maxima owner's life saved
 

ok, this isn't exactly one of those informational threads, but i thought i'd share anyhow. might make you want to get your car checked out after this.

i'd been hearing my brakes squeel on occasion and i noticed very rarely a subtle grinding in the front. i'm no mechanic, or else i would've checked it out myself. i put off having it checked out until today. i told midas to go ahead and do a front end alignment, oil change, and check out the brakes.

maxima owner's life saved. basically no brakes. i hope they didn't just take advantage of a not yet so mechanically inclined, maxima owner. here's the results from midas:

lifetime warranty pads on front wheels, new rotors, new wheel cylinders, bleed brakes, alignment, oil change, and labor... $500.91
this was after i managed to talk them down $100.

i'm just thankful i got it done, at least now i can have a sense of piece of mind.

i think that my life and those in my car are definately worth more than $500, so i consider it the best investment i've ever made. now, whether or not all of this was necessary, might forever remain a secret. i'm happy though.

take care of yourselves, and your max. enjoy the ride.

Re: maxima owner's life saved
 

Your brake pads don't grind to the rotors unless they're completely worn to the metal.. They start squeaking long before that.. you could have saved yourself $500 by just replacing the brake pads the first time you heard them squeak.

Re: Re: maxima owner's life saved
 

then i musta gotten ripped off by midas cause the only ones that squeeked were the rears... :bawling:

midas blows...next time do your own brakes for under 50 dollars for each end.

Re: maxima owner's life saved
 

You got screwed, unfortunately.
Rotors = $75 each, MAXIMUM
Pads = $50/set MAXIMUM
Wheel cylinders, $45 each
that puts you at $280 for parts.
oil change, $25
alignment, $40.
that's $355...
then again, add labor into that and that's about right....

BUT.. had you bought the parts yourself, you would have spent:
Rotors = $35 each
front Pads = $40/set
wheel cylinders = $35 each
Rear brake shoes = $35/set
that's $215, and you could have done the labor in about 2 hours.

Literally
 

Hey, There was a Maxima owner's life saved LITERALLY this past weekend, i was in my buddy's '00 Maxima SE 5spd, and we were waiting to make a U-turn on kind of a busy rd.(a legit U-tirn u were allowed to make one)and some guy on a Harley comes races down and drills straight into the back of the car w/ me sitting in the back, 12G's worth of damage to the back end of my friends max, even tho hats pretty bad...the guy on the bike was even worse, still in the hospital now, but no word on him, and for me, my friend who was driving and my other friend, we r all ok, no major problems, i just have some back pain that im gettin checked out cuz i was theone in the back. all i have to say is just be careful guys, my life was just handed to me this past weekend. alrite, im out, lata guyz, and buckle up, cuz we all were!
-Steve_

Its good you went to somewhere at least. If you heard grinding, there is a good chance the caliper seized up. That can seriously fu*k up your brakes.

Unfortunately calipers are hella expensive as I found out :( .

Grinding doesn't mean seized calipers. The grinding happens when you drive on your current pads so long that there's absolutely no meat left on it and it's down to the metal backing. The metal starts to grind against your rotors, f*cking up your rotors. You will not be able to stop quickly at all no matter how hard you press the brakes it'll just roll until it stops when it wants to.

if you're driving on the highway or other high speed roads like this, i hope you god is with you. if you caused an accident and you're stupid enough to say your brakes failed, possible jail time for your a$$. Why? because your brakes will be checked and they'll see how stupid you are. Its up to you to maintain your brakes, because you didn't, you probably just killed someone. It's a lucky thing the guy who started this thread got his brakes fixed, even if it was for $500..

By the way, whats up with the brake warning light? It didnt come on? Make sure people don't fill your brake fluid cup beyond the max capicity line or your brake light won't warn you when your pads are worn.

hmm, my brake warning light never came on... making me think once more that the repairs were a lil in excess of the necessity. but life is good, i'd rather be livin it than risk crashin n burnin

boring
 

I kind of thought this would involve an actual accident or something..not just a warning to check our brakes. boooooooriiiiiiing

::eek: A. No one will go to jail for brake failure. Now if you where traveling at an unsafe speed that is another story. However if the brakes are gone there would be no skid marks and therefore no case
B. There are other causes of brake grinding than just worn pads

A. You call it brake failure. Is it really failure or just plain stupidity that a new set of brake pads weren't put on? it didn't fail at all. Most of us have only Liability coverage on the insurance, unless your parents do it for you. Liability only covers a certain amount of damage, after that you can personally be sued for the remainding amount. Your car can be taken away and all kinds of sh*t. My sister used to work at an insurance office, so i'm not just speaking out of my a$$.
It's very possible that you can end up in jail for involuntary manslaughter or something if a person dies. If the car is in your parents name, then you end up putting all the sh*t on them. Why do drunk drivers get charged for murder if they hit and kill someone? It wasn't the intention, but regardless, it was the result.

B. Name some. :)

:goofy:

"A. You call it brake failure. Is it really failure or just plain stupidity that a new set of brake pads weren't put on? it didn't fail at all."
You said "If you are stupid enough to say your brakes failed".
I am just going on what you stated.


"Most of us have only Liability coverage on the insurance, unless your parents do it for you."
Pay my own way and I have full coverage.

"Liability only covers a certain amount of damage, after that you can personally be sued for the remainding amount."
Liability covers what ever you pay for it to. Now you may not have enough liability to cover the damage. You may be possibly thinking of Medical coverage ect. "Your car can be taken away and all kinds of sh*t." True

"so i'm not just speaking out of my a$$." You sure?
"It's very possible that you can end up in jail for involuntary manslaughter or something if a person dies."
Not if the car has an inspection sticker and accident was caused by worn pads.

"Why do drunk drivers get charged for murder if they hit and kill someone? It wasn't the intention, but regardless, it was the result." Not quite the same thing but nice try.

" B. Name some. :) " You realy want me to make you look bad?

If someone gets into an accident with severly worn pads as discussed in this thread, and the person then states that he/she was unable to stop because the brakes failed, if someone was seriously injured or killed you can be damn sure your brakes will be inspected. If you let your pads go down to the damn metal, and you kill someone, do you expect that you'll just go free?

Inspection stickers do not mean a damn thing. In NY we only have an emissions test, they don't check anything other than your exhaust emissions.

I have state farm insurance. I was just at the state farm office on friday to discuss how i can lower my insurance. Turns out I can't but the lady explained a few things to me. Liability covers medical bills and damage to people's property/cars. Liability only pays a certain amount for damage. Medical coverage on the other hand which is a part of my liability pays alot more than property damage. My liability covers $10,000 property damage, the medical part of my liability plan covers $50,000 medical bills, then additional money for medical costs once the patient requires it.


As for part B, Yes..name some. :)

Re: maxima owner's life saved
 

I have a 94 maxima and the brakes almost always squeel so I took my car into firestone and they looked it over and gave me a estimate for $600 saying I needed new everything rotor, drum and pads. I told then I was going to price around. Later that day my mechanic friend came over and looked at them for his self and there was nothing wrond with them. In fact they were practically still new. I was ****ed. The moral of the story even a 18yr old can figure out when he's getting screwed.

hmm, squeek = time to replace pads?
I bought mine a few months ago and the guy said he had just got new pads on it. however this guy did very cheap maintence, but he did it ontime. think its squeaking because they're cheap or because they're warn and he lied.
It was really bad but after a few harsh stops i seemed to make it go away but now after a few more it seems to kinda be coming back. its when I first apply the brakes or just lightly apply them, once i hit a certin pressure it stops squiking.
my dad said it could be alittle metal piece they put on the pads so that you know when you have to replace them and he said that my mashing on the brakes probably just bent the little metal thing and didnt do anything to help at all.
whats your guy's input after all its been about 8 years since my dad worked on his own cars and things change. also he's never owned a nissan or never really worked on anything but american. anyway, just need some input.
thanks
MrGone

SUDESH I give up. This is not worth either your time or mine.TRUCE However a little side bet. If you can Show me proof of somebody getting charged for having worn pads, or even a case where a drunk driver was charged with murder (not vehicular homocide or any of that actual murder charges). I will post 4 things that could make a brake related grinding noise.

Cases with bad brakes

http://www.sptimes.com/News/040601/C...es_were_.shtml

http://lawschool.lexis.com/emanuel/w.../crimlaw05.htm
Look at section 2, Section A, subsection 3. If "V" had been killed, "D" would have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

http://www.dawn.com/2002/04/01/local2.htm
Another country, but applies to us regardless.

http://cert.uni-stuttgart.de/archive.../msg00086.html
Excellent source of information

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/news/0,1406,KNS_345,00.html


Drunk Driving Muder Cases

1st Degree murder, Life in prison.
http://www.wral.com/news/589621/

http://www.ago.state.mo.us/102501.htm

http://www.streetbikersunited.com/ne...h_murder.shtml

Convicted of murder for an UNBORN CHILD!
http://www.cwnews.com/Browse/1996/10/2650.htm

I just wanted to state that all of these links I got from Google from just doing a very quick search. You can go look and find many many more. The cases against bad brakes aren't as tough as the cases against drunk drivers but regardless, you're as good of a driver as someone drunk if you have brakes that are worn to the metal. It won't be long before someone will go to jail for this, I stopped searching but Im sure you could find a case where someone was charged for murder because they neglected to fix their brakes.



Now. Back to part B. Four reasons why brakes grind please. :)

I totaly agree with you people should take their brakes seriously.

A litttle to quik but colse enuogh even though only one case was actual murder and only due to a three stikes issue.
Now on to the issue of negligence. Well maybe I won't get into that.

Ok you where close enough.
1. The thin metal shield behind the rotor can get bent and rub against the rotor
2. Bad Parking brake lingage.
3. Bad wheel hubs can cause a brake related grinding
4. I have seen glazed pads.rotors grind

Well..
1. duno if that would be a grinding noise.
2. if your parking brakes are stuck..i dunno..you'd be stupid to hit the gas to make it move..but yea..it should grind or make a squelching noise..in a very bad bad way.
3. dunno
4. thats more like a high pitched hissing squeeling


but anyway..i think we've said our parts.

i say good day to you sir!

:kiss:

save that for your boyfriend. :laugh:

:bawling: Alright that is enough before this thread get's deleted. I am sure the moderator already hate us, since we are two of the biggest *** holes on the board:angel:

my maximas breath (exhaust) smells like cat food.