Hey all,
Planned on a full brake change for a few weeks now and finally got into this on saturday with a buddy of mine.
Went through the fronts with ease, like usual..
jacked up the rear of the car and started with the driver rear, took us quite a while to get through the install, but finally we got through it, when we got to the drivers side
pulled everything off, and realized the cylinder was bad...went to crappy tire and bought one, brought it home and realized we needed what we found out later to be a female Torx Bit, this is not sold anywhere around the gta, that i could find anyway.
After a day of running around looking for this part, i decided to tow the car to crappy tire on sunday morning. dropped it off at 11:30.
The girlfriend called them back at 3:30 to see if this was ready..
The guy tells her we need new drums, shoes, pads, etc...
So i call the guy back and roasted him on trying to pull a quick one, since everything on there was new.
And said i am on my way in.
show up, he hands me an estimate of 356 bucks!!
I said 356??to do what?
all he needed to do was the left side, remove the old cylinder, put the new cylinder on, install / bleed the brakes and i was off...Can you beleive that?
Anyway i get a manager guy over, and was sooo pissed, so i was almost ready to hop the counter and kick his ass...anyway he said the other guy made lots of mistakes, and would now only be $174, which we signed for.
just got a call from the manager guy and he says.since the brake hose was ceased on to the cylinder, he will need new hose, i was like there should be lots of room to playwhen you cut the cm out of it, he said they cant stretch the hose, bla bla said the pass. side was installed incorrectly, need a cylinder(since they sold me the wrong one the day before)need a full flush , $123 in labour.
before you know it up to $350 bucks again...I supplied 100% of the parts!!
wtf....anyone else go through similar stories with the C Tire franchise!???
Well no offense but they have to make a living to ya know, they cant just charge what it will actually cost them to pay the tech to do the work. The shops has many many bills, a machine called a Scope which most good shops have is $40,000, and OBD II scan tool $4000 for the scan tool, plus a few hundred dollars in new cartridges every two years.
Removing cylinder is usually an easy job, sometimes they are rusted on there and it takes a while to fight with it. Secondly a brake fluid flush needs two people to do, so thats why that cost so much for.
You cant strech brake hoses by the way, he was correct.
Sounds like you just needed some work and sure it did cost you a few bucks, but like I said before the people working on you car need to make money and they have bills to pay to.
- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new
Well of course Shops have bills to pay, But still Canadian tire will sell you more things then you need in parts. I just say dont go back to Canadian tire for any other work. Basically a local mechanic could give you a better rate on labour, Of course some times. Other things can go wrong, Things need to be replaced if they break. Thats how we all learn.
Good Luck
Canadian is crap, they have poor service most times and do sub par work. Most new mechanics start at a Canadian Tire.
It's better to find a reputable shop that you can build up a relationship with.
Ryan1
I've found them to be rip-off artists in the past as well, BUT, them will recommend you change worn parts just to cover their own asses in the event of something happening like a failure in one of the other parts that they did not install, so them merly suggest that you replace it. You are best to find a good mechanic that has his own shop, not a place like Midas or C.T.. Ask around, ask your friends where they go and you can usually find a good, reputable, honest mechanic that you can deal with on an on-going basis.
I personally had my fluid changed at Midas, and had the rear brakes adjusted (to give them some more life, and they really needed it) needless to say, the rear brakes still need adjustment, and the whole ordeal cost like $90 or so, which cost about the same for my dad and I to replace the pads, rotors and calipers, and we even bled the fronts! He recommended having the fluid changed since they could probably bleed it better than we could (Id personally wanna say only one tech did it there) and the rear brakes to have adjusted cost $20, which was quite a bit IMO. When i went in originally for a brake inspection, they were looking at $600 or so to do all of the brakes, and change the fluid, which is nuts! My dad and I did the fronts in less than an hour, and since then the rears still need either adjusting (the parking brake handle needs to come all of the way up to engage) or be replaced, which i think ill do the later when i get a chance.
SHOPS DONT @!#$ RIP YOU OFF THEY DO A @!#$TY JOB NO ONE ESLE WANTS TO DO, BE THANKFUL YOU INGRATES!!!!!!
people who whine about that @!#$ piss me off, if u dont want to pay, do it yourself or walk u bitches.
-Borsty
Id honestly prefer to do my own work... Its things that i cant do that i pay people for.
I wouldn't take a KIA (if I had one) to Crappy Tire. They are the worst place to take a car. You have two options in the GTA:
1. IAC in Mississauga
2. RaceTech in Toronto (This guy KNOWS j-bodies)
BTW, I've never taken
my car to crappy tire, but I've heard nothing but horror stories from others.
Jay
Bah.... just cut the bolt holding the cylinder in off... use a dremel if you have to. Then put a regular bolt on the new cylinder. Way easier. Save you the time, the money, and the headache of Cambodian Tire.
Learning to do this stuff yourself is the best way
<a href="http://www.lenkorules.com/"><img src="http://members.shaw.ca/jlenko/sig/redsig.jpg"></a>
LOL @ Borsty. Take it easy champ, no need to scream like a little girl. Some of us only stated our opinions or experiences on the matter, that's all. Not
ALL shops are rip-offs, so you don't need to be flipping out here. I personally do
ALL my own maintenance and repairs on my car now. When I first bought my Sunfire, I knew nothing about J-Body's, that is why I chose to take it too a shop and that is where my bad experiences came into play.
im sick of @!#$ people complaining everytime they go to the mechanics for anything thinking their gettin ripped off.
-Borsty
Well in this case they were. Just because his girlfriend dropped off the car. He just replaced the front brakes and the told her they needed to be replaced. Which is bs.
And a brake line (not hose) is attached to the W.c.
I do agree with borsty on this: people who whine about that @!#$ piss me off, if u dont want to pay, do it yourself or walk u bitches.
It took me less than an hour to replace a w.c. and bleed the brakes.
My Car
