Costo balanced my Michelins at the 40,000 mark and told me they had cupping that shows that the shocks and struts are bad, and that the lug bolts and nuts are “worn” and should be replaced. I think I know what I’m looking at, and I see no evidence of either. Tires look fine. I bounce the car’s corners and they damp out immediately. The threads on the lugs & nuts look fine (I’ve used anti-seize lube, maybe that looks weird to Costco folks).
It's a 2001 Toyota Sequoia 4WD with 265,000 miles. I’ve had it 8 years & have done all the work on it, including timing belt/water pump replacement. It runs like a dream. Mechanical engineer, worked on cars since 1971.
Do you think the Costco guys are nuts, or am I missing what they see?
Thanks,
--Rob
The employees probably get a spiff on any services they sell you. I would not trust the "mechanics" at Costco to do much of anything. If I buy tires at a chain store (Costco, Wal-Mart, etc.) I take the wheels off the vehicle and bring those over to have the tires mounted and balanced. I don't want their "mechanics" touching my car.
That puzzled me as the rep read off the diagnosis, as Costco doesn't do any of the work they said the car needed. They do tires and batteries, that's all.
That is strange - in that case I would just chalk it up to general incompetence.
"told me they had cupping that shows that the shocks and struts are bad, and that the lug bolts and nuts are “worn” and should be replaced."
"That puzzled me as the rep read off the diagnosis, as Costco doesn't do any of the work they said the car needed. They do tires and batteries, that's all."
Now, THAT had not occurred to me. Maybe they're encouraged to avoid warranty replacements, and sell new tires at full price when possible. They have the lowest prices around... Since they do only those 2 types of work, the techs don't need a wide variety of skills or knowledge (as Chuck suggested, might be general incompetence). Hmmm, I suppose I'll just keep calm and carry on. Today the car went 750 miles across the midwest today without a hitch. Thanks to both of you!
I always buy tires from Costco and yeah they do only tires and batteries and nothing else so no profit in this for them.
Perhaps they are trying to find a reason not to honor the full Michelin tire mileage warranty.?
I can't speak for all Costco locations, but the one I go to I haven't seen any of this kind of tactics from them. On one of my cars a nail went in one of the tires and even though it's in no way related to the quality of the tires, when I took it in for them to fix it they told me instead of doing patch work we'll just give you a new tire for free; and they did. I've always had this type of experience with them and also they don't lose anything when they do warranty replacements; they send it back to the manufacturer/seller and it's their issue so I really don't think they would try to not honor the warranty.
Actually, that's what I would expect from Costco. I think the worker bees have little reason to bilk customers. It might be just one individual technician whose ego is a bit overstuffed or who's expecting a nontechnical customer. In any case, the desk guy had no clue. I won't sweat it. The 70,000 mile tires might last only 50,000 miles or so, but it's a 20-year-old 5,000-pound 4WD, so 50,000 miles is pretty good. No worries!
@FJCruiser2014 I agree with your comments and my initial thoughts were along those same lines. To not honor the Michelin tire warranty does not fit their normal business/service reputation and practices. I was just trying to think of a reason for the Costco techs to diagnose tire and suspension problems that Robulin222 does not agree with and the reason that I placed a question mark after my comment. It would be interesting to know if this particular service department has other similar complaints. Or it could be as the topic starter stated, "or am I missing what they see?"
I also agree with FJCruiser2014. My dad doesn't have problems with the Costco mechanics changing tires for him and they don't rip off their customers with warranty.
Costco just does tires. They have no incentive to lie about things. They can’t even really upsell, since they don’t even sell other services.
And the Costco culture doesn’t seem to be about getting away from warranty work if it is legitimate. The company as a whole has a really good return policy and warranty policy for their electronics.
Next time, take it to another Costco, and see if they give you the same advice. Could be just a one off tech giving his unsolicited opinion.
I bounce the car’s corners and they damp out immediately.
This is not a definitive test. I've had shocks that were completely dead. Puked their guts out and providing no damping whatsoever, and they still passed the bounce test.
I’ve used anti-seize lube
lug nuts should be dry. Never lube them and tighten to spec. I've never had lug nuts seize up.
am I missing what they see?
Who knows. A photo would sure help settle it.
