Ok so here we go.
Monday, I call up and ask if I can get my car in sometime that week. I tell her it needs a wheel bearing, but I’m not sure what side I can’t tell. She says ok, you can drop it off tonight… Just leave the keys in the Visor (what? No drop box?). So I ask if there’s a box or anything, and she says there’s a box yeah. So we end the call.
I drop the car off Monday night, The only type of drop box I could find was this thing that says “mail box” and looks like it’s been broken in to a few times, and very easy to get the key out… But I put the key in there anyway.
Tuesday (Day 2), It gets to about 4pm and I don’t hear anything from them so I give them a call. Debbie says they didn’t know who’s car it was, and asked me if I left the key and what I wanted fixed. I said I put it in the box, she said the mechanic looked but didn’t see anything, and that they don’t have time to do a wheel bearing today or have the part. But the mechanic ended up test driving it before I got there to pick it back up (I only have 2 cars for myself and wife). He said it needed both side wheel bearings, so I said ok go ahead and do both then.
The wife manages to get a 2nd day off so we can be without a car for another day.
Wednesday night I drop the car off, put the key in the same box that now is Definitely destroyed because they must not have the key for it or something, it’s all ripped open.
Thursday, They call me about noon saying the car is ready, so I pick it up and pay some $300ish. I IMMEDIATELY notice a grinding noise when I’m pulling out of the parking spot. Very loud, sounds just like a brake pad rubbing. So I figure it must’ve been like that all this time, but the wheel bearing was making so much noise I just couldn’t hear it. Debbie (the owner) also said that I need new front brakes very soon, but I can wait a few months yet so I don’t have to pay a lot all at once.
The weekend was busy, didn’t have time to get it jacked up… I finally got it jacked up on Wednesday (first post). Also, in response to the needing new brakes I checked and there’s at least another 1 1/2-2 years worth of pad there minimum. Absolutely no need for new brakes.
I called them up the next day, they wanted me to drive it in but I said I can’t and need it fixed so they came and got it. They ended up charging me another $196 for a half shaft + labor. They said they replaced the bearing under warranty (I doubt they actually replaced it with a new one). The excuse they said was that my half shaft knuckle was bad and that caused the bearing to wear out very quickly. How wouldn’t the mechanic have known that something was wrong? It seriously wobbled all over the place.
I think they may have charged me for the half shaft + labor just to make up the cost for the tow. I don’t know if it really needed replacement as I wasn’t there. They didn’t even ask me to replace it, I called up at 4:30pm yesterday and asked what was going on with my car and they said they were changing out the half shaft and it should be ready before the end of the day. The mechanic even said he was going to bring the car out to me because I said I didn’t have a ride. About an hour later Debbie (the owner) calls me up and says the car is ready and I can pick it up and she’ll take payment over the phone (didn’t tell me amount or breakdown or anything). I just gave her my CC info to be done with it before they cut my brake lines or something stupid. She said I had to pick it up.
My wifes car went in at the end of last year (Sept) for a wheel bearing. They ended up saying it needed brakes very badly and a tie rod. I remember the tie rod wasn’t loose at all a few months ago, so I said no… But I didn’t remember about the brakes so I said to go ahead and do them. When I was taking off her snow tires for this year, the tie rod end that he said was “bad” still shows no movement. The rubber boot is starting to crack slightly but I highly doubt it’s through the rubber.
Maybe she didn’t need brakes at all.
