Damage from Lift at Tire Shop, anyone with a similar experience?

[acamposac1]

Hey Guys, I get my tires at Costco and have them do all the tire related services. Last week I had them rotate my tires. I went to wash my car yesterday, I noticed a new dent/deep scratch on the side skirts right above the rear lift points on both sides of the car. Wasn’t there when I washed my car a week prior the service.

I’m going to put a claim in with Costco, and stop by the store so they can try to figure out how it happened (the manager of the tire center says there’s nothing unusual on their camera recordings, but didn’t see the damage in person yet).

Anyone have any ideas how this could happen or have it happen with their c7? For it to be similar damage on both sides makes it seem lift related.

Left side:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240818/f86eb61f877842a9ada84a0ad23f8ad4.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240818/02269dec4b9fab03c6e70570f84971e6.jpg
Right side:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240818/8c48c42c0f4354adb57fcd8e1b69432c.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20240818/fb0d71a136cdc894120532e8e5d3246c.jpg


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[Avantly]

If they have security video it should show the configuration that the lift was in.
1) If the damage is from the lift arms, I would suspect it is from the parts of the arm circled in blue in the attached picture. If that is the case, I would expect the damage to be slightly forward of the rear lift points (by maybe an inch to a few inches) and to the rear of the front lift points. This is due to the typical configuration of the arms for a car this size, it appears they use Challenger lifts and the front lift arms would be angled forward (causing rear corner to contact body) and vice versa for the rear.
2) You need to inspect the lifting points. They should have covers over them. These covers are NOT meant to be lifted on. Doing so will crush them upward. To lift most all VAG cars made after the early 2010's/late 2000's you use the VAG specific adapters. There is no excuse for any shop not to have them, they barely cost 30 bucks for a set of 4 and allow you to lift almost every VAG vehicle that requires the adapters. If Costco does not have these adapters, or they do and the security video does not show the tech removing the jacking point covers and using the adapters, that is automotive malpractice.
3) The reason that the adapters are critical is because without them installed, you won't just crush the rocker/underbody cover upward, you can also contact the underside of the floor/unibody with the edges of the lift arms. Inspect the area around each lifting point. These adapters bring the contact point with the lift arms down by approximately 1.5-2" which allows the lift arms to clear the underbody cover/unibody edges, and prevents the corners of the telescoping lift arm outboard of the vehicle from contacting the rocker panel.

Claiming that they didn't know adapters were required is invalid. They have been required for a very long time and this is common knowledge amongst technicians who take pride in their work. Not using them is at least a guaranteed distortion of the underbody cover. Not removing the jacking point covers (if yours is equipped) is even worse. They can be removed by hand, they just snap in (unless they have been crushed... Then they, uhh, fall off when you are driving).

[Avantly]

I am looking a little closer and I think I see a little damage to your pinch weld on the underside. If so that is a big hint that they lifted your car from the rocker pinch weld. This is NOT acceptable for these cars, nor is it acceptable for many other cars nowadays. You MUST lift via the reinforced lift point, which is accessed using a lift pad adapter. I'd be making a big enough deal about this that they decide to fix the problem with their service department and don't do this to other people. If you are in the salt belt, that is going to result in rust on the pinch welds which is a bad place to have rust, once a hole develops your entire rocker will dissolve within a couple winters.

[Burkeomatic]

Good luck. I've always had a hard time getting traction on these things. Also, when I was a Mazda tech, folks would blame stuff on us that we didn't come close to doing. Actually, I'm fairly certain they brought their car in with the intent of blaming the damage on us. You've got an uphill battle I'm afraid, but I hope they do you right.

Reminds me of this video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk7fYBw6PfQ

[acamposac1]

If they have security video it should show the configuration that the lift was in.
1) If the damage is from the lift arms, I would suspect it is from the parts of the arm circled in blue in the attached picture. If that is the case, I would expect the damage to be slightly forward of the rear lift points (by maybe an inch to a few inches) and to the rear of the front lift points. This is due to the typical configuration of the arms for a car this size, it appears they use Challenger lifts and the front lift arms would be angled forward (causing rear corner to contact body) and vice versa for the rear.
2) You need to inspect the lifting points. They should have covers over them. These covers are NOT meant to be lifted on. Doing so will crush them upward. To lift most all VAG cars made after the early 2010's/late 2000's you use the VAG specific adapters. There is no excuse for any shop not to have them, they barely cost 30 bucks for a set of 4 and allow you to lift almost every VAG vehicle that requires the adapters. If Costco does not have these adapters, or they do and the security video does not show the tech removing the jacking point covers and using the adapters, that is automotive malpractice.
3) The reason that the adapters are critical is because without them installed, you won't just crush the rocker/underbody cover upward, you can also contact the underside of the floor/unibody with the edges of the lift arms. Inspect the area around each lifting point. These adapters bring the contact point with the lift arms down by approximately 1.5-2" which allows the lift arms to clear the underbody cover/unibody edges, and prevents the corners of the telescoping lift arm outboard of the vehicle from contacting the rocker panel.

Claiming that they didn't know adapters were required is invalid. They have been required for a very long time and this is common knowledge amongst technicians who take pride in their work. Not using them is at least a guaranteed distortion of the underbody cover. Not removing the jacking point covers (if yours is equipped) is even worse. They can be removed by hand, they just snap in (unless they have been crushed... Then they, uhh, fall off when you are driving).

Thanks so much for the detail. I’ll take a look underneath and update you after I stop by the store to fill out a claim. For it to be both sides, it has to be from incorrect operation of the lift imo. Maybe they can show me how they lifted it and I can get the manager to agree it was something they did if it’s obvious.

Regarding the pads, those are still there. I purchased a puck for them specifically when I work on my car so def know what they look like. I think they just didn’t use the properly sized spacers btwn the lift and the pad.


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[acamposac1]

Good luck. I've always had a hard time getting traction on these things. Also, when I was a Mazda tech, folks would blame stuff on us that we didn't come close to doing. Actually, I'm fairly certain they brought their car in with the intent of blaming the damage on us. You've got an uphill battle I'm afraid, but I hope they do you right.

Reminds me of this video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk7fYBw6PfQ

I agree unfortunately. Hoping the manager takes my side when he sees it, or maybe he can try putting it on the lift and see how it could go wrong.


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[Burkeomatic]

I agree unfortunately. Hoping the manager takes my side when he sees it, or maybe he can try putting it on the lift and see how it could go wrong.


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I truly hope you get it fixed, I'm just playing devil's advocate and sharing experiences I've seen working in a shop in the past that may desensitize them to it (although that was 16 years ago). Costco could just not give a crap and give you the money, they're a big company and would probably rather have a customer happily swiping their Costco card than a pissed off one that cancels their account. I buy tires there too, it's the best deal as you get free rotations and the warranty.

Come to think of it, I think I had similar damage on my A7, I had scuffs just like that I had noticed not long after my car was at one of it's rare shop appearances. I didn't notice it right away, and figured it was something I ran over on our famously shitty roads under perpetual construction with FOD all over them. I ran over a desk fan in the corolla today on the highway.

I'm going to buy some lift pads and keep them in my car now. That way, there's no excuse.

[Avantly]

@acamposac1, glad you have the lift pads. Good to hear that some people still RTFM :-)

@Burkeomatic I have had a good customer service experience with my local costco, however I have never dealt with their automotive department, if I don't mount a set of tires myself I will take them to this old man down the street just for his ridiculous stories. I have several versions of the pads, one set for the lift, one set for jack stands, and one that I use on my floor jacks. They are all different brands and all seem to work equally well. Given that the OEM jack just has a nylon cylinder on it that fits up in that spot, I think anything made of rubber and shaped correctly will be quite forgiving and work well no matter what the brand. The ones I have for my floor jacks are slightly shorter (the round part is shorter) than the slot in the jacking point but they still seem to work just fine and I haven't noticed any sort of distortion or other problems because of this.