Question: Hood alignment/adjustment after tire installation

[BGJ]

Greetings, I took my 94 coupe to Discount Tires about 3 weeks ago. Had a new set of Nittos put on. Car has the factory wheels. When they did the job, they wanted to remove the targa top, pop the rear hatch, hood, and doors. I allowed them to do all except remove the targa roof.

I told them that to me, it would seem that a person should leave all the doors shut, the hatch closed and the hood down when jacking the car. They strongly disagreed with me and "...told me to read the corvette forums that are on the Internet." Well, now I have a real problem getting my hood open.

Should I have made them leave the doors, hatch and hood closed?

Second question is: Is there an adjustment to/for the hood which will allow it to open better now? I have to pull the lever under the dash about 10 times to get it to open...it's very frustrating.

I have to pull the lever, then try lifting the hood. Hood won't open. I then have to repeat that process. I have greased the latches and springs. Everything moves freely and the hood latches look like they release all the way.

 

[hotmtrsports]

I really don't get why they want to touch anything on the car except for the wheels. All they are doing is changing tires???

Open doors? Open rear hatch? Remove top? Lift hood?

I guess I would like to know why the hood is effected when removing and replacing wheels?

Did they mess with anything? Were you there watching them? Did somebody at that shop try to "do you a favor" by adjusting something?

Have you brought it back to them and describe and show the problem?

I want to know the answer to this one!

Chuck M

 

[BGJ]

They said that the older cars have "frame flex" and will cause windshields/targa tops to crack when the car gets jacked/lifted up.

I was there watching them. It didn't look like they adjusted anything. I am going to have to bring it back because it seems like a wheel weight or weights fell off because it also shakes bad now.

 

[hotmtrsports]

On C4's, frame flex happens when all of those things are open, not when they are shut tight.

What of their lift points were not even, that may cause more harm than good with everything opened.

Something was flexed.

Chuck M

 

[gmjunkie]

On C4's, frame flex happens when all of those things are open, not when they are shut tight.

What of their lift points were not even, that may cause more harm than good with everything opened.

Something was flexed.

Chuck M

If you jack them up at the designated lift points,There Won't be a Problem!~!!
But what do I know,I just been jacking them up for over 35+ years and never broke nothing!
(Knock on Wood!~!) :L

 

[hotmtrsports]

gmjunkie:



Do you think that may have happened. Uneven and maybe not using the correct lift points?

Thanks,

Chuck M

 

[gmjunkie]

gmjunkie:



Do you think that may have happened. Uneven and maybe not using the correct lift points?

Thanks,

Chuck M

Anythings possible,but I doubt they twisted the chassis in a permanent way!

If they had the doors open and the targa top on tight,I'd set it on a flat surface and loosen All the top bolts and re-tighten All Top Bolts and go for a test drive down a wash-boarded road! Then see if that fixes the problem before I tried adjusting anything!~!!

 

[boomdriver]

The hood release cables need to be adjusted, along with the guide pins/springs thats all. These cables stretch...lots. The release or the catch has to be 100% clear of the pin to allow the hood to "pop" .

As far as the so called experts at "discount Tire" and other children that work at shops and attempt to "tell" or talk to customers like we're stupid, I've walked out before when some pimple farmer wanted to tell me how and why my car did this or that.

They believe that "F" body or unibody cars MUST have the doors, hatches popped otherwise there will be damage to the body panels.

Most of these people (including managers) are TOO simple to understand that :
A. A corvette is NOT an F-body...rather a Y body car. Its not the typical unibody, but you can;t tell them that.
B. it has very specific lift points
C. its plastic, resin, not sheet metal skin, so it flexes a little

But nooooooo
Some puss faced kid will argue about all that.
Same MORONS had the floor jack squarely under my fuel tank and had the handle going up & down when I ran out there and took it away from them....
Another store with the same mentality employees, NTB ( we know all, customer know nuthin) broke my friggin passenger side floor pan with a floor jack.
Right behind the arrows -> <- to set the jack.

last set of tires I bouht, I carried out and took to a small store that had a tire guy with a brain so he could mount the tires without destroying the car.

 

[John Robinson]

I have jacked my car up with the jack placed just past the mirrors towards the back wheel. When doing this I jack to the full height of the jack and put my jack stands under that side and then go around to the other side and raise the car up and put jack stands under it. All this with nothing open. As Boomdriver said there are those so called experts out there who believe the Joe Smuck who shows up at there door is stupid. I took my car to a transmission specialist who supposedly had been in business for over 30 years and he told me I had a sprag gear problem. When I mentioned that from studying my FSM I did not think so he suddenly was very busy and walked away from me. On to the next 30 plus year expert and he immediately called me a liar when I told him I had a 4l60 in the car. He insisted it was a 4L60E and that I did not know what I was talking about. I then mentioned that it had a tv cable and so he went to look at it. Well at least he did apologize for calling me a liar as I got in and drove away.

Back to your hood problem. I think your hood problem is coincidental to getting your tires or how it was lifted. I do not believe they are related but do think you may have a hood release cable that is about to break. Again as boomdriver has said they tend to stretch but in my experience (with motorcycle cables) they only stretch because the strands are beginning to break.