Should my mechanic pay for these repairs?

[Caribear]

Hi all,

Today we went to our county fair. We were on our way home, DBF was driving. He applied the brake to make a left hand turn, and suddenly the rear passenger brakes started making a horrific noise. It sounded like the whole thing had come loose. We made it home just fine, but every time he would hit the brake it would make a terribly loud grinding/rattling noise. Once we had parked and the car had cooled down a little, I went out and looked at it. On my car you can see the rotor and the brake shoe through the wheel, so I stuck my finger in there and poked at it. I could actually move the whole brake shoe around with my fingers. But the worst part is that I just had my rotors and brake pads replaced at the mechanic's.

So should I ask them to fix this free of charge? I paid them over $500 to replace the brakes and rotors on 7/18, so they would have been the last ones to have messed with it. And unless I am mistaken, brake shoes don't just come loose for no reason - they must have not put it back together correctly. Plus I noticed that the rotors that are supposed to be a month old are rusty, is that right?

I am upset and not sure if I am blowing this out of proportion, but I feel like they should pay to fix this. I also have serious suspicions now that they did not replace my rotors at all, because of the rust. I want to ask them to pay for towing it to the shop (across town) as well as repairing whatever damage may have been caused by the loose brake shoe. Is this unreasonable?

What do you think?



ETA: My car is a 2007 Malibu if it makes a difference.

 

[J-Sanders]

Sounds like your caliper is stuck and has ground down the inside brake pad. Either that or they didn't replace the rear pads and just told you they did. The rotors can and do get a layer of rust on them over night so unless the rust was unusually heavy it isn't anything to worry about. Now did they replace or resurface your rotors? Big difference and can be measured with a caliper *not the same as a brake caliper but they work similarly. Do you know the mechanic well? If so, talk to him/her. If not then I would go to a different shop and not tell them about the first shop and just get an estimate to repair the noise coming from the wheel. Make sense? Do not tell them you already had it fixed at another shop and let them come to their own conclusion as to what is wrong. Then thank them for the estimate to repair and take that back to the original mechanic and without letting him know where you went, proceed to get satisfaction and a repaired car or you will be contacting the local tv station...

Be nice, be firm, be persistent, be victorious!

Jim

 

[puglady]

It sounds an awful lot like a situation we just had in May. Our mechanic had just replaced the rotors and pads in Feb however had not replaced the calipers. We paid for the new calipers however he covered the other parts that needed to be replaced. I would have thought they checked and changed out the calipers when they did the breaks and pads but aparently not. J-Sanders has the right idea to get a free estimate from a 3rd party shop and then go from there armed with your info. Let them look it over and tell you whats wrong. That way you'll be giving them a chance and see what they're going to do for you. If they try to jerk you around you can file a complaint with the BBB. If its a chain (ex: Midas) repair shop you can ask for the owner information and speak with them or call their HQ if you need to. Good luck!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

My first thoughts from what you have said is that the break pad came loose from its metal backing. If so that would be a failure of parts an not error on the shops part. Any respectable shop that did the work though should fix it though at no charge.

The rust is normal. I have to also assume they replaced or rebuilt the calipers to from the price you payed. That is very by the book so a shop that does that, I would assume is a good one. Unless there is something wrong with the calipers or the rotors I never replace them on my cars. There are reasons you should but people dont want to pay $500+ for a break job when they can get it done for less than $100. The shop/tech is not really making any more money off that $500 job than he is on the $100 job. The part store does though. The shop/tech just gets more work to do with the $500 job but the knowledge that is is done right. All the incentive is to do it cheep an fast. Sounds like this is a shop that would rather do it right.


Pictures of the issue would help us tell what actually failed.

 

[Caribear]

Thanks for the replies.

They actually replaced all 4 rotors and all 4 sets of brakes, according to them. I needed the pads replaced and they went ahead and did the rotors too because they said they were "all rusty and beat up." This is a small town repair shop, so I know the head mechanic, but I don't know if I really trust him. For years I have felt that he tends to inflate things. I have never paid less than about $300 for anything I have had done there, even when it was just changing spark plugs. The only reason I go there is because it is in town, and the next closest garage is out in the country which makes it hard to walk home. They also only buy their parts from the NAPA here in town, because they say they can guarantee they're getting quality parts. So whether it's part failure or it wasn't repaired properly, they should take care of it either way.

Is it okay to drive it in this condition? The noise it makes is loud enough to make me not want to move it. But I really would like to take it to a 3rd party and have it checked out, like you have said. That sounds like the best plan of action. I think I would also like to take the tire off here and take a better look at it. DBF looked underneath it last night but said he didn't see anything unusual, but he is not a "car guy" so I don't know if he would know what he was looking at. Not that I know much more than he does. Maybe I can have DBF call one of his friends, I think he knows a few pretty good shade tree mechanics who might be able to come out and look at it.

I will try to take some pictures later, right now you can't see much of anything through the wheel.

Thanks again for the replies, I really do appreciate it.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I would not move it like that. I also would walk miles before I payed $300 to change plugs. Around $50, ($75 with parts) is enough for a complete tune up on most cars.

 

[J-Sanders]

$300 for spark plugs!? Good grief! This is a chevy right not a maserati? Yeah, you need to look hard for a new shop. Rotors from NAPA in Greenville run about 50 for the front and 60 for the rear and the pads are about 15 per set. I am sure he didn't use high performance anything so that being retail he probably paid a good bit less. Got this off the internet in about 5 minutes. So if he replaced all rotors and pads he spent 280 dollars if he bought it at retail pricing. But it sounds to me like the caliper piston is stuck inside the caliper and won't move in and out causing the grinding noise.

Jim

 

[Caribear]

Well we figured out what was going on. We jacked up the car and took off the tire, and found out that the rear bolt that holds the caliper on is missing. Luckily, it's a fairly easy fix and there is no noticeable damage. But now I wonder about the rest of the wheels. Either they didn't tighten it up enough when they put it back together, or they just didn't put it back in.

We called around, and we are going to order a new set of bolts. They should be in tomorrow. We are going to put them in ourselves, then I am going to call and let the head mechanic know what happened. I am also going to let him know that this is the reason that I am not bringing my car back to them again. I will take my car to the guy in the country from now on, even if I have to walk a few miles home. And I think we will check the other wheels just in case.

 

[dewey]

It's $350+ if any shop replaces my plugs and wires because they're a bear to get to...DIY is close to $100 and about 6 hours of frustration laying upside down, along with all the busted knuckles, lol.

Hope you get things worked out fairly with your car.

 

[Spookwriter]

Just saw this post, but yeah..on those cars you really need to
use lock-tight on the caliper mounting bolts. They tend to back
off.

Look closely...a good chance of damage to the new brake pads.

Around here, 80.00 an hour labor is average, $110.00 an hour
on big trucks.

Would I tell my mechanic? Yes.
Would I expect him to adjust my bill? Yes.
Would I be back? Not at that price.