Ok, I'm sure that I'm not the only one that has experienced this...

<rant>
So I come out of work yesterday, and I have a flat tire... dead flat, rim on the ground, and won't hold air. And a front tire at that, very rare in my experience... plus I ruined the sidewall driving to work earlier when it was partially flat (realized that in hindsight). After a couple hours of phone calls and lugnut wrenches, I am driving home with a nearly identical replacement tire... and I'm satisified for at least 60 seconds. Because THEN I start to hear a suspension knocking that I think is a shot strut (on a car with under 55K miles?)... never heard such a sound, and *poof* there it is like magic 5 minutes after I leave the shop

What is the deal with that mechanical "domino effect"?! It seems like every time I hand my car over to a "professional", mysterious new problems develop soon after. </rant>

Thanks for listening, and feel free to express your likenesses or dislikenesses.

been there man just like when i replaced my harmonic balancer, the water pump went out, and the alternator went out.

Similar experiences

When I made my trip to NH last fall, my rad died the day before: $1000 bux, then...one day before I was supposed to leave for Syracuse, my ETCBM wonked out...(turned out to be a bad connection but still)

Cars are weird like that.

Or when I say stuff like "Oh ya the car is running great!" bam! push on the pedal....no brakes

here is my conclusion on some things on a car like with my experience. the car was used to running with a bad balancer and then when the new one was installed there was extra strain on the other pullies since the new balancer added to the load strength of the belt. this contributed to the other parts going out.

Don't talk to me about the "professional/dealer domino effect".

1 Accident..... 1 damaged bumper...
=6 trips to dealer = various broken other things (eg antenna by dealer)
=very pissed off me

See, I knew you guys would understand.

my sons car had to be taken to 4 different shops (one of which was a dealership) and only the last place was actually able to fix the problem. I wound up spending about $700 and one of the places did far more damage than was called for.