WTF AUTOZONE!?!?! F'd me over. need help!

[titansarrow]

here's the story:

my alternator had a bit of a whine to it. A few of my mechanic friends said it's an indicator that the bearing may be going. It had a life-time warranty, so i swapped it out (with a re-manufactured one btw). a few days ago (a week after the swap) it started to make that same whine, i thought, awesome. didn't think too much of it other than maybe it wasn't the cause....untill it made a different noise. this new noise sounded directly like bearings, like shaking marbles in a can. I took it back to the guys there to have a listen.

They said it was nothing to worry about, it's just making noise. I knew that was crap. So I let it go for a few more days.

Just a few hours ago, while driving back home, I lost power Steering. I thought, oh wtf? my pump went?? So I just drove it down the road home, didn't have a choice. as we pulled in there was the smell of antifreeze. I'm moving this coming Saturday, so I was pretty pissed this was happening.

I popped the hood to find the the belt off and coolant everywhere. The pulley was so damn loose on the alternator that it caused the belt to kick out of place. since i have a belt driven fan, it wasn't cooling going down the last road, so the coolant was getting hot. plus the belt must have hit the upper hose. so now there is a crack along the plastic near the upper hose connection.

they said they will replace the alternator(it wont be in till tuesday) and belt, "even though something like this isn't normally covered". but they won't do anything about the radiator. i called and left a message at the local corporate office.

here's a video link guys, lemme know what you think. camera phone btw. mp4 w/sound.
View My Video

 

[JDraper]

Sadly, I think you will be out of luck. They are going to come back and say "you should have stopped the truck and checked what was wrong when you lost power steering". And they are correct. If you had stopped at that point and popped the hood, you probably wouldn't have as much damage. Hopefully you didn't overheat the motor and damage it too.

 

[titansarrow]

true, and i agree. but if i had stopped where i was, there would have been an accident. it was only about a 1/4 mile, so i don't think there would be internal damage. ..plus i was in mid-turn lol.

regardless, it wouldn't have happened if the alternator didn't fail, which the manager said it wouldn't. and if i had already hit the road, and was on the highway when this happened, it would be a further matter of safety. correct?

 

[Blee1099]

Sadly they won't budge.. Their warranty says "AUTOZONE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES." A radiator is what $150 or so the last time I checked for a 1st gen. Just go with a different auto parts store and call it a day after you get a different alternator.

 

[titansarrow]

money is the problem right now. the only other option i have is to jb weld over the crack. all of my money has gone to the moving process

 

[Blee1099]

money is the problem right now. the only other option i have is to jb weld over the crack. all of my money has gone to the moving process

Ahh.. You can try a JY for one. You could probably get one for cheap for around $50-75.

 

[titansarrow]

that's true. i'll wait until monday and see if i can get anywhere with the corporate people before i shell out cash i don't have.

it would be different if that guy had said nothing was wrong, it would be even more different if he wasn't the store manager. but when all of this could have been avoided in a 20 minute task, it just pisses me off.

 

[shaggymane]

here's the story:

this new noise sounded directly like bearings, like shaking marbles in a can. I took it back to the guys there to have a listen.

They said it was nothing to worry about, it's just making noise. I knew that was crap. So I let it go for a few more days.

You may very well end up writing this off to a life lesson and paying the price for it but in the above quote is where you went wrong. When your gut calls *bullshit* that's the time to pitch-a-fit. You gotta take care of you.

Gotta wonder about that manager too, not being willing to replace the alt. He's made his position known.

Dealing with things like this is truely a pain in the you know what.

But you aren't out of options if you have the determination pursue it. Small claims court supposedly doesn't allow (corp) lawyers and you have to front the filling fee. (35$ or something)
A lot of times if you get them to think you're seroius about sueing they come around. Drop a hint that you already know what room in the court house to file the suit and what the filing fee is.
Granted this story is not about auto's but..... A guy changes the oil in his new riding mower. See's on the dipstick '8oz of oil' and stops reading, so that's all he puts back in his 12 hp motor. (should hold 1.5 qts) Obvioulsy motor seizes up. He sues. Dealer wants to say no go, becuase it's obvious the owner fVcked up. But Corp caves and decides to pay.

And that life time warrenty is a whole disscussion by itself. Namely you think you're getting a better quality part..........you're not.

I could go on but I'm gonna shut up now.

 

[TheJackal]

That sucks big time. I don't think they're going to do anything more for you but you should've spoken up more when the alternator began making noise and they didn't want to do anything.

I've had bad experiences with remanufactured parts. The ones from Autozone or Advance seem to be really cheaply done and don't last as long as new, either.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

as for your rad, i wounder if short hair fiberglass to fill the crack would work as well. i have heard that if you have a leak in a gas tank, using body putty works. so i wonder if fiberglass would do the same. if someone doesn't however, chime in so he wont wast his time.

 

[TedJ]

Rule #1 of dealing with Autozone: Assume everyone is completely incompetent. What they see on the computer or tell you most likely wrong, and there is nothing you can do about it because their legalese disclaims them from that risk.

First try to go back to autozone and talk with the manager to see if they might toss you a rad. Remember to be firm but not angry, and don't yell or swear at them. You will probably have to work your way up the corporate chain.

TECHNICALLY those end tanks can be taken off the rad and replaced. I say technically because I don't think I have ever seen or heard of it being done, but it is in the service manual. I've got a rad laying outside here, and that end tank is still good on it. (but it leaks badly at the gasket between the core and the tank) Honestly I think its a waste of time though, because your rad looks original and they will all start leaking at those end tanks sooner or later. If you could find someone to install it, I could probably send it to you for my costs to remove and ship it though.

Getting a new one is probably a better choice. I just put one in my truck, I bought Visteon P/N 9340 ($165) from RockAuto (this is for auto trans and a/c, and has two cores). It is IDENTICAL to the Motorcraft ones the dealer sells, minus the Motorcraft label and is $100 cheaper. RockAuto discount code 21096531140802 is good for 5% off too.

 

[Maniak]

Just a heads up.. I had a bad experience with a local autozone (employees were idiots, including the manager).

I wrote an email to them (corp.) and I actually got a call back from the regional manager wanting to know what happened etc.. I wasn't lookign for anything, I just wanted them to know I took my business elsware because the people there didn't know how to find parts becuase they didn't now cars at all.

~Mark

 

[titansarrow]

A good friend of mine told me to take it to regional because of the whole manager thing. I already left a message at the regional office to make my point heard. I expect a call from them monday morning.

and i have already though of the lawyer/sueing threat thing. also I have found (from others experiances(like w/haliburton)) that using technology against them works to your advantage. If i say i'm a member of large forum/blog sites, and I will be sure to make it a publicity pain in the ass for them, they may start to go hmmm.

and i'm not saying i'm not 100% innocent or anything, because I should have told him to fix it when he said it was fine. but it's real easy to put it in my favor:

my gf (who's pregnant) was in the truck at the time the alternator kicked. If we were on the road, heading west....on the highway, this could have been a different story.....in the obituary section. It didn't , obviously lol, but I think i can swing that point.

There was a business class i took in college. one of the first assignments was to make phone calls or right letters and emails to corporate offices, customer support or where ever to various companies. The point being to get free stuff because of [fake] displeasure.

If you talk to the right person, you can make things happen.....and i intend to lol.

thanks for all your support guys. It'll be the last life-time part I buy

 

[boggs1227]

sorry you had so much crap out of auto zone ...on the the norm i never ever try to got auto zone ( only as a last resort) i always goto advance auto and napa ...orielly's ...never been in there other than buying a wix filter for my truck .

 

[nitro71]

My experience with autozone has been reasonably well. Certain stores will be better than others with any auto parts chain. I do like the rewards card deal at auto zone.

If I'm understanding correctly they gave you a replacement alternator with a loose pulley wheel on it? Seems to me that it's not really the employees fault that something in the box was bad. Did they affix the pulley on it? Also, not to be ornery but didn't you notice it was that loose when you put the belt on? Perhaps it was only a little loose when you replaced it and it worked free. Doesn't excuse them for selling you a defective part though.

I would work on their corporate office. Explain how the pulley was on loosely and offer to send them the pics and video. Try to get them to see that it's fair to replace your radiator and anything else that was damaged and maybe they can throw in a gift card for you. : )

 

[BrianDye]

My AutoZone, besides the dumbass slow checkout clerks, is great, pretty quick service, theyre mostly friendly, and they always seem to have what I need, and if not, theyre instantly on the phone with other stores to locate it.

The only prob ive ever had is that my belt tensioner for my 92 was different than what the computer showed so it took a bit, then finally found one for like an f150 I think, and then another time, it took a cashier close to 35 mins to scan my battery to pay for it which was ridiculous

 

[Maniak]

<snip>
If I'm understanding correctly they gave you a replacement alternator with a loose pulley wheel on it? Seems to me that it's not really the employees fault that something in the box was bad. Did they affix the pulley on it? Also, not to be ornery but didn't you notice it was that loose when you put the belt on? Perhaps it was only a little loose when you replaced it and it worked free. Doesn't excuse them for selling you a defective part though.

I would work on their corporate office. Explain how the pulley was on loosely and offer to send them the pics and video. Try to get them to see that it's fair to replace your radiator and anything else that was damaged and maybe they can throw in a gift card for you. : )

From what I read, it wasn't a problem that the part was bad as he noticed it was bad. It was Autozone saying its not bad and that it was normal.

That is similar to why Autozone/checker can't scan your CEL codes anymore (they can let you do it).. They were not only scanning codes but telling people, incorrectly, how to fix the code.

~Mark

 

[titansarrow]

If I'm understanding correctly they gave you a replacement alternator with a loose pulley wheel on it? Seems to me that it's not really the employees fault that something in the box was bad. Did they affix the pulley on it? Also, not to be ornery but didn't you notice it was that loose when you put the belt on? Perhaps it was only a little loose when you replaced it and it worked free. Doesn't excuse them for selling you a defective part though.

the pully wasn't loose to begin with. it is now, which is what caused the belt to pop off. I'm guessing the pulley end is loose from the bearings?? idk. but that was the noise it was making. my urk is that he said it was fine after i told him i was heading on a trip soon...and even more so that he turned out to be the manager. Guessing maybe he was hoping i wouldn't be around his store when it went lol.

and as others have said, i've never had problems with any parts stores. some individuals within them maybe, but not the store or company. I may have a gripe with this particular manager now, but i feel it can be solved buy talking to a superior of his (calmly of course ). And I don't know how much autozone sells a radiator for, but i've found them online for a '91 for about $110 w/ warranty. So I really don't see what the big deal to them would be; I'm not asking for a new motor lol.

 

[geoph1986]

TECHNICALLY those end tanks can be taken off the rad and replaced. I say technically because I don't think I have ever seen or heard of it being done,

The tanks can come off and re-crimped, I've done it many times. It makes it way easier if you rave the special rack to rut the rad in, but not 100% necessary. What you do need, is the special pliers to properly open the crimps and re-crimp it when your done. I guess you could use a screwdriver and vicegrips...

Anyway, to replace the tank, clean and scuff the aluminum rad header, clean and scuff the tank where it meets the aluminum, & clean the gasket. Next mix some 10 minute epoxy apply it to the rad and the tank, put the gasket on the rad header, put the tank down and start crimping doing a couple on one side the doing a couple on the opposite side till you're done.

THIS IS A BAND-AID! In the rad shop I worked in, this type of repair had no warranty. We would tell the client that we would TRY to repair it, and if the repair held it could last a day or forever. The reason is the aluminum only crimps well the first time and it not all that strong to begin with...that's why 9 out of 10 times the crimped rads will leak at the tank seams.

Someone mentioned fiber glass, but I think it would be a bit too rigid for this repair. Before I replaced my rad, I used JB weld (like someone else here mentioned) on the rad tank and it worked for me. They advertise that you can repair cracked engine blocks with it...

 

[TedJ]

That is similar to why Autozone/checker can't scan your CEL codes anymore (they can let you do it).. They were not only scanning codes but telling people, incorrectly, how to fix the code.

~Mark

They did this to one of my buddies with a subaru. Awhile back he had them check it, and he had some codes for EGR. The guy started trying to sell him an egr valve. I took a look at it and it turned out it was not the egr valve at all, but the wacky vacuum transducer that was bad. A couple months later, the cel came on again. He took it to them again, and it was a cat efficiency code. They tried to sell him a cat, but he looked at it and realized he had a rust hole in the flange which he got welded. They are just idiot parts changers, reading off the printout. Who knows how many people replaced the wrong parts.

And as a related story (sorry long post but this is a good one)... I went with him the first time to get the codes checked, and we got there about 20 min before they were closing. The person behind the counter acted like a smart ass and refused to go do it, saying they did not have enough people in the store, it was too late, it was raining, etc. I said fine then give me the scanner, I'll give you the cash it's worth to hold onto while I do it. Blah blah blah, we can't do that, it's not working now. A whole load of BS. We ended up leaving with nothing and wasting gas and time.

I think the root of the problem here is that they have people getting fast-food wages working the counter at a parts store, selling cheap imported parts made at the lowest cost possible. What could go wrong?