has anyone come across people in to auto industry who dont really know stuff that they probably should know??

I had a set of new tyres put onto my telstar tx5 ghia today at bridgestone at castle hill, and during my 1 hour wait i was looking through some of the little brochures they have and i asked them about the cost of some wheels and the guy at the counter phoned the company to find out and neither he or the person on the phone had ANY idea of the offset of a nissan 4 stud pattern..i had to tell them!!! the guy at the counter seemed a little embarrased by that fact too!

has this happened to anyone else. As far as i am concerned if you work in the industry you should have a rough idea of these things!

Its pretty hard to have a 'rough' idea of every offset of every model, especially when a 'rough' guess really isn't good enough.

They should have a fitment book with the various offsets/pcds though.




What is the Offset of a nissan 4stud anyway?

I'm in the auto industry, I have a Nissan with a 4 stud pattern and I have no idea what the offset is.
I don't think 99.9% of all the people in the auto industry know or care about the offset of a Nissan with a 4 stud pattern.

I do, however, find it annoying when people in ANY industry don't really know stuff that they probably should know.

If Kirsty means PCD then they should know off the top of their head as 4-1/2" is quite likely the most common PCD in the industry.

Dodge & Plymouth have been using it since 1932 & Ford fell in line in 1949 along with many others.
Both Nissn & Toyota also used it widely, but with 4 studs instead of 5.

As for wheel offsets, well that's different as each make & model has it's own & they differ within a single model with the different wheel options available for each car.

Like White Sedan said, they should have it in a reference book or in the database in their computer.

ah yes there i am corrected by Dodgeman....yes the PCD is what i meant..for some reason i always get the 2 mixed up. but at the time i knew what i was talking about...as i had been discussing it not long ago with luke..who told me what each one actually was.

Luke's a genius i'm just lucky that i married someone who's smarter then me!!

What annoys me more is when you end up paying for a mechanics troubleshooting/problem solving.

Theres a problem with the car, they change one thing and charge you for it....doesn't fix the problem, they change something else - and charge you for it - which also doesn't fix the problem.

They don't seem to understand I'm not paying them to change parts of the car at random and charge me for it - they are getting payed to fix the problem!

(Having an ongoing issue with my gf's corolla) - grinding noise when the cars rolling, have changed both driveshafts and wheel bearings, and brake pads....noise still there!!!!

Should maybe sell it and get her a Datsun. Has the mechanic actually taken it for a drive with you in it ?

Thats why I do all the work myself, on my home, car, I really don't like trusting people to do the right thing by me when they are trying to make money out of it.

I have figured i can buy the proper trade tools, do the work, learn a lot from the experience and save myself wads of money, if it all goes to sh*t then I only have myself to blame and then theres self satisfaction... people rely too much on others these days.

Yeah - I point out the noise, he says "It's XXXXX" - fixes it, says the noise is now gone, I drive it, noise is there.

At third time back I've cracked it, now I don't pay a cent if the noise isn't gone.

It needed new shafts and one bearing was stuffed - so I didn't mind too much paying for it.

But when I last took it back, he changed the brake pads and said he'd fixed the noise - I cracked it a bit then as even I can change pads, and get them cheaper than trade anyway! (Payed half for them as it saved me the trouble) - but still no car fixed.

Is is a small driveshaft place in Clayton - if I'd wanted it fixed properly I probably should have taken it to either a dealer or a reputable Toyota mechanic.

I don't pay for mechanics to learn on the job, I pay them to be able to know the problem and fix it first time.

I can just change stuff and see if it fixes it, but with a daily driver - I can't leave it up in the air for a week like the race car....(try years) - so have to pay someone else to do it.

yeah whats the worst you can do really. Persistence is the key. You wont beat me I have Big Hammers so behave. HA HA had a day on the Automotive Acrylics Feeling A Little Light On My Feet