Update: I took my car back to Big O and had a talk with the manager who was very helpful and got my boots all fixed up for me. He apologized for the inconvenience and gave me a free oil change for my troubles. Car is fixed, hooray! Perhaps I am getting some satisfaction :-).
Now on to my wife's car, lots of fun times there. The CV Halfshaft boots have been torn for a while, and the tires wearing unevenly in addition to some leaks from somewhere under the hood. I knew it would need some steering stuff replaced before an alignment could be done so I had her take it to Big O Tires for an assessment. They told us the passenger side inner tie rod needed replacement, when I got it home and had a look it certainly did need replacement, as it was pretty loose and popped back and forth when pulled on. I figured I would replace that along with the cv halfshafts and whatever was leaking all at once, so pulled everything apart to get it done.
As it was late and I needed a trip to the store to continue, I figured I would have a look at the EGR system as it was causing the engine to throw codes. So Jenny got in the car and started it up while I tested the vacuum solenoids, egr valve, etc under the hood. As I'm playing with this I hear the power steering pump start to whine...Blake had cranked the steering wheel all the way to one side and kept pulling! Well, lucky me, with the outer tie rod ends disconnected from the steering knuckles, the rack in the the rack and pinion steering overextended and the whole thing started pumping power steering fluid everywhere.
With the cost of seals and boots for the halfshaft being about what it would cost to get a reman unit online, I figured Jenny could drive the truck for a week while we waited for the part. We got the pretty new rack and pinion in about a week and I put it back in with a few hours work, I put on the outer tie rod ends and was pretty happy with my work, everything looked nice.
Everything seemed to go well. Jenny got the alignment done, a transmission flush (it was pretty dirty) and a set of new front tires. I was happy to not have to worry about the car anymore and she was happy knowing she isn't likely to get a flat from the worn-down-to-the-steel-belts front tire.
Then I got home. Being the loving vehicle owner that I am, I wanted to go have a look at the tie rods and see how far off I was in my alignment guess and notice this:
A Twisted boot! So I had put on a reman rack and pinion with brand new boots and they twisted them! I was not happy. So I jack up the car, take of the tire and proceed to straiten the boot. I put a zip tie on it for good measure when I was done, though it didn't really need it:
On to the next side, I could see it was also twisted when I glanced at it but didn't realize the full extent of the problem:
A TORN boot! Now I'm angry! I was willing to accept their poor service, straiten the boots and take my car somewhere else for any service next time, but this is too much. They tore my brand new beautiful boots! Now I have to take it back and hope they play nice on fixing their screwup, oh how I wish I could have done the alignment myself! This is why I do all my own work!
I'll post an update later with the results of my attempt to get it fixed.
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