So I notice my front passenger tire is starting to scallop a little bit on the outer edge as well as hearing a slight click coming from that side while taking left turns (barely audible with all air and radio off), and I take it into Hendrick Cadillac /Hummer for a free diagnosis. Keep in mind this is an 08 Alpha with 79k that spends most of its time on the road, with responsible wheeling on the beach; in addition, there's no shimmy shake or pull when driving with no hands on the wheel. After a little while, the associate takes me to the back to show me what is wrong with my truck. He tells me that I need both right and left control arms replaced, inner and outer passenger side tie rods, and the passenger wheel bearing was almost gone. I found this to be quite odd for 79k, so I just decided to play along. When I asked if a simple alignment would help, the associate swore up and down that it would just be a waste of money and he wouldn't even do it without replacing the aforementioned parts for the tune of close to $3,000. Becoming a little more heated internally, I decided to play along and ask what the typical tie rod life for the Alphas was, and his response was, "I see tie rods of H3's go out the time at 50k. At this I just had to laugh.
Of course I said thank you, removed his anatomy from my anatomy, and went on down the road with no repair done. Luckily a friend recommended taking it down to an x-nascar mechanic to have him take a look. He refused any payment for his time, but after 30 minutes in the bay, he returned visibly irritated. His response to me was, "There's not a D*** thing wrong with your front end! There's a little bit of play in your inner passenger tie-rod, but nothing that I would even touch in a heavy 4x4. Go down to this shop and get an alignment after you tell them that I sent you."
Needless to say, the other shop took a look at the front end too and just stood there shaking their head at the ludicrousness of Hendrick Cadillac / Hummer's attempted fleecing.
The moral of the story is I got my problem fixed for a $60 alignment instead of Hendrick's $3,000 estimate, and my new friend the mechanic and his crew received a liquid Friday thank you of Jack Daniels and commemorative glasses since he would not accept any payment.
