I'm fairly knowlegeable about cars and do much of my own mechanic work, but for lack of a lift and air tools I needed someone to replace brake pads on my 93 BMW. I had allready purchased a set of performance pads and just needed them installed. I figured that a shop that just does brakes would be a good place to find someone very experienced and could do the job right, bad, bad assumption.
Since I was only requesting my own pads be installed they put the estimate at $100, which I should have immediately questioned since their $99 special includes pads, turning rotors, repacking bearings etc etc. I immediately got the "Uh, sir is this your car, I've got to show you a problem". These were the comments I got from a young guy that was obviously a little too gung ho about doing brake jobs:
Your screws that hold on your centercaps are rusted and stripped, you'll need new ones, your rotors are too worn down, you'll need new ones, your pads are really glazed over, probably what ruined your rotors, no shims on your pads so they're going to squeal, Oh, the dust caps I'm throwing away, they're not needed, I don't even know why they put them on. You bought your own pads? You know theres no difference between them and the cheap ones, no such thing as less brake dust. You'll probably need new sensors.
The guy let me watch everything and question everything so I know that everything was installed right thankfully but he did put a lot of doubts in my mind. I was adamant though that I just wanted my new pads installed so that's all they did. They still charged me $100 to put on my own pads, still better than what other people have been through. The good news is that since I watched it done I'm sure I can do the job myself next time, I think of it as a $100 lesson in how to install brake pads.
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