john banks

Subaru 7500 mile service this am - asked them to rotate the front and rear wheels for even tyre wear - which they did. After an "experience" with a Ford dealer, I always check tyre pressures after a service before driving away - to say that they have sometimes been an approximation is an understatement. I expected a little more from Subaru, and came away with 33PSI rear and 30PSI front - normally I run 33PSI front and 30PSI rear. My measurements were on a crappy Halfords foot pump. I presumed they had not adjusted the pressures and just swapped the wheels round. So I put the rears down to an indicated 30 and put the fronts back up to 33 in the dealer car park. Just as I am finishing, one of the technicians comes out to ask why I am altering them and emphasises that they were set correctly as part of the service, looking unfortunately at my Halfords foot pump guage. However, he seemed to have little concept of why the rears were reading higher than the fronts (obviously not understanding the difference between random and systematic errors and saying that my foot pump was obviously incorrect). Back we went round to the "calibrated every six months" tyre pressure machine in the service bay and find that the rears were reading at 31PSI and the fronts at 34PSI - so only 1PSI out from indicated which is not bad accuracy for a Halfords tyre guage (assuming the calibrated one was correct). So the moral of my rather lengthy rant is that no matter how good the tyre pressure machine, it is only as good as the idiot operating it. What is slightly alarming is that I was sent merrily on my way originally with rear pressures 5PSI over the Subaru spec and about 3PSI higher than the front when they should be 5PSI or so lower. Also disappointing is the way one of my alloys was scratched and my alarm key fob broken, the former denied the latter admitted as it happened at the desk in front of me. Overall I don't think they are any better than Ford dealers.... no wonder the JD power ratings tumble. It sadly seems that my cars pick up as much damage in the short times the dealers have them as in between, which is a high price to pay for the prized dealer stamps in the service book.

Maybe I am a bit paranoid, but tyre pressure errors are things that kill you and they should be right first time. I don't know how much difference it would make to handling to have 30/33 when you are used to 33/30, but it must be significant?

[This message has been edited by john banks (edited 30 April 2001).]

Jza

I checked mine after i left the dealers having bought the damn thing. 30 in the front, 26 in L R and about 20 in the R R!!!

Buggers!

Jza

NAF

Dodgy

TURBO7379

I bought a Pug 205 diesel once from a ford dealers . I collected it late one evening and I noticed the car pulling to one side . I pulled in and checked the tyre pressures . The LHS front tyre was 10 psi higher than the right . I filled them both to the same pressure but this made it pull even worse to the left . I concluded that they had blown up one tyre to hide a problem with the tracking . I returned the next day and they checked the tracking and said it was OK . I took it to a local tyre depot and they checked it and found the tracking was off ( I seen it myself ) . Went back to the Ford dealers with the bill from the tyre depot for the tracking to get my money back . Not a hope . They said " We could find nothing wrong " . I don't think they checked it at all . Needless to say I've never stood in that dealers again .