FallenOne

iTrader: (17)

Well, Lets kick this off with a short story..

My poor Max has an original suspension after almost Half a million miles of My driving.. Shes... Tired.. Recently my father heard the wonderful noises the suspension makes and decided that he would help me to get these issues rectified..

Hub's, Bearings, and Ball joints; on both sides.. Not that they all needed to be replaced but it was time..

So, my dad's new technician who from this point forward will be referred to as Dumbass replaced these things over the course of the last 2 days.. Today after finishing, he comes to my father and tells him that my brakes are completely shot.

Dumbass did this not knowing we had just done brakes all around a little over 6 months ago, as well as not knowing the vehicle was mine and not someone from off the street.

My father who drove the car from his home to the shop was in utter disbelief and went to drive the car himself. In order for them to actually brake, you have to put the pedal to the floor. He than proceeds to tell Dumbass that the vehicle is mine and the brakes were not this way when He drove the car here himself.

Dumbass was stopped in his tracks; apparently he decided to sabotage some portion of my braking system in order to get more time (hes paid book time, not hourly).

We've decided that Dumbass will be out of a job when he finishes un****ing whatever he ****ed up on my vehicle.

TL;DR Technicians will literally **** your **** up in order to get more **** to fix .

Now, Im no where near the vehicle right now as I live close to 70 miles south and have been driving my fathers car.

Now Ill go ahead and assume my master cylinder, and/or brake booster is to blame? Sorry I have no idea what to think at this point...

UPDATE: sounds like whatever dumbass did worked Im having a new master cylinder installed now. Ugh.

UPDATE2: Well, he un****ed whatever he did to my master cylinder, I officially have brakes again. But not before he talked my dad into putting new brakes on the front. He did however have my dad order that master cylinder and told him that he put it in. Until I looked under the hood and saw the exact same master cylinder thats been there since 98. This dudes so fired.

So the final body count, Front Brakes, Front Calipers, Ball joints, Bearings, Hubs; my max resides in my driveway tonight and drives alot better.

Also please notice the link to the FSM has been updated.

BigLou55

iTrader: (6)

brake pedal to the floor I'd say master cylinder, But what he did to sabotage it is what I'd be more interested in.

This reminds me of the time a shop noticed my ABS sensor was BROKEN(I already knew this) in half and tried to convince me that someone broke it and sabotage the abs light because it didnt come on. What they didn't know was that I removed the abs light(I hate that friggin light) until I had to money to get another sensor. So I let them go on about it then came the estimate of repair. He was trying to charge me 275 +Labor for ONE abs sensor(I can get 2 for that price dude). I smiled and declined the repair. I called the stealership and asked how much an abs sensor was and he told me 136(WOW what a BIG difference in price). 2 weeks later my buddy tells me to try a scrapyard so I go and got an abs sensor for 5 bucks, swapped it out, reinstalled the light, it came on at start up and went out. I felt like that shop lost money somewhere and were trying to find a sucker to pay for it, I wasn't about to be THAT GUY.

Kuhn_man

iTrader: (8)

dont think that all technicions are like this just because of one dumbass, alot of us work our a**es off to make a good reputation and then we get people like that guy who puts out a bad name for us all,

ChrisMan287

iTrader: (34)

What a douche.

FallenOne

iTrader: (17)

I cant agree with you more, but in the recent months it has become increasingly hard for us to find decent techs.

beegeezy

iTrader: (3)

I just think that there are fewer honest people out there in general.

vqmaxman

I would only go to the ASE cerified techs or a shop that requires the ASE. I would even go to the dealership eventhough there expensive they do have ase techs and mechs. I know some they get trained off from the techs and go up. I think the brake pedal going down on your car can be anything from a bad master cylinder to having no fluid in the maser cylinder or a bad leaking brake booster/cylinder. I would check out the brake lines for any leaks for fluid and check the brake system for any air in lines that will get your pedals down to the floor without doing anything. I would check the leaks and take bounce test on the 4 sides of the car to check and see if the shocks are leaking or bouncing up/down. I would only replace the wheel hub if the car hums or viberates at speeds. Jack the car up and shake the car down one hand on the 12o'clock and the other on the 6o'clock position. Than do the side-side test one hand on the 9o'clock position and than the other on the 3o'clock position. This will help you with the inner and outer tie-rod check. 12/6 for the ball joint check. To check if your hubs gone bad heres the other way of doing it with the car jacked up car in Neutral you can have a hand on the coilovers and spin the tires you will feel the pulses,if you feel the pulses get a new hub. good luck.

benjie

Dealerships aren't all that good right now either. I took my car to the dealer for an oil change about a year ago. They said they would do an inspection while the car was there. They come back with some things like license plate light is blown and that I need new rear brakes. I go pick up a set and take them to my mechanic. Guess what my brakes weren't even close to being done. A buddy of mine no longer works for that same dealer because one of the owners was trying to have him right up fraudulent documents stating that there was something wrong with a customers car. I always thought the dealer was the last safe haven for getting a trust worthy mechanic with the downside that they cost more but apparently, thats not the case.

Phromethius

Thats kinda the beauty about this forum. I always research the HELL out of any problem I come across and then at that point choose to do it myself or take it somewhere. So that when I do take it to my mechanic, I can "talk shop" a little bit with him and they can fix EXACTLY whats wrong and not touch or worry about anything else.

My mechanic now comes out all greasy with handful of parts to show them to me, "see look, you were right the wheel bearing is shot, see this right here? thats your noise" etc. Its nice to have that relationship with them. They seem less likely to pull stuff over on you.

Max_Gator

Hmmm . . . bet he messed up the brake lines when he did the axles/hubs.

But, what I don't understand was why you allowed him to fix it - now he can say it was whatever.

This is also why I do most of the maintenance on my own car. My favorite story was about 6 mo after I replaced my clutch (myself), the master cylinder went. I don't like to do hydraulics so I took it to the shop.

Idiots didn't bleed the system correctly. I took it back three times and each time they tried to tell me that I needed a new clutch (after driving about 20 mins the clutch became literally unusable) then tried to bleed again.

I actually had a screaming match with one of the managers who kept trying to tell me I needed a new clutch - he couldn't even answer simple questions about WHY I needed one and how a bad clutch could cause my problem (and I don't do screaming matches).

Finally, I took it to another branch of the same company. THEY couldn't bleed it correctly and it happened again. Fortunately, as I was leaving a tech came out and told me to come back the next day and ask him to do it because the rest of the guys are idiots. I did and he fixed it. Turns out he wanted to get special credit with some company big wig who was in town.

But, a caveat - I have had NUMEROUS problems getting parts that fit my car correctly. Especially from Napa. Never get boots/bump stops or front strut plates from them.

asand1

iTrader: (1)

If he's an idiot, he hit the brakes and popped a piston out of the caliper on accident while doing your bearings.
If he's an idiotic douche, he contaminated the fluid intentionally to create work.
If he's a clever crook, he cracked a bleeder and introduced air to the lines, or adjusted the pedal to the bottom for a quick fix.

cashoit

Damn man thats pretty good.

Its hard to find good help these days

Kuhn_man

iTrader: (8)

yeah i know what you mean, i end up doing all the work myself. but when i do end up needing someone to do it for whatever reason i go dealership...i know it costs more but the quality of parts and the ability to question their work/desrtruction is far better and easier than some side shop...but i always look up reviews and comments about a shop before going there... sorry to hear this happend bro

FallenOne

iTrader: (17)

Well, like I said its my dads shop; so its just ****ty that his tech is such a ****in moron.

But they canned him today so all is well.. Turns out this guy has been fired from something like 4 shops in the past 6 months.

Kuhn_man

iTrader: (8)

i thought you ment your dads shop that he normally goes to not his own shop lol

cashoit

Thats F'ed up man.

U take the car to the shop for suspension. It comes back with no brakes.

Smh