Wednesday, September 15, 2010

When Mechanics Assume...

A friend dropped in tonight to have me take her car around the block and listen to a noise from the rear end. She had just had her car in to the dealership for a whatever-point inspection because it was making noises... they did front brakes and sent her on her way, but this noise kept getting worse, so a couple of weeks later she came to me.

The car is a 2006 Chev Cobalt (Yup, we all know how I love GMs) with 107,000 km on it - all highway. Considering the mileage it was definitely time for front brakes, but here's where the tech dropped the ball - they didn't even CHECK the rears.

These cars don't exactly consume rear brakes, so the tech probably thought they would be fine and he didn't need to waste his time pounding off the drums. WRONG. When I did (And there's NO way these were off 2 weeks ago), I found that the big horseshoe-shaped brake spring was broken and one of the shoes had tipped over and worn down right to the metal.

Now she's stuck in my driveway until tomorrow when the parts stores open, and the dealership will be getting an earful, all because a mechanic ASSUMED that the rear brakes would be fine.

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