Loving canadian tire today!

[AndyL]

I gotta say thanks to those nice Mechanics at canadian tire... They're absolutely AWESOME!!!

Picked up my new winter beater this week - nice gen2 4runner... Pretty much average on the rot side - but it was really odd how pristine the mechanicals were... Yet the current owner couldn't register it (inherited from family) because it failed the insurance inspection miserably at Canadian tire... Even though it had been serviced religiously at two good toyota dealerships - Not sure if he knows it but he supplied me with all maintenance records back to it's original purchase (including receipt - paid cash!).

CTC says - brakes all shot, needs rotors, drums, seals, lines, blah blah - over 4000$. Maintenance records, New brakes 4 corners, two front lines replaced (along with whole front end rebuild). Previous owner said - went in with brakes, came out without... Empty resevoir... I fill it up - bleed the brakes, work perfectly... Can't find a sign of a weep/leak anywhere... Did someone at CTC try to bleed the brakes without topping up perhaps?

CTC says - tires all shot. Unsafe. Maintenance records - new tires 4 corners when the engine was rebuilt just shy of 10k ago... In 2005... Well 4 year old tires can be a bit dry rotted - I did find a few cracks... But hardly any wear... Really? We're calling those unsafe? (though I did swap on my SR5 rims and nokians for winter anyway).

CTC says - Battery & alternator shot. Maintenance records - replaced with engine rebuild... In 2005... This one puzzled me - gotta admit, until I got fighting with the tailgate, and wondered why the cylinder was rotated... Key broken off in lock - in 'open' position... Hmm 3amp constant draw; yep that'd kill a battery REALLY quick.

:thumbsup: Thanks CTC - a really good truck for cheaper than borscht because you guys do such thorough inspections!

[Taz_Ozechowski]

Maybe the Canadian Tire is different there but i have never had problems with the one in Weyburn.

Taz O

[Cooked Rice]

don't ever bring crap to CT. if you need a inspection there's a few mechanics on here that will do it and won't rip you off.

[Rat Fink]

.

[KO22]

thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheyrrrrrrrrrrre brutal.. pisses me of im going to have to go to them for my federal inspection when I import my car from the states in November... I went there once for a tire repair (stupid nail).. and they told me the nail was way into the back sidewall, and this is back when I knew crap all about cars and tires especially but I had a hunch it was still okay they then went of telling me how my shocks and struts and brakes and other things were messed so I had already had a quote of about $1000... FOR JUST COMING IN TO GET A TIRE REPAIR. Then i just pissed of and called Big O tires down by Chinook Mall and got my tire fixed for $20 and the mechanic there checked everything they said there for me and said everything was better than average.

:thumbsdow

Does anyone know a different place I can go to get a federal inspection.. i really dont want to head back to c tire ever again, $%$ing crooks

[Pollywog]

Hah, thank god I have a guy who does my inspections for $30, warms me of anything wrong ahead of time yet will pass it if it is still safe to be on the road (minor crap like crack in windshield, etc).

CT blows ass, except for taking my used oil and swapping tires.

[Boostn]

According to the riv website it appears Stampede Toyota does inspections. Much better alternative than Canadian Tire.

http://www.riv.ca/RIVInspection.aspx

[Team_Mclaren]

It really doesnt matter where you bring the car in for federal inspection. It takes 2 mins and they dont EVER need to touch the car.

[AndyL]

Heh, well... crap... Brakes turn out to be a weee bit more (course nothing close to what CTC claimed) took a few hours for the brake fluid to pool on the gas tank, then start running down the side, along the seam, to the rear axle...

I love rusted brake lines :) Especially those ones that run on frame rails above gas tanks!

[Pollywog]

Originally posted by AndyL
Heh, well... crap... Brakes turn out to be a weee bit more (course nothing close to what CTC claimed) took a few hours for the brake fluid to pool on the gas tank, then start running down the side, along the seam, to the rear axle...

I love rusted brake lines :) Especially those ones that run on frame rails above gas tanks!
Shit Andy, you aint having the best luck lately man.

[AndyL]

Meh, it was too good to be true for it to be that easy :)

Really not so bad - roll of brake line is cheap, metric fittings are pretty cheap, then it's just a few hours (ok a day) of labour to replace that line front to back...

Lets put it this way - I've spent way more on a replacement used 22RE, this has a rebuilt 22RE and lots more toys :D

[canuckcarguy]

I've used CT for pre-purchase inspections - they devise the best possible shopping list to be used for negotiation with the seller. I've never had the work done there, though.

[2EFNFAST]

How can people take their cars to CT? I see a constant line outside any CT for mechanical work .... surely these people can find a better shop?

[CLiVE]

haha. Great story, at least it worked in your favour.

Never trust CT with any work.

A couple of months ago, I needed a new battery in my Benz. Went to CT, found the correct battery. When I was there I figured, "What they hell, I'll let them do it, no one can screw up a battery install." Save myself the hassle....I was wrong. They installed the battery backwards (positive to negative). Which has caused me all kinds of other problems...alternator, electrics, etc.

This was the "new" Beacon Hill location. :rofl:

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Transp0rt3r]

^^ This is absolutely brutal!!! Whoever did it should have both hands shot !!:whipped: :whipped:

I went to Southland CT to do the Fed. inspection with no problems. Though, federal inspection is a joke :D

[2EFNFAST]

Originally posted by CLiVE
haha. Great story, at least it worked in your favour.

Never trust CT with any work.

A couple of months ago, I needed a new battery in my Benz. Went to CT, found the correct battery. When I was there I figured, "What they hell, I'll let them do it, no one can screw up a battery install." Save myself the hassle....I was wrong. They installed the battery backwards (positive to negative). Which has caused me all kinds of other problems...alternator, electrics, etc.

This was the "new" Beacon Hill location. :rofl:

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

That must have been expensive as all hell to fix? One of my friends did that once and blew out all of his electronics, ignition, etc.. etc... (I guess the car wasn't fused at the battery, i dunno??)

[CLiVE]

Originally posted by 2EFNFAST


That must have been expensive as all hell to fix? One of my friends did that once and blew out all of his electronics, ignition, etc.. etc... (I guess the car wasn't fused at the battery, i dunno??)

Sorry to hi-jack, but.....

Luckily it was a '75 Mercedes, and lacked many of the modern electronics. The car actually started and ran under reverse polarity if you can believe it.

I drove it home, and noticed that my signals, stereo, etc. etc. did not work, and the "alternator" light was on. Popped the hood to see if something was accidentally disconnected during the install, and then noticed the battery was backwards. Installing the battery the right way fixed all of the above issues, with the exception of one fuse, and the alternator light.

Basically it fried the alternator, and one of the fuses. I was lucky.....

Cdn tire refused to admit their mistake. So I said "Screw it". I again reversed polarity on the battery, and I drove the car up there with the battery backwards, and proved it to them. You should have seen their faces.

They replaced the battery and said they found and alternator that "might" fit, and they would do the labour for free if I paid for the part and promised not to call customer service.

I found an alternator myself at 1/2 the cost the quoted me, and did the install myself.

Complained to CT corporate customer service and was given a $50 gift card for my troubles....(still out the cost of an alternator minus a $50 g.c.) :banghead: Total B.S.

[badatusrnames]

^^ You're right, that's complete BS.

[Kloubek]

Just listening to these stories - that's brutal. Though it had nothing to do with C.T., I wanted to share my story...

Two weeks ago I drove to Kamloops with my girlfriend. We took her 98 Corolla. Just past Salmon Arm the engine started making nasty sounds. I pulled over, and in trying to figure out what was wrong with it, checked the oil. Dry. She just bought the car 3 months ago, but somehow it had no oil, and she never checked it like I taught her. Hobbled the car to Sorrento, and it was pretty much dead at that point.

Found a mechanic there who installed a wrecker engine for 2g. It got us back home. A day later, it started misfiring. Found what appeared to be coolant around the spark plugs. Spark plugs were also very worn. Put in some head gasket stop-leak, and new plugs. Car finally ran well, but I'm not sure if it is now due to the head gasket stop-leak, or the plugs. Either way - I should not have had to work on it as soon as we got it. On a whim, my gf checked the oil. (She's learned!) It was 100% dry!! Either we burned off some 3 litres of oil in 700k, or he never put any in when he put the engine in.

Now we don't know if we can even trust this engine to last. Not sure what kind of damage it might have done by running it with no oil, and not sure if we can expect a head gasket problem soon.

Grrrr....

[scat19]

Just wondering what the extra C as in CTC ?

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by scat19
Just wondering what the extra C as in CTC ?

Corporation

[pjamma]

sometimes CTC is good and other days its just a pain to be there...

i know its unfortunate that i came at the wrong time to switch my tires, but this morning as i was in line they had told others that its going to take a day to have winter tires placed on.
i was okay with the wait and told them to phone if the car needs to stay overnight (hopefully i dont get charged for that)

anyways when i told them what i wanted they said "it'll be ready by 12 today" thats pretty good since they told all the others "come back tonight" soo i wait pretty much for about 4hrs and then some other guy comes to me and says "your car is not gonna be there anytime soon it will be ready tonight at 8, do you have a ride home?" and i was thinking "wth you tell me this now?"

plus i noticed they bumped my car to the back of the line...

oh well theres my rant about CTC