Nick The Great · June 25, 2009

Couple years back I had these Engineer interns working for me on my survey crew in the summer. One them had a little Toyota truck with oversize tires and wheels. I asked him once how does it ride with those tires? He said, rides hard and wanders a lot but it makes the truck look tough. I started to look closer at the tries and they are 15in so I ask what tire pressure do you run? 60psi he tells me. Too much I tell him, he argues that its not and his buddy who had similar tires told him to run 60 psi. So I point out on the tire where it says max inflation is 50psi. Finally convince him to go to 35 psi. Next day he says, holy cow the truck rides great and it don't wander all over the road anymore. Typical engineer. He had been driving like that for nearly a year.

That's hilarious.

Matt_ · June 25, 2009

I work as a Lube Tech for Toyota and we fill each tire to the recomended psi on the sticker inside the door which is from the factory. Beleive it or not most smaller vehicles run at a recomended 32psi and trucks etc are 35 psi. If you have aftermarket tires / need the pressures adjusted to your towing needs then just mention it to the service advisor / manager. They were probably just trying to fill your tire to what it is recomended to be filled at.

Note: The 50 psi rating you are seeing on your side wall is a maximum pressure. This is not the recomended air pressure for your tire. It is the tires maximum psi pressure it can handle. This is so that an uneducated individual does not overfill the tire creating a serious hazard.

Just my 2 cents

BlackOut V8

I agree. In this case the techs were doing the right thing.

Too many people over inflate tires because of the max on the sidewall.

An E rated tire can carry just as much, and probably more, than a C rated tire when both are at 35psi

Stylous · June 25, 2009

Interesting...I called BFG and they stated 32-35 in the front and 58-60 in the rear for 285/75/16 ATs.

BlackOut V8 · June 28, 2009

Did you tell them you were using your truck to tow, because depending on your load the rear tires could potentially be set to max pressure.

BlackOut V8

Stylous · June 29, 2009

Did you tell them you were using your truck to tow, because depending on your load the rear tires could potentially be set to max pressure.

BlackOut V8

Nope...I specifically said that I do NOT tow and these are the numbers they gave me. My door sticker calls out 50F/80R but doesn't mention with or without load...that would make it too easy I guess!

The tire shop I got the tires from called out 50F/60R then bump it up in the rear if towing. I guess they put in 80 in the rear when I got the tires assuming I towed...but like I mentioned above that was way to stiff.