After bringing my Cadillac to a well-known Johnston Tire Shop for an alignment, the technician let me know that one of my inner tie rods was loose, and that they couldn't perform the alignment. He recommended Dean's International, which was only about 2 minutes away, and I could safely drive the car there. I was given a warm welcome by Dean, the owner, in the office. I was surprised with the large amount of expensive import cars in the parking lot. I liked how everyone was friendly, not only to me, but each other. After 30 minutes, the car was on the lift, and they tightened the inner tie rod for me. Or so I though. I left and drove the car back to the tire shop to do the alignment again. About a half hour after the car went in, the technician called me over to show me something. Standing under the alignment rack, the alignment tech showed me that the technician at Dean's forgot to tighten the locknut on the outer tie rod after tightening the inner tie rod. They also forgot to tighten the castle nut which holds the outer tie rod to the knuckle, and lastly, didn't install the cotter pin for that nut. The technician grasped the tie rod and moved it up and down a good 2 inches in each direction. It was very loose.
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