Walked into a dealership shop and saw a lift holding a Corolla with zip ties on the control arm

Was picking up parts at the Toyota dealer near my shop in Phoenix. Looked over at their service bay and saw a car up on a lift with zip ties holding the lower control arm in place. Not a temp fix for the road, like they were actually doing work with it. I asked the service writer what was up and he just shrugged and said "factory training day." Has anyone else seen dealership techs do stuff that would get you laughed out of an independent shop?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordanc3214d ago

Is it possible the zip ties weren't actually holding anything structural and were just a safety backup while the tech waited for a new bolt to come in from parts? In my experience, some dealerships have this weird culture where they'll do whatever it takes to keep a car moving through the service line, even if it looks janky to an outsider. I've seen techs use wire to hold a heat shield in place on a Prius just so it wouldn't rattle while the customer waited for a weld job. It's not right, but it's a shortcut born from pressure, not necessarily incompetence. The factory training day excuse sounds like a cop out, but maybe the kid had a brain fart and the zip tie was his panic move to stop the arm from sagging.

the_cameron14d ago

Man @jordanc32, I had a tech use zip ties on my F-150's brake line once and it held for TWO YEARS before I finally fixed it right.