Got truck back from dealer service with 25 extra miles

[SMR]

Went in for oil change, rear brakes,  rear seals replaced, oil change. They had the truck Mon and I picked up on Friday,  the big truck mechanic was busy so they worked it in.
Picked it up with 25 more miles on the odometer,  does this sound right?

 

[Roy M]

Sounds excessive for a road test. Did somebody use it as a parts chaser?

 

[Boat Addict]

Well did you notice any difference in your gas gauge?  I took my truck in for a full set of brakes and they had a machine that turns rotors on the vehicle. It spins and spins and spins with it up in the air, of course turning the drive shaft in the same time. I wonder if this had anything to do with the extra miles. Just a thought,, I never paid attention to the miles when I picked it up . I waited for it to be done, hince the reason I saw the method.

 

[SMR]

Or took it home, it was a Ford dealership,  I would think they would have thier own parts trucks. I'll call in the am and get the run around.  LOL
They did turn the rotors. Hopefully that explains it, I figured they would remove them. Can't remember where the fuel guage was at.

 

[Boat Addict]

My truck is a Ford too and it was at the dealership.

 

[Isaac-1]

It does sound excessive to me too, though these days it seems one is lucky just to get the job done at dealers, or any auto repair shop.  I just had to order a part to fix my car myself (part arrived today) because a local shop installed the wrong part last year.  I even told them at the time to use the genuine brand name part, and not a generic because the generic is failure prone.  Guess what it failed again 3 days ago, this time I had time to deal with it myself, and sure enough it was the generic brand part.

It seems over and over again, I deal with such things, a few years ago I took a car in to get the fuel pump replaced.  Came back 4 days later to pick the car up, and was presented with a $75 diagnostic fee, and was told their was nothing wrong with the fuel pump.  I refused to pay it and threw a fit, had them get the general manager, etc.  As I did NOT bring it in to get their advice on what the problem was, I brought it in to get a specified part changed, which they did not do even though they kept my car the whole week.  Of course changing the fuel pump solved the problem, as I knew it would as that was the 3rd fuel pump I had been through on that car in about 120,000 miles.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

When I replace brakes I bed/seat the new pads.  Doesn't take 25 miles of driving though.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[84southwind]

Turning the rear rotors should not put any miles on a vehicle newer than 2005 as the speedo/odometer is electric; key not on - no mileage so it had to be driven, bedding the brakes should not take anymore than about 5 miles.

 

[Prior member]

No it does not sound right !
Three or four miles OK, but that is way too much
I would complain and find a different shop in the future

Jack L

 

[Old_Crow]

I always tried to limit my test drives to around 5 miles unless there was a problem that took further to diagnose. 

Was there any weird problem that might have required multiple test drives?  Some shops assign different techs to different parts of the job(one guy does the brakes, one guy does the tune up, one guy replaces the bearings...).  Stack a couple of different jobs, or find a problem with the brakes and have to open it up again, and you could have it test driven several times during a visit.
I also worked at a shop once where the shop foreman test drove every vehicle to verify the fix after the tech got done with it.

I had my Jeep worked on last month and the shop owner took me home in it.  Asked if I minded if he stopped at the parts store on the way back to the shop.  It was on the way back to his shop, so I would have never known, but it was nice of him to ask.

 

[steveblonde]

Turning the rear drums should not put any miles on a vehicle newer than 2005 as the speedo/odometer is electric; key not on - no mileage so it had to be driven, bedding the brakes should not take anymore than about 5 miles.

Drums ? Lol

 

[84southwind]

Drums ? Lol

Caught my mistake, but do not get the impression that all trucks have rear rotors as some still do have drums but of course you can not turn them on the vehicle.

 

[steveblonde]

Obviously drums are still on semi tractors but they havent been on a Ford or Gm in years are they still on a Ram? And of course they are still on motor homes

 

[Goodspike]

Obviously drums are still on semi tractors but they havent been on a Ford or Gm in years are they still on a Ram? And of course they are still on motor homes

They're apparently still on Toyota Tacomas, unless that changed this year.

 

[Domo]

Of course 25 is excessive - anyone trying to justify it via turning rotors (which is done on a lathe - not on the vehicle) or force balance (spin) of the wheels on the vehicle (done in about 15 seconds of rotation - certainly not 25 miles) is just grasping at smoke. I'd tend to think someone kept "road testing" during the week - probably to get home or to get the lunch order for the shop each day - or, to be generous, it could have been used to pick up the parts for YOUR repairs.


The true bottom line is; did the work get done and does the vehicle seem better.


If you really want to know if it's a good repair shop try asking THEM why it has 25 more miles. I would hope the answer is that the shop manager took it home each night so it would be safe and wouldn't sit on the lot plus they got to verify each day's work was done well.


If they simply say "road test" then if everything is working - feel lucky since they tested the heck out of it.

 

[Boat Addict]

Of course 25 is excessive - anyone trying to justify it via turning rotors (which is done on a lathe - not on the vehicle) or force balance (spin) of the wheels on the vehicle (done in about 15 seconds of rotation - certainly not 25 miles) is just grasping at smoke. I'd tend to think someone kept "road testing" during the week - probably to get home or to get the lunch order for the shop each day - or, to be generous, it could have been used to pick up the parts for YOUR repairs.


The true bottom line is; did the work get done and does the vehicle seem better.


If you really want to know if it's a good repair shop try asking THEM why it has 25 more miles. I would hope the answer is that the shop manager took it home each night so it would be safe and wouldn't sit on the lot plus they got to verify each day's work was done well.


If they simply say "road test" then if everything is working - feel lucky since they tested the heck out of it.

I don't know what brought about your snide remark and I have no idea how the miles got on his vehicle, but all I did was to speculate after witnessing for myself the new age method that dealers are now using to turn rotors. Maybe spend more time getting up to speed watching you tube and you can experience rotors being turned on vehicles. The rotors turn a few times indeed. If his mileage requires electronics to operate, maybe if the switch was left on after having to turn it on to put the transmission in neutral,, who knows,

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=turn+rotors+on+truck+you+tube&docid=608025309262119439&mid=83E0A7E14EF77D321C9083E0A7E14EF77D321C90&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

 

[Old_Crow]

Of course 25 is excessive - anyone trying to justify it via turning rotors (which is done on a lathe - not on the vehicle)

Not sure where you worked, but at least 2 of the shops I've worked for in my career had the equipment to turn the rotors on the car.

 

[steveblonde]

Not sure where you worked, but at least 2 of the shops I've worked for in my career had the equipment to turn the rotors on the car.

Depending where you work a lot of shops wont turn rotors anymore they would rather replace them a) becauae its time prohibitive and b) because a lot of aftermarket rotors are so thin that they cant me milled. And unless your using good quslity rotors its cheaper to replace.

But after thinking about the original post a bit seating the brakes can takeca bit especially the rear rotors so im thinking the 25 miles may not be a big deal if the dealership is really concerned about doing a proper job.

 

[John From Detroit]

Oil seals and rear brakes they very likely took it for one or more test drives.  I know they put several miles on my car when they did the brake job  (like 5) then pulled in made some adjustments and did about 5 more.. And that was just brakes... You had other jobs where test drive is indicated as well.

Multiple in and outs of the shop as well

Still 25 miles is a bit.  excessive. but not all that much.

 

[Goodspike]

I wouldn't be too worried, except for this: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpFzfdP-syI&ab_channel=MoviQuotes