I had work done on the front right of my panamera at a highly regarded independent. A few months later I got new brakes at the dealership and they pointed out 3 issues from the previous work.

  1. A pickle fork had pierced the ball joint boot on the upper control arm.

2.The tie rod end had been stripped and damaged by a pipe wrench.

  1. The threads on the wheel carrier were stripped where the bottom brake caliper bolt attached and could not be tightened.

They wrote up an estimate and armed with that and the dealership service video I returned to the independent. After a couple of hours they called and told me that they were responsible and would fix it all. New wheel carrier, new upper control arm and new tie rod.

So the tie rod is mostly cosmetic, the shop sends to a sister shop for alignment, and they couldn’t turn the tie rod, stripped the hex, and finally heated it up and went at it with a pipe wrench. The ball joint boot was punctured but not leaking. But the brake caliper bolt couldn’t be tightened and I drove 3000 miles on a road trip with that.

If I hadn’t gone to the dealer I wouldn’t know about any of this. The shop fixed it but only after getting called on it. They have been in business for 28 years. They have a great reputation. Not with me anymore.