Lost confidence in dealership service

Exactly, that's what I mentioned in my post.... they had to have had them off during the inspection. That should flag the technician to make a note to confirm the key is with the car or if it's missing BEFORE it goes up for sale.

 

My daughter managed to dump hers when the trans issue began to surface, my neighbor had his repaired at a trans specialist for $3500 as it was just past warranty. Inspecting pad life and rotor condition on most applications does not require wheel removal.

 

If you don't take the wheel off, how could you measure rotor thickness with a caliper or set up a gauge to check for rotor run-out?

 

Although you are correct, nobody does it. Generally, mechanics are looking at friction material thickness.

 

Time is $. Generally, when an operation can eyeball what's left, determine no significant scoring, it's not clearly leaking, and it doesn't test drive problematically they're done with that portion of the inspection. Locking, stripped and broken wheel nuts are removed with a socket tool designed for that purpose (there's no such thing as a master key, some lost can be replaced). Tire service guy at Wallmart used the impact when attempting to remove neighbors locking on a Honda and broke the key and sent them away claiming there was nothing they could do for them. We could have replaced the key through Honda but we removed them and did not replace.

 

Actually, that's not true. Back in the old days when there were few mag locks (mainly McGard), we had a tool that basically clamped onto the outside of the lock and removed it. Nowadays there are so many different locks, you need master key "kits". You can buy them everywhere including Amazon. Of course if you don't mind damaging the lock there are several removal tools available on the market.

 

I stand corrected (good to know but would leave most with 1 or 2 doz extra unnecessary pcs.) Many can be replaced individually. I'm into my method (kit) for about $20 and it's somewhat universal. Saw a guy power washing his BMW today (have seen others doing this). Can't be a good idea?