Complaint Review: PEP BOYS - LOUISVILLE Kentucky

I'm the one that submitted this Rip-off report and I have some more things to say. The 1st thing is I never changed the size of my tires on the car, I had the same size tires and rims placed back on my car, I may have been a little unclear with that. My car (nissan maxima) now has had another alignment and is pulling to the left severly. When I ever I go around left hand curves my car will pull a little to the left then it feels like my rear tires are swerving like they cant decide which way to go and it feels like my tires aren't arent on the ground. I went back to pep boys and told them what my car was doing and they said that I probably had a suspension problem. I asked them why they didn't check that crap before they did the alignment, they said they did...???? Well they wanted me to come back the next day and drive one of their installers around to show him what my car was doing. So I did and they guy just sat there and didn't say anything, probably b/c he didn't know or b/c he coudln't tell b/c he wasn't driving the car. We got back and they put the car up on a lift and tem minutes later they said that my lower ball joints were bad. They said that they had to have been bad before I brought the car to them. They told me that they would repair the part for free but would charge $100 labor for them to put them in. I don't know if it is just me but why would they give me a part they didn't break??? I mean is it just me or is that a little strange. I asked the guy why I didn't feel the swaying before I had the new tires put on? The guy told me that he didn't know, he said it could have been b/c my tires wern't gripping the road the way they should have. To me it seems there not gripping the road now and they were before since I didn't notice the problem. What do you think?

Ok I have read enough of this to make it warrent a bit of my time in response. While it is true that wrong size tires can and will affect the way a car/truck will handle, it is also true that it will always pull to the small side. As stated before that is called stagger. Now as far as playing with tire pressures let's first ask a question. Say all your tires are the same size, but the car is pulling one way or another. Upon inspection you find that one tire has 30psi, but the other has 25psi. Which tire will wear out the fastest? Of course it will be the one with less pressure because there is more rubber in contact with the road. On the other side of the spectrem, say you are hauling a load of heavy trash which is piled more to one side then the other. To make it stop pulling you would have to increase the pressure on one side to "level" it out. What happens then? Too much pressure puts more strain on the tire and it also produces more heat which can and often does cause a tire to "blow out" It also raises the tread of the tire meaning not as much surface contact so therefore less ease of handling. The bottem line is very simple. Unless you are racing on a round track, make sure all your tires are the same size. Make sure to keep your tires properly inflated. (Always check pressure when the tire is cold.) Air expands when it is heated so if you have 32psi when it is cold you could possibly have 40-50psi when the tire warms up. And last but not least, never ever play with tire pressures to make a car/truck track right!!! If it is pulling one way or another there is a larger potenially more dangerous fault that would only be masked by adjusting tire pressure to compensate.

You don't really know whats wrong until you see it, that goes for both of you it could be anything defective parts. I think what their problem is that they need to take the car to another shop find out what the problem is. Either allow the first shop the chance to make repair in case the State they live in is a right to repair.and of Coarse pay the customer back the money paid to the other shop. Or let them refuse to make good their work and take them to court for the total out of pocket plus cost.

Bob, Im sorry Im now not worth your time, even as you just posted. Im also sorry if you thought I was calling myself an "expert" which admittedly, I'm not ;-( I admit I haven't watched the Firestone video that they showed you when they hired you off the street to work on cars, and I cannot possibly compete with that kind of knowledge. So from time to time I will just have to expect you to have a "one up" on me- That is if you will not stay mad for long and continue posting. Now some more advice to the commonfolk and a friendly counterstatement to what you said about airpressure: "NEVER EVER ADJUST THE AIR IN YOUR TIRES TO COMPENSATE FOR PULLING" OK consider these scenarios and feel free to correct me if I make unknowledgeable remarks:(once again not an "expert"). 1st. yes make sure your vehicles alignment is within specs. 2. yes also make sure the tires/wheels are the same size and recommended pressure. Now with that done, What if this person hmm I dont know lets say has alot of junk they are hauling and it is spread mostly on one side of the vehicle (might she want to increase the tire pressure on that side a bit to compensate for any pulling?)- I know you will just say she should distribute the weight evenly so I pose another scenario: Ok lets say she has one "heavy a*s battery" (aftermarket) in her engine compartment making the vehicle a little more heavy on one side, what can she do now? Is it okay to adjust a little pressure in this case??? Or what if this girl is a 500 pd behemoth, maybe not unlike you, sure she could go on a diet but until she gets her "excess baggage" under control might she want to adjust her tire pressure in this case too?, and maybe avoid a blowout??? These are just "crackpot THEORIES" and as I said before and will again Im not an expert so feel free to "shoot holes in them!" The commonfolk need this dialogue to help them in their struggle so I hope you will not hold a grudge and abandon them..... Now I made some accusations about ford and firestone earlier, so to keep from putting out misinformation or try to mislead the public I want to add the following..... From what I have read (no expert) it seems that alot of the Firestone tires that were "blowing" have been traced to a Bridgestone/Firestone plant (japanese owned) that was having some "labor difficulties". So it is very possible these tires were either made by disgruntled employees or "scabs" that were working there, as there was a strike. So this is a good example of what can happen when you "do your labor wrong" and Im sure Bridgestone is still feeling it. I also made some comments about ford "putting the cheapest tires they could find" on the vehicles... Well, alot of companies try to "cut their costs" anyway they can,(just like Firestone) and at Ford throughout the nineties this seemed to be going on alot. They also had a CEO that alot of employees really HATED. (if your interested to learn more just go to blueovalnews.com and type in Jacques Nasser) This guy has since got the CAN and the Ford Family is once again in control, so maybe things will brighten up a bit. As always I dont accept credit for educating the mass, unwashed public....

Bradleee, Obviuosly, my spelling is not up to Par, with the un-common folk! I see you try to back peddle when ever YOUR skills in a so called Diagnosis is challenged. Bradleeeee, do yourself a favor, and as another rebutter told you once: Stick to flipping burgers, because You are not worth my time to respond to. If your tire is flat or even low yes it will pull, But still NEVER EVER ADJUST THE AIR IN YOUR TIRES TO COMPENSATE FOR PULLING! Just do yourself a favor and make sure all the tires have the Manufactuers reccommended air pressure in ALL tires.

I have to agree with Bob...bigger tires on the right side will cause the car to pull right. In the racing world this is called stagger. In circle track racing we do this pourpsfully to help the car turn left. Think of a styrofoam cup. Put the large end of the cup on your right and roll it away from you. Which way does it turn? For Bradlys sake I will tell you that it will go to your left. The same principle applys directly to tire size. I am not sure about PepBoys, but most shops (mine included) have a warrenty of some kind on their alignment. Good Luck!

Bob, first off thanks for the proclamation "Bradley was totally accurate!" I knew you had it in ya! Next yes I do love to bash em all! Including you. I notice you dont speak up much when you are asked to elaborate.... "NEVER EVER PLAY WITH THE AIR PRESSURE IN YOUR TIRES TO COMPENSATE FOR PULLING"???? OK Bob, what if one of her tires is almost flat? and is pulling bad because of it?....Should she not add any air!?????? GOOD THEORY...NOT! Then you say "...if one of the tires was a different size...it would throw your alignment off" Not totally true Bobby!... She didn't mention "how" the tire was "too big" A tire can be too big in different ways... as in width or height. So you lose CREDIBILITY there as well, not "creditbility" as you oklahoma boyeez say!!! For your third statement you need to look again at what I wrote above..... And Im not really trying to paint a KNOWLEDGEABLE picture of myself (just trying to help the common folk) but at least I can spell it! As always, I need no credit for this!!!

Jessica, Bradley was totally accurate, when he said it is not alway's very wise to change tire sizes, due the the possibility of losing the comfort of the ride. As far as one of the tires that were installed, was larger that the other, mistakes happen! But, that is no excuse for the shop to of made as many errors and caused you as much inconvienience as they did! It should have been rectified immediately! Apparently Bradley loves to bash PepBoy's as much as he does Jiffy Lube! If he was as knowlegable as he acts the maybe I would resect his opinion more! NEVER EVER PLAY WITH THE AIR PRESSURE IN YOUR TIRES TO TRY TO COMPENSATE FOR PULLING. Second, if PepBoy's did the Alignment, after the tires were installed, and apparently did not notice that one of the tires was a different size, then yes it would throw your alignment off when the correct tire size was installed. Therefore it would definately be neccessary to re-align the vehicle. third if say the right front tire was the wrong size (too Big)and different from the other three, and they aligned the vehicle, it would not pull to the right, it would pull to the opposite side of the oversized tire! Once again shooting holes through Bradley's THEORY! One bit of advise to Bradley: Dont Give advise unless you are 100% sure of the advise you are giving! It doesn't paint a very knowlegible picture of your self, and quite frankly, you lose all creditbility!

Jessica, Bradley was totally accurate, when he said it is not alway's very wise to change tire sizes, due the the possibility of losing the comfort of the ride. As far as one of the tires that were installed, was larger that the other, mistakes happen! But, that is no excuse for the shop to of made as many errors and caused you as much inconvienience as they did! It should have been rectified immediately! Apparently Bradley loves to bash PepBoy's as much as he does Jiffy Lube! If he was as knowlegable as he acts the maybe I would resect his opinion more! NEVER EVER PLAY WITH THE AIR PRESSURE IN YOUR TIRES TO TRY TO COMPENSATE FOR PULLING. Second, if PepBoy's did the Alignment, after the tires were installed, and apparently did not notice that one of the tires was a different size, then yes it would throw your alignment off when the correct tire size was installed. Therefore it would definately be neccessary to re-align the vehicle. third if say the right front tire was the wrong size (too Big)and different from the other three, and they aligned the vehicle, it would not pull to the right, it would pull to the opposite side of the oversized tire! Once again shooting holes through Bradley's THEORY! One bit of advise to Bradley: Dont Give advise unless you are 100% sure of the advise you are giving! It doesn't paint a very knowlegible picture of your self, and quite frankly, you lose all creditbility!

Jessica, Bradley was totally accurate, when he said it is not alway's very wise to change tire sizes, due the the possibility of losing the comfort of the ride. As far as one of the tires that were installed, was larger that the other, mistakes happen! But, that is no excuse for the shop to of made as many errors and caused you as much inconvienience as they did! It should have been rectified immediately! Apparently Bradley loves to bash PepBoy's as much as he does Jiffy Lube! If he was as knowlegable as he acts the maybe I would resect his opinion more! NEVER EVER PLAY WITH THE AIR PRESSURE IN YOUR TIRES TO TRY TO COMPENSATE FOR PULLING. Second, if PepBoy's did the Alignment, after the tires were installed, and apparently did not notice that one of the tires was a different size, then yes it would throw your alignment off when the correct tire size was installed. Therefore it would definately be neccessary to re-align the vehicle. third if say the right front tire was the wrong size (too Big)and different from the other three, and they aligned the vehicle, it would not pull to the right, it would pull to the opposite side of the oversized tire! Once again shooting holes through Bradley's THEORY! One bit of advise to Bradley: Dont Give advise unless you are 100% sure of the advise you are giving! It doesn't paint a very knowlegible picture of your self, and quite frankly, you lose all creditbility!

Jessica, first off pep boyeez are a rip off. Second, Anytime you play around with the tire and wheel sizes your gonna get different results in your handling, steering etc. Going to bigger wheels is not always a good idea. More on that in a minute. But you say your car was pulling to the right after you had the alignment done. Then you say that you found a bigger tire on the right. Well I think that is your problem. Anytime you have one bigger tire on the car, the car is generally gonna try and pull in that direction. Same if all four tires are not the same tire pressure-car is gonna pull in the direction as the tire with the low pressure.(ever had a flat?) So I would make sure all four of your tires are the same size, then I would make sure theyre all about the same pressure. Then see what kind of handling you get. Chances are pep boyeez arent even rechecking your alignment because 1. they (should) know this, 2. its not gonna make any difference what tires are on the car as far as the alignment goes, and 3. They know you cant "prove" whether they checked the alignment again or not. If you cant get them to make your car stop pulling one way or the other- play with your tire pressure for a temporary fix (that might be the correct solution anyways if there all not the same) its more important to have the two up front and the two in back roughly the same pressure. Then you can let some air out of the side that you want your car to pull to make minor corrections. Then depending on whether your car is front or rear wheel drive you can even play with the pressure in the front or back tires for even more traction/braking tweaks. (But that is a hobby in itself and I dont want to get over your head right now) BUT its important to not have too much or too little. I would say stay between 26-34 pounds to be safe from blowouts and tire damage. If you carry alot of weight or have a truck loaded or suv then I would say at least 30 pounds in all tires. Its been suggested that one of the reasons the explorers tires were blowing out was because the factory recommend 26 pounds in the tires for more traction and other reasons which is not good for interstate driving on a vehicle this heavy. (Plus for awhile they were using the cheapest firestone tires they could find) So this was not a good combination. Tire pressure also plays a part in tire life and ride quality. You want the best of both worlds so you need to know a couple quick rules of thumb. For comfortable city driving you can go with lower pressure,(within the range I said earlier) but on the interstate this will cost you gas mileage and wear on your tires and could even make them blowout(heat buildup from friction) like the explorer story. But too much pressure and you will feel every bump and this is not good for your car and you can easily damage your tires and you can even "pop" them-resulting in rim damage. Speaking of rims, like I said earlier bigger is not always better. This is a cash cow for places like pep boyeez (besides oil, transmission, and coolant "flushes") because not only do they cost alot more, the tires you put on them cost alot more- so its a win/win situation for them. Then when you have a blowout or "curb your rim" you have to buy another one or have it fixed. chi-ching... Plus these huge wheels and lower profile tires will wear all of your suspension components out a lot quicker, so pep boys gets to sell you these too- CHI CHING!!! Just think if you were a runner and I decided to cut off most of the soles of your shoes and told you to go run around 50,000 miles (average life of a tire) How would your joints feel now??? Pep boyeez knows (should) know these things so it is easy for them to try and rip you off when you come in with huge rims or a wing on your car or a lowered vehicle. They think the person is not very knowledgable about cars so it is tempting to try and milk money out of them. Just about any new fad that is manipulated on the public is designed to make somebody some money. Good luck dealing with pep boyeeeeez!