[drglinski]

Originally Posted by J-Mech

I've seen it many times. May have had a torn boot, and they didn't replace it, or may have been stiff. I've had calipers that were fine when we did a brake job, that one slide pin locked up on before the brakes wore out. I finally got where it was just part of a brake job to install a slide pin kit. They are really cheap.

Daniel:
This is why you need to find a good shop to work with. I don't know if you take your car to a dealer or not, but at those prices, I would assume you are. Rear calipers are under $100 apiece at O'Reilly's and they take less than an hour to install. Should not have been $500. Besides, it's likely they could have installed a pin kit and been golden.
Although, it is possible that you are not sure of all the info. Maybe the caliper is stuck to the base and they are having to replace the caliper mount and the caliper..... too many variables and not enough info.

I'm actually kind of surprised you didn't just repair it yourself. Although, when I had my shop, I loved customers like you. Brakes are so easy and profitable repairs.

Long story: the rear brakes are disc. I've done disc brakes- the fronts are easy and so are the fronts on my truck. No problem. About 3 years ago the rears were worn from age, and I figured I got this. Push the piston back in with a C clamp and somehow the pads were dragging and weren't working right. I took it to a dealer. They told me the pistons have to be "clocked." Doing more research on it on my own I discovered that the piston has to be pressed in and turned just right with a special tool and that's how it got screwed up.

We drove it for about a year and it started giving us issues. We were fed up with the work and price that the dealers were charging so we took it to an independent shop for new pads and rotors. I had service done there before and liked that they were reliable and affordable. They had new owners which turned out to be a downfall. When I told them I wanted rear pads and rotors put on, we got the car back and the issue remained (pads were worn down and the rotors were destroyed.) I discovered that the shop replaced the fronts because "we thought they needed it" but ignored the issue I sent the car in for. After arguing with them they put the rears on but didn't charge us. We had other problems with them re-negging on free oil change vouchers and with all of the problems they were giving us I vowed not to return there again.


I would not be taking the car back to the same shop to have them repair the rotors/pads issue (AGAIN) but it's under warranty and I'd have to pay even MORE somewhere else. It's a giant snafu and has been for the last 3 years. Besides the brakes (and the water pump wearing out) it's been a solid car. I just need to find a place that'll work on it right and won't screw us over. If it was my truck I wouldn't care as much but I don't like worrying about if my wife is going to be ok driving around.