Jerry's has the parts, the knowledge and about as importantly as anything, a willingness to help…read moreyou figure out your auto-related problem AND find a solution.
The backstory:
Had an incessant rattling from my car's rear passenger side; been driving me nuts for about 2 months. My car was turned into a giant speaker and just about every road vibration transferred those vibrations, amplified by my car's body into the air-space of the cabin.
Virtually every and any bump, small, large, in-between, resonated through my car's interior and hammered my brain.
Had to have a front end alignment (won't name the shop, but i'll not go back) about a week ago and was told that my right, rear shock absorber was bad as the tech did the bounce test in front of me (the absorber responded as it should; down/up/settle...so that wasn't the problem) and said this was the cause of the noise.
So i contacted the online supplier to process a warranty claim on the roughly 5-mo old shock (i replaced both rear shocks while replacing all four rotors/calipers/pads as well as front-end swaybar links) and, 2-days later, had the new shock in-hand.
The current situation:
Earlier today, i jacked up my car, changed the oil and also removed that offending shock.
The car's shock mount attaches to the car's body via the upper, inside of the wheel well, and gives the "rod" portion of a shock a place for the threaded tip to get nutted up. The main (lower) shock body utilizes a single long bolt and affixes below the brake assembly, behind the wheel.
POINT IS...what i discovered is the shock piston/rod's threaded head/nut had loosened ever so slightly and was no longer snug against the shock mount.
Confirmed the shock worked fine by standing it side-by-side next to the new shock, pressed both hand and watched them extend at exactly the same rate, with the same amount of travel.
Quickly deduced the source of the infernal racket was the tiny bit of wiggle between the rod and the mount. All things being metal, every little vibration did what i've already described...but now my issue was how to get the countersunk nut tightened further while still being able to hold steady the shock rod. Don't want to mar that rod with toothed grips, or risk jacking up the precision necessary for smooth operation.
Put a socket on the nut and now the top of the rod is covered, and the top has about a 5/8" two-sided flat, presumably for gripping. Uhhh...
Called a local chain auto parts store to see if they rent the "special tool" necessary to change shock absorbers in Chevrolet. They weren't able to even verify what i was saying (i'd already looked it up online through GM parts directly) but did recommend Jerry's.
To make my short story (haha) even longer, i took both the new shock and the existing shock/mount arrangement to Jerry's (yes, in a different car!), walked in, described what was going on, what i was told, what i discovered and what i suspected to be both the issue and the remedy.
Jerry didn't have the tool, but he did say something along the lines of "let me see that for a minute..." which i did, and he took it back into the recesses of the stocked parts area.
About 4 minutes later, Jerry came out with my shock and the mount now cinched tightly against the top of that rod's nut!
We both knew this would be the remedy; I asked what i owed and Jerry said "you don't owe anything." I asked how he got that nut snugged up on the rod's head, and he said he'd just reached up under that mount with a pair of vice grips (the shock's travel doesn't go that far up the rod, so no worries about marring the smooth, rod surface) and used an impact wrench to torque on the nut. He bloodied a finger, too!
Wow!!! Maybe this isn't a big deal to anyone else, maybe i amplified the exchange due to the major amount of ongoing aggravation i had driving a car that -while in motion- for weeks now sounded like someone was firing a machine-gun inside the car...IDK.
What i DO know is, Jerry didn't have to do anything really other than tell me they don't carry that tool, and send me back out the door to continue my search.
BUT HE DIDN'T!! He took about 5 minutes total from his day, utilized his knowledge, available tools, and obvious general interest in helping his (potential) customers find a solution to why they're there to begin with.
I've never been into Jerry's before, but i WILL go there moving forward for any of my locally sourced auto needs.
Oh yeah, so if you've made the novel read this far, you may wonder how it ended up.
I got home and within 10 minutes, had the shock/mount i'd pulled earlier, back on the car. Raised it off the jack stands, returned my wheel & lugs, lowered the car, opened the garage door (it's 25 degrees outside) and drove out my car.
The sound of silence inside the car was deafening!!
Couldn't be more pleased with Jerry's!!! Highly recommend you visit Jerry when next your car gives you trouble and you're the kind of person who works on their own autos.
