We just got home from taking The Wifely Unit’s hoopty up to Les Schwab Tire Shop to have a brake inspection done and to get a leaky tire fixed.
The tire had a nail in it and since it has their tires on it, they fixed that for free.
The brake inspection turned into a clusterfuck.
I did the rear brakes on this thing several years ago and she has complained about it squeaking ever since.
My bad, I cheaped out and didn’t replace all the hardware kits and springs.
Anyway, about a week ago they started grinding from the left rear.
After forty plus years of this shit and since now I am all fucked up in the legs with all the clogged arteries, I told her I wasn’t doing it again, hence the trip to Schwabbies.
So after waiting an hour and a half and about ten minutes before they close, this young guy calls me up to discuss the issue.
First off he tells me they couldn’t get the rear drums off and that we need to make an appointment so they can employ someone there who can.
No surprise there, I’m sure as worn out as those brake shoes are and after 250,000+ miles, there is probably a hell of a lip inside those drums and they are probably going to have to use a great big puller on them.
That of course, will completely destroy everything inside.
Par for the course and no real surprise there.
The surprise I did get was when he told me that he couldn’t take the left front wheel off to check the brakes because the inside of the tire was bald.
“”Scuse me?”
Like I said, I’ve been turning wrenches for over forty years now, including two stints at tire shops plus ten years at a dealership.
Needless to say, I have literally pulled off THOUSANDS of tires and wheels and AT NO TIME EVER, did the condition of the tire ever stop me from taking the wheel off.
I’m thinking the fact that it was close to quitting time had more to do with it than anything else.
But still, that was a new one on me.
Can you smell the bullshit?
I can.
So between two new tires, a front end alignment, ( IF, they don’t find something else worn out) and a complete rear brake job, I told The Wife to expect to be paying $1200 AT A MINIMUM.
This on a twenty year old POS with 250,000+ miles on it.
She dumped almost $3,000 into it last year having the timing belt, water pump and valve cover gasket done on it.
The thing is, this damn thing just won’t die and she loves the stupid thing.
This is also the same woman who constantly gives me a massive ration of shit about a certain British car sitting out in the drive way that I have had for over 35 years, that according to her, needs to be sold yesterday.
God forbid I should try to draw any similarities though.
I will buy tires from LS, but that’s it. It’s not the same company since the old man died. I had the studded tires changed out for the summer tires today, and since they are on their own wheels, they call it a tire rotation and it’s a freebie. They want to sell me a front brake job too. But my regular mechanic tells me that they’re just fine for a few thousand miles yet. I just said thanks for the estimate and left it at that.
None of them are. The hire the cheapest labor they can find
Ah, our spousal units—there are days you can barely live with them, and you know you don’t want to live without them. Hang in there; we are all pulling for ya’.
My daughter took her ford escape to les schwab for tires and the “free” brake inspection. They wanted to replace both front rotors, pads, and calipers. They wanted to replace both back rotors, pads, and calipers. I inspected and couldn’t find a thing wrong with the calipers, other than being 9 years old. Front rotors needed replaced, back rotors were okay. Me and my soninlaw did the job in my driveway, for about 1200 bucks less than they were quoted.
Just as a helpful hint, if all seems ok, then replace the hoses.
Hoses rot from the inside, 10 yrs is long enough, it will collapse and leave you with a siezed caliper.
I know.
daddy-o
“The inside of the tire is bald”. What The Actual Fuck does that mean? the sidewall?
how did this person get hired at a tire shop?
Are there no local auto shops near you that are mostly reliable?
“The thing is, this damn thing just won’t die and she loves the stupid thing.”
Sounds like the little ’78 Subaru coupe my Mom had. Towards the end, I had it holding together with spit, glue, JB Weld, pop rivets and sheet metal screws.
It’s probably running around the junkyard today.
understaffed, underskilled but yet encouraged to over charge the customer
nobody touches my shit unless its under warranty at a dealer or it’s just way beyond my abilities
frustrating for sure, go somewhere else
I’m betting the lawsuits they’ve lost in recent years is the culprit here.
They can’t take the bald tire off, because then they become responsible for putting an ‘unsafe’ tire back on.
You might have something there.
Years ago I had Schwab do a front end alignment on my now deceased ’89 Ford 250 4wd. The one with the funky twin beam front axle ( I was looking for a solid front axle out of a F 350). They neglected to tighten the clamps on the tie rod and when I hit an unseen large bump out on a dirt road in bumphuque central Nevada, the tires went outward. Did an eyeball re alignment out in the desert and headed home. The front tires were shot when I got home. They wouldn’t make good on their mistake. Big O tires became my go to place from then on.
I’ve had good times with The Schwabbie for over 40 years, but the only things I have them do is mount/balance/align tires. I was told once that they couldn’t do the alignment due to excessive wear, so I drove it home and replaced the front end because everything WAS worn out. When I went back to them, they complemented me on the job I did, and also said they barely had to tweak on the tie rods because I just about got it bang on when I did the tie rods.
Gee, it’s not like I knew what I was doing… and now more than ever I don’t trust “those youngsters” work.
P.S. – When necessary, I take my Beaver motor coach to the truck Schwabbie guys because it’s a Gillig chassis/running gear, and they likewise tell me when something needs to be replaced. There’s no way in hell they have the parts, so I call the Gillig factory and get the parts from them. Yes, they still have parts after 40 years!! I just don’t have the heavy duty lifts and air tools for the Big Stuff,,,
I know the Les Schwab guys here, and they always treat me right. They are, though, risk/lawsuit averse. I blew a tire after it ran over a pair of needle nosed pliers someone lost in the roadway at night. No saving that tire.
Since I had seen this movie before, I swapped out the tire with the spare, (it’s a Jeep), and went to get an exact match. They sold me one. If I hadn’t had the spare put on, they would have insisted that I buy two tires, so that the wear on the tires matched.
I got the new one and put it in place of the blown one and have it in the five tire rotation that I do.
No calamity has yet befallen me because of this.
Phil, I bet they know you drive a Dodge. I’ll just leave it at that.
Sounds like the tech either doesn’t understand how to push the cable lever off the star wheel to back off the adjuster, or the adjuster is rusted up enough to not allow the star wheel to back up on the exposed threads. Might not understand left and right hand thread in that application.
The odds are that if they resort to using a puller, they will do some expensive damage.
Be aware that new Chinesium drums can be wildly out of balance now. The idiots are making the drum out of two parts, and not centering the faceplate to the cylindrical part when they weld it together. Then they cut the inside brakeshoe working surface to match the faceplate hole pattern, and the cylinder ends up with a variable wall thickness.
There is so much mass involved that there is no practical way to add weight to the face to balance the assembly.
The effect is similar to an out-of-round tire or a tire that is out of spec for balance, or both. The vehicle will shake at freeway speeds.
One nasty potential is having a drum cut for a couple brake jobs, and having the drum shatter after it gets cut too thin, but still is within the max dia spec. That cut spec is predicated on a one piece drum, not the current garbage. Get one of those butchered drums hot going down a mountain road, and hit a water puddle, and I would not be surprised to see it shatter. I’ve seen a brake rotor shatter from heat differential, and the damage was spectacular when broken rotating parts suddenly impacted stationary pieces. Even the wheel was damaged. Vehicle control will be a crapshoot in this situation.
Years ago in a galaxy far away, I worked for Les Schwab. Neither the shop nor the individual were trying to pull one over on you. Quite the opposite, they were making certain you could drive home or explore other options if need be. That is because the law says they can’t put an unsafe tire back on. The moment they take one lug nut off, they are committing you to buying.
A lot of people can’t afford tires at the drop of a hat. He was trying to do you a solid and give you an out if the budget did not include tires this month. I have done it myself, more than once.
Most people are grateful…