Just had dealer put on four new tires for my 2009 Camry with 45K miles. Next day, weird noise from the rear of the car sent me back to dealer. He said rotor was damaged, and needed to do complete rear brake job on both rear brakes. Seems like too much of a coincidence! Is it possible whoever put on the tire damaged the rotor, or is 45K around the time you’d start to have brake problems? Anyone more knowledgeable than I have an opinion to share, I would love any insights! Thanks!
It’s pretty tough to damage a rotor in a way that would cause a wierd noise…but not impossible to bump the “wear indicator” on the brake caliper. But 45,000 miles is perfectly acceptable life on a set of brakes anyway. I’d bet you’re simply due for a brake job.
Did he describe the alledged “damage”?
If you had picked up all the parts and posted some good photos someone might have been able to make a good guess. I can only say that there are many possible mishaps that could cause damage to the brakes while changing the tires… Falling off the jack with the wheel off comes to mind.
He said something “got up in there” and scraped the rotor. I didn’t ask further questions because I couldn’t even pretend to know what I was talking about. The timing of it seems just too wierd. It is reassuring that I wasn’t completely rooked paying for brakes at this mileage. Thank you so much for your reply!!
That makes sense.
Since they’re the ones who left the item in the brakes, are they willing to split the cost of the brake job (recognizing that you’ve got 45,000 miles on them anyway)?
Thank you so much for your reply. I wish I had thought to go in and take some pictures (and ask for the parts back!) Next time I will, although I’m sure they’ll tell me there’s a policy against it. Thank you so much for responding. This site is such a great resource!
By law, they have to return the old parts to you if you request them. The only exception would be if they replaced something with a rebuilt part in which they have to return the core. In that case, they would still return the old part to you if you were willing to pay the core charge.