Here's the deal. Finally got the mav on the road. I brought it to precision tune to get an alignment for my new front suspension and a brake inspection (my brother goes there for everything and they know him by name). the dude tells me that all four of my brakes need to be redone or replaced - not that big of a surprise. He tells me that the only way for it not to be dangerous to be on the road is at a minimum to replace the front brake cylinders. Then a bunch of other stuff would have to be replaced on the cylinder in the very near future. He tells me that his wholesale price for them from carquest is $91 each and that his guy at advanced auto found only one on the back shelf in a rotted out box for $50 and that I was lucky to find it (That is "his price" for them - guessing he still planned on marking them up on me after that). I ask him on a scale of 1-10 how hard it would be to replace them myself (my brother is one of his favorite customers and I brought all the mechanics breakfast that morning when they were working on the car so I thought he'd be alil honest). He said it would be a strong 8 on a scale of 1-10 to replace the cylinder after knowing that I just rebuilt the entire front suspension myself and the brake's hydraulic lines and M/C along with several other things. I go to advanced auto parts and find out that the cylinder is readily available from them and is only $14. (I have been working with the same advanced store and same staff all summer). The guy down there tells me that replacing the cylinder for me would be a 0 on the 1-10 scale if anything after the work I've done, without me telling him what the other guy said. That's a big difference in difficulty level and part price. Precision tune also said that you can't convert the rear brakes to disks or replace the brakes that are there in a backyard or home garage. That a shop NEEDS to do it. not just for my car specifically but for my type of car. He said the fronts I could do at home but a shop has to do the rears. I can't imagine all of you guys doing rear brake conversions are having a shop do it.... So getting to what this thread is about.... I don't trust this mechanic with even having done the alignment right (although they were very proud of how well they said they did it). Could you guys check my spec sheet and see if it's ok? It feels alright but I only drove it home from the shop. Afraid to drive the car around until I really know what's wrong with the brakes. Thanks guys. I just want to check these guys and I don't know what is considered ok or not on alignments.
Seems to be in spec now according to their print out. Phill?? I told you to check your whl cyls...LOL... Sounds like he may be right about the wheel cyl condition.Dont know cant see em from here.Is it leaking/wet behind the boot??? You can do em your self...He just didnt want you too...$$$ That shop has some serious overhead to charge you 50 beans for a stinkin wheel cyl. Me thinks your bro has been paying alot for his repairs too. But...Shops gotta make money to meet payroll,keep its mechs trained and up to date,as well as pay bills to keep operating etc... Find a different shop...preferably some little private buisiness as opposed to the chain store shops like Precision tune...Firestone...Sears...Midas...monroe...poop boys...etc... We do our own disc brake swaps becuase we know how too and know whats involved.If we didnt...we would learn or pay someone to do it.Just the way it is man. Call me if you have any problems/questions...Good luck!!!
disc brakes and drum brakes are easy if you know what your doing so grab a friend and he can teach you
grabbed the mechanic two doors down to help me. as soon as I said that they wanted $800 to fix my brakes and he thought it was ridiculous before I even told him what was wrong. Turns out the rear brakes (which they said were completely shot and that I had to replace everything on them and that they had to cut the axle ends off to do it) are fine. Gonna spray some brake cleaner and antisiezing on them while I'm in there. The driver's side front wheel cylinder feels alil moist on the inside of the boot so I'm going to go ahead and replace those on both sides. Still have half of my shoes left on all four, drums don't even need to be turned at all (the shop said that they had to be completely replaced). Going to replace the front shoes, hardware, seals and grease the bearings while I'm in there so I know that I don't have to look at them for a while. $100 bucks in parts. Didn't even need to do all that. I just am because I'm a thorough SOB! lol (yes pete, I should've checked them... but my brakes were tight as hell after the new m/c, new hoses and bleeding. I wasn't leaking any fluid either - well the fluid in my m/c reservoir wasn't going down any from driving and braking. Thought I'd just have the shop check the mechanics of it all. I just need to find the mechanic. ya know?)
If it makes you feel any better, I do brakes and alignments for a living. Your alignment specs look real good. You probably had some serious inside wear especially on the rf though. He obviously don't know how to do brakes and I would not let him touch it again. Cut the axles off??? What a dumbass!! Steve
I'm with the others STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THIS GUY. He's a greedy prick who saw you coming. And with what 69.5 said "Cut the axle ends off?????" No way Jose. I'd shoot to kill if he approached my car.
As a tech I say something smells fishy. Time to look for a new shop. Try a smaller shop and talk to the owner/and or techs. You can tell a lot about people by talking to them before you trust them with your car and money.
I agree with what everyone else has said... DON'T TAKE YOUR CAR BACK THERE!!!!! As far as cutting the axle... Want to make some big money quick? Find their CRACK dealer, get rid of them, and take their place! With him telling you that, he has to have a serious habit!!! If he honestly believes that, I'd hate to see what happens when someone goes there to have the bearings in the rear axle center section replaced! -Scott H.
I work in an Auto Parts store..and we know pretty much every mechanic, shop and backyarder in town! We are always recommending good places to go to people...so ask your friendly neighborhood parts person who they may recommend!
There used to be a guy on 105 Extension behind the old Sheraton at the intersection of 321 who ran a tow service and garage. It's been 20 yrs....but he may still be there. Very honest guy. He replaced a broken camshaft in my old V6 Mustang back about '89 and didn't kill me on the price. Check someone else out. Franchise dealerships such as 'Precision Tune' etc. tend to focus on the newer everyday cars. You may need to find someone who doesn't need a tech book to figure out what a wheel cylinder is. Good luck.
thanks for the advice. This actually happened in raleigh - I've been here for the summer doing an internship. But I'm moving back to boone as soon as the mav is on the road so I will definitely keep that in mind and at least go shoot the sh&% with him for a few if he's still there. Gonna bring my olds up to boone tonight. I was in a rush to get this done cuz my ride back to raleigh to pick up my second car is leaving boone at 3 tomorrow. Apparently my engine is a 250 but my brake system is from a 3.3L 200... the wheel cylinders I got for the 4.1L don't work and the 3.3L ones won't be in until tomorrow morning. Already got the drivers side brakes taken apart before I found out so I guess the olds goes up the mountain first. I wonder if the shoes are also the wrong size. they look like it (the new ones look too big, but they are for 10" front drums on the 4.1L and I measured my drums to be 10". The old shoes are significantly smaller than the new shoes and the new ones don't fit correctly on my backplate lol. The 3.3L shoes are smaller and fit correctly on my backplate and the brakes worked fine yesterday with the 10" drums on there. I am confused. I guess I should Have 9" drums but these one fit right.... Thinking maybe I should switch out the hardware while I'm at it with 3.3L hardware instead of using 4.1L replacements. does this sound normal to any of you guys? The rear brake hose only fits with the one from a 3.3L and not a 4.1L as well. Think I have a 3.3L car and someone dropped a 250 engine in it? Doesn't explain the 10" drums tho and why they grabbed so well yesterday... I'm confused about alot of things right now. Just glad mechanic dude isn't running into these problems. He'd probably want to take a chainsaw to the shoes.
I think the guy needs to be turned in to the local news or BBB at the least. Talking about trying to rip somebody off! $800? Second thought maybe some of us need to get together and pay him a social visit. How many women living pa check to pay check has this guy taken to the cleaners I wonder? clint
that's the thing. I held my tongue with the dude even after checking the prices and difficulty because my brother always goes there and raves about him. So if my bro is getting a good deal then I don't want to ruin it for him or his good time (I think he likes the social aspect of bringing his car in to be worked on to the same people). but he doesn't know anything about cars and is probably getting ripped. Told him about the situation and we'll see if he goes back. He probably will, so I didn't want dude screwing up his car because I went off on him or called him out.
