Premium Price, poor service.

[hideo]

Background:

2005 Facelift Sportivo

Perfect maintenance record

144,000km (yes, I drive a lot)

STOCK as a ROCK

Problems:

Dealer has not found cause of squealing coming from the front end since my 110,000km service. Thankfully it was intermittent, and now much less regular.

Just had 140,000km service and was told my brakes are fine, approx 30% left at the front and 70% left at the rear.

Had an issue with pulling up a couple days ago, nearly ran into a round about and got cleaned up by a big F-350 truck. A friend offered to clean out the pads, assuming it was glazing or dust/debris problem... turns out I'm missing half of the shim kit on my drivers side and the outside pad on the passenger side is close to worn out, while the inside pad looks new... WTF!? Also, they've fitted Bendix pads, not Toyota genuine. The rears are Toyota, blue and stamped and appear to be an organic compound, while the fronts have metal filings all over the place and a DB1431 sticker on the pads.

So what do I? Take the poll.

Edited March 29, 2009 by hideo

[hideo]

thanks for any other suggestions too

Edited March 29, 2009 by hideo

[the_random_hero]

Do your brakes yourself from now on. They are only discs, even for a complete newbie it will only take you about 45 minutes per wheel.

[123R-Prozak]

how soon after did you have the brake problem after they said 30% left? Id write a complaint, saying you had total trust in their service department to give you insite on your braking system and safety, but your trust has now diminished, more than likely they'll try and gain that trust back by offering something..

story.. one of our guys left a smudge inside the car... customer complained.. we offered a full interior and exterior detail. he was wrapped.

[SILVABULLIT]

Do your brakes yourself from now on. They are only discs, even for a complete newbie it will only take you about 45 minutes per wheel.

Get yourself the right tools first then get a manual or get someone who know what they are doing to show you how to do it.

Cause if you stuff it up it could end up costing you a lot more than repairs to your brakes.....

[the_random_hero]

Do your brakes yourself from now on. They are only discs, even for a complete newbie it will only take you about 45 minutes per wheel.

Get yourself the right tools first then get a manual or get someone who know what they are doing to show you how to do it.

Cause if you stuff it up it could end up costing you a lot more than repairs to your brakes.....

Having somebody to help would be good, if you don't know of anybody just do a bit of reading in the internet prior to taking your wheels off so you have a basic idea of what you've got to do. What tools are you recommending? All I had was a socket set, factory wheel jack and brace. After never touching brakes before, I managed to do pads and rotors both sides in an hour and a half, hungover on a 40 degree day. Just make sure you remember where everything goes and double check every bolt before you put your wheel back on. Obviously don't bed brakes in on a highway, my street is the perfect length for 80km/h runs to properly bed them in.

EDIT: Reason I had to do both was my car was previously serviced by Honda (owners at the time had a Civic they would take there), when the caliper was bolted back on they left a bolt out and the other wasn't tightened, long story short the caliper partially pivoted around the single bolt and locked my wheels up at 40kms. Rotor was rooted, pad had a piece missing from it.

Moral is even workshops will make mistakes, I'd rather take a bit more time and learn to do something myself so I can fix it if anything should go wrong.

Edited March 31, 2009 by the_random_hero