BRAKES (Service, Pricing, And Philosophy)
General Pricing
Most
routine brake pad replacement jobs (cars and light trucks) are priced
in the $150 to $160 range. This includes upgraded (normal for us) pads,
(high quality frictions, shimmed and camfered), and where indicated, a
hardware kit (often at no additional charge). All contact points are
thoroughly brushed, cleaned and lubricated with a severe duty paste
lube. Likewise all transmission hardware such as pins and anvill
surfaces. In compressing the pistons, we release and discard brake fluid
through bleeding. This prevents gritty or contaminated fluid from
traveling back through delicate ABS components. We bleed the brakes
again at the end of the job using light pressure and top off the brake fluid with Dot3 or
Dot4 depending on application. We also resurface the rotors if thick
enough, use lock tite on threaded hardware, and use torque limiters to
tighten the lug nuts in an even and alternating pattern to prevent rotor
warp. Then we test drive the vehicle to make sure the new pads provide
effective, noise-free, smooth and even braking. That my friends is our
basic service. You can call or e-mail for information concerning your
particular car and situation, but the best and only way to get a proper
diagnosis and concrete price is to let us test drive and inspect your
vehicle. This usually requires no more than a few minutes, up to a half
hour (not including consultation) and is almost always free of charge.
It's Not How Much You Pay, It's What You Wind Up Paying
One
of the great things about America, is that we have choices of all
sorts, including who to entrust with our property and personal safety.
Sometimes, perhaps due to dire necessity, you make that choice on the
basis of price alone, with or without being aware of the possible
consequences. For instance, all other things being equal, shops that
price cut often cut quality as well. In some cases you'll be offered an
expensive upgrade, and in effect pay a premium for what we consider
routine brake service. If you don't elect to take the upgrade you wind
up with what you call a "pad slap", which is designed for economy at the
expense of quality. After all, you were offered the upgrade. But that
brings me to the other cut corner, namely time. And remember, so far
we're still talking about legitimate operations, even if they are mills.
For those consumers that decline sometimes steep upgrades, even in a
legitimate operation, if they're busy you receive less care and time. At
Mufflers Brakes and More, we do the exact opposite. We size up the
situation and include in our estimate all parts and labor necessary to
achieve the best result, regardless of make, model or condition. Most
often this turns out to be routine pad replacement, but not always. Part
of the reason we proudly display CarCare.Org's
logo, is that we believe the consumer should know what's going on with
his or her vehicle. In other words we never pressure, rush or attempt to
scare the customer. If there are legitimate choices, we lay them out,
with pros and cons, imparting as much technical information as
the vehicle owner can absorb, and that takes a lot of time. But it's
important time. The customer can then defer to our best judgment at our
stated price, or they can
take a second choice which is our routine service, even though it omits
what we believe to be necessary parts and service. I know it sounds
bad, but in the end we have to be practical, and for the money it's a
better value than a pad slap. We represent this second option to the
consumer as a poorer choice, but safe alternative to driving out the way
they came in, which is often the worst choice of all. Caveats are
explained at length and usually expressed in writing on the customer's
receipt. Often these good people gratefully promise to come back and "do
it right" but the reality of it is that even our downgraded choice is
designed to function for the life of the pad. And let's face it,
without symptoms or dire warnings (no job leaves here that requires a
dire warning), there's not much reason for a return visit. In fact we
advise these folks rather to be diligent, and return if and when any
symptoms occur. For example if you had very uneven pad wear, in other
words non-symptomatic (early stage) caliper failure, and knowing this
you elect to not deal with it, it could mean accelerated, sometimes
rapid pad wear, usually on the same side as the failing caliper. Failing
in this case doesn't mean total loss of brakes but it does mean the
caliper is failing to perform within it's designed specifications and
more to the point, likely to get worse. If we can't deter you from
forgoing such a highly recommended service, we will indicate it on your
receipt and forewarn you about the stages of failure you should be
attentive to should they arise, like pulling to one side on moderate to
hard stops, which can become significant at higher speeds.
Our Commitment To Our Community
Here
at Mufflers Brakes and More, we take brake service very seriously.
Although we're not subsidized, we feel we have a responsibility to
public safety. This sometimes means performing necessary services for
free to those unable to pay for them, but in need. One note though, try
not to drive a car you can't afford to own. We see too many people
struggling to maintain run down exotics. These cars, although sometimes a
few miles away from the junk yard, or at least chronically neglected,
often require very expensive repairs due to higher parts prices and
maintenance avoidance. What was once potential maintenance can
become a very serious, full blown problem. Sometimes in
desperation owners of these cars will search out a brake shop based
solely on price and some shops will do anything to get the sale,
including false assurances of safety which the vehicle owner desperately
wishes to hear. By soft pedaling the risks, these "practitioners" give
the shopper no reason to make a safer choice, and even for a crack
salesman, that's unconscionable. The fact is, if you're trapped in an
exotic clunker you should seriously consider trading it for something
perhaps less flashy, but reliable and less expensive to maintain. No
matter what kind of car you drive though, or it's condition, not being
able to afford the time or money for a thorough basic brake job will
often lead to not being able to afford even more time or money for a
major brake job. For some it may boil down to an inconvenience. "I was
too busy" is the rallying cry of the poorly prioritized. We'll always
do what we can to help, but we can not compromise basic safety
requirements.
What We Won't Do
When
it comes to safety issues, the customer is always right, except when
he's wrong. That said, there are things we will not do. For instance we
won't install new pads on a chopped up rotor. For one thing, until it
glazes over, a chopped up rotor will rapidly grind up it's associated
pad. Also, until the flat pad surface is ground to the contour of the
damaged rotor, there are gaps in contact that translate into reduced
(possibly inadequate) braking performance. Worst of all if a rotor is
significantly undersized (too thin, rough or smooth) it allows the
caliper piston to travel past it's intended range when the pads wear
down. They can even pop out past the seal, causing a sudden and complete
loss of pedal pressure that cannot be compensated for by repeated
pumping of the brake pedal, which would only drain the fluid from
the master cylinder in short order. I don't have to spell that out,
right? Good cause I'd hate to be accused of alarmism for the sake of a
sale. Another thing we won't do is install pads on a caliper with a
torn or missing dust boot. The reason for this is that the part of the
piston that has been exposed to the elements, will have to be pushed
back into the caliper in order to install the new pads. This means
forcing a rough outer piston surface past a fairly soft rubber seal. The
effects of this abuse on the seal often don't appear for a while but as
the piston moves back out with the pad, the same surface makes another
pass, much slower this time. This allows any rough surface feature of
the cylinder to "saw" away at the seal as the piston remains more or
less in place but oscillates with each depression and release of the
brake pedal. Even seal failures can be asymptomatic (often a synonym for
dangerous) in the early stages. If the customer feels that adding brake
fluid is normal maintenance, and fails to notice a wet wheel, or worse
won't deal with it, (a caliper in this condition must be replaced)
serious and inopportune failure to say the least is likely to occur.
There are other examples of things we won't do, but for now these'll
suffice. To sum up, at Mufflers Brakes and More, our estimates start
from the top, and work down. We don't promise nonsense, and sometimes it
hurts us, especially on the phone but we don't believe in bait and
switch, and never employ fairy tale promises just to get you in the door
and on the lift. At MBM we wish all car owners would learn a little
about their car's brake system before shopping, especially by price
alone. That's why We've linked the CarCare.Org
logo to their home page which has a nifty, easy to use graphic
interface. The website itself is comprehensive, informative, very user
friendly, and multi-lingual. CarCare.Org's implied mission, through the
standards they enforce upon any who bear their logo is to educate and
thereby empower the consumer. And it's free to the public. I urge you to
avail yourself of this valuable public service. They also won't let
just anyone bear their name, but I'm proud to say that our philosophy
concerning consumer education and protection was always in accord with
theirs, even though I only found out about them recently.
Bending Over Backwards
The
last choice we offer our brake customers, is to allow them to bring
their own parts, which we'll carefully install but not vouch for or
warranty. Both the parts themselves and any consequences suffered as a
result of their use. These are not safety issues, and rarely performance
issues but could include things like squealing, chattering, excessive
dusting, rotor warp, and premature pad wear. The preparation and service
we perform when installing your parts is exactly the same as if the
parts were our own but at a reduced profit. Ironically it's often a case
of anti-symbiosis, we both lose. It's a cardinal rule that you don't
walk into a steak house with your own steak but we bend that rule in the
interest of providing our type of personal care and service to those of
you who might otherwise become unlucky and/or unhappy do it yourselfers.
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