If there’s one thing I hate to find when working on cars, it’s wheel and hub corrosion. Aluminum and steel have this thing where if they touch, they get all corroded.
An example of what I’m talking about. That white and black stuff around the hub and on the back of the wheel is corrosion.
The problem with corrosion is that when you put the wheel back on and tighten the lug nuts, it may not seat correctly, and cause a vibration when driving. I’ve had two customers come back complaining of vibration after I’ve worked on their car, so now every time there’s noticeable corrosion, I’ll clean it off.
Cleaning them isn’t hard, it just takes a die grinder and a dust mask, but it takes several minutes if there’s a lot of corrosion, and time is really money in this business. But when it comes down it, to preventing comebacks, I think it’s worth the extra time to prevent having to do it later without being paid because the customer had a problem.
-Dan
Mechanical Malarkey 
Plus, if the customer complains about price, you can point out that you actually did extra work that’s not reflected in the price. 🙂 I work as a mechanic at a bicycle shop, and we have similar issues often – small stuff that is better to just take care of, even though it takes a few minutes and the customer hasn’t paid us to do it. It is stressful when there are a lot of bikes to work on though, since you don’t want to spend extra time. I think in the long run I’d rather have the pride of knowing that I went the extra mile with my work, though 🙂
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A lot of times I think the customer does end up spending a couple bucks for it, because I have to get a new grinding disc, and I think the customer gets charged for that. But otherwise it is basically a bonus.
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