Purchased a new 2011 Corolla. At 28,000 miles required $425 brake repair. New rotors, pads, shoes, wheel cylinders.
My 1st and last Toyota purchase. Will be trading out of this POS Monday!
Why are you telling us this?
Your brakes were fixed, and I am assuming they are working properly now
You feel you don’t have a very good car
Do you also have a question?
Or did you just want to share this information?
Brake wear is partially dependent on the conditions under which a car is driven. If you do a lot of stop and start driving, particularly in a city like San Francisco, 28,000 miles on the original brakes might be reasonable. If you live in a mountainous region where you brake frequently, this also causes brake wear.
Wearing out a set of brakes in under 30k miles could be entirely normal depending on the driving habits and terrain, etc.
The red flag to me is new wheel cylinders. I’m having a hard time seeing multiple wheel cylinder failures on a 2011 Toyota.
Any chance your brakes were not as bad as you thought and someone was throwing the entire brake arsenal at it?
What kind of facility recommended this and performed the work?
While pads, rotors, and shoes would be considered non-warranty wear items, wheel cylinders would be covered under Toyota warranty. Did you have this work done at a dealer? At this age and mileage I would think the dealer would have covered part of this repair. If not done at a dealer I am afraid that you may have been “taken” by a shop that was less than honest.
I will agree with Triedaq that it is possible for brakes to wear out at low mileages depending on where you drive and how. I drive on flat highways for long stretches and can get up to 100,000 miles on a set of pads. City driving and hilly driving (or both) can destroy brake pads in less than 25,000 miles.
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Information Is Missing. There Must Be More To This Short, Sad Story.
However, based on this rant, I’d guess you’ll have problems with the brake system or some other system not meeting your expectations on your next new car. Which new make/model are you trading into ?
CSA
There’s so much information missing.
What were the symptoms that made the brakes suspect?
Auto or manual trans? (brakes on manual generally last longer)
Driving conditions (city vs highway)?
OP may have been ripped off, getting a major brake overhaul when the front brakes were squealing.
they must have done the rears, because no modern car has front drums. He replaced wheel cylinders, after all. Hard to believe you need one with that few miles on the car, let alone two of them.
Be ware of switching to a modern honda, btw. Around 2009 they designed in really small brakes. The rears go first, which is odd too. It has been said to have been fixed but I’m skeptical.
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Can you tell us what kind of problems you were having with your brakes that caused you to take the car in for brake service? Were you not noticing any trouble and the brake service is something that was noted during a “complimentary” brake inspection during an oil change?
It’s easy to get overcharged for things. It’s easy to have unnecessary work done. If life is so easy, why are there so many problems? One thing: I’d like to know where the original poster goes to have all that work done at such good prices. You can’t get that in NYC. You can probably get real good salsa there, just not brake jobs at great prices.
I always enjoy pleasedodgevan’s humor, and his reference to “salsa from NYC” is another example of his excellent sarcasm–even if not everyone gets it.
For those who didn’t “get” the reference, that remark comes from a Pace Picante Sauce commercial from a few years back:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2004-11-07-pace_x.htm
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I got that reference, but there is a large Puerto Rican community in NYC so you probably can get some pretty good salsa there.
As for the OP, I think his problems go a lot deeper than the car or the garage he dealt with.
I don’t know anything about salsa but I’ve always thought nachos and cheese should not be served at ball parks. Hot dogs, beer, peanuts, but not nachos.
I’ve got 90K on my Pontiac with the original brakes but I’ve got new front pads on the bench waiting for cooler weather. Just depends on type of driving or it could have had a dragging caliper or something. Anyone out there buying a used 2011 Toyota, just beware.
Yeah, NYC is not known for Salsa. NYC is to Salsa what Captain Ahab is to the cheese.
Now, pizza… Fogettaboutit.
I think the OP was just ranting, not really being interested as to why his brake was serviced - or whether that was done legitimately or not.
I think Remco is right that the OP was just venting.
I say to the OP that while I’m not sure you understood exactly what the shop said ($425 would be about normal from a dealer in my area for just the front brakes w/new rotors), having to have the brakes redone at 28K is perfectly normal. Nothing about that suggests anything unreliable or unusually expensive about the car. You can better control the costs of car ownership by using a reliable locally owned and operated shop, but maintenance is a part of car ownership.
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No way this car needed new wheel cylinders. You were taken. They are warranty items. Also, shoes would not be worn out. They can go forever. Most braking occurs in the front. Was the car shuddering when you applied the brakes? If not the rotors were good too.
Brake wear is a matter of vehicle and driving habits. I’ve also had a mechanic tell me I needed new front brakes on a vehicle that I just replaced the brakes on. It’s not unheard of a mechanic ripping off an unsuspecting client. Especially when it comes to brakes.
In conclusion…
- You’re either driving too aggressively.
- You got hosed.
Based on new rear wheel cylinders on a 28k miles 2011 model Toyota my vote is for hosed…
I’m also curious about what happened. I have a 2009 Corolla, and the front brakes lasted 60,000 miles. The rears are still going.