I just had my pads replaced and rotors resurfaced a 1.5yrs ago,23k miles and this march I was told by my mechanic that there was 80% left. So, this monday I go to the DEALER, they showed me hot spots all along the rotors, and the brake pads are worn. The brakes are at 30% so they say. Who’s ripping me off, my old mechanic or the Dealer? The dealers mechanic said that it doesn’t even look like my rotors were resurfaced, b/c of all the black hot spots?
Not all brake jobs call for resurfacing the rotors. Not all rotors take well to resurfacing, as most today are light weight and if they need resurfacing they should be replaced not resurfaced.
That is a mighty big difference in a short time. I might suggest a third opinion.
Note: it would be foolish to assume all dealers are competent or honest.
you confused me JUST HAD —18 months ago. there is a big time diffenence. first we need to know where you live age of car and miles on it or is this a truck what do you haul, what type of driver are you. fast or smooth. highway or city miles. did you take it easy on new pads at fist? if car is old you could have calipers stucking and causing pads to rub to much, on older cars the rubber hoses swell inside and the pressure in the calipers will not return back and the pads stay against rotors heating up as you drive. if rotors are warn down and below spects they will over heat because they are too thin. have mechanic check them with gage. also if hoses are bad you will have too push harder on pedal to stop a cause for heat spot,s how is back brakes are they working as they should. if not you are using all front brakes another cause for heat. did you have the sliders replaced they let the calipers move . 90 percent of garages never ask to do this because they want to get you in/ out and keep cost down and the ad,s in the paper said pads $85.00 but tahts not a good job you need the best rotors , pads. sliders replaced. hoses if old, I don,t mean 15 years. if car is five years old have the fluid replaced it gets black because it eats the inside of the hoses and the rubber flakes off and get in the system and the fluid turns black form the hoses remember the fluid was clear when new, not black. the flaking can clog up the abs motor and master cyl. this is another $1500 on some cars. a flush is cheaper . I would start over and have the system done wright. I will say neither shop is wrong you just did not know what to have done. it is hard to fine a shop that will even cut rotors they do not have enough medal to spare. good luck hope you get a good job done.
With aggressive or city driving 23,000 miles may not be unrealistically low, considering that you obviously still have pad material left. I prefer that pad material be discussed in thinkness rather than percentage. Such as 3/32" left. And know that the thicknesses are not always the same on each pad. Every pad should be looked at in order to detect a sticky caliper.
Aggressive driving can overheat discs, as can driving in mountainous terrain and using your brakes constantly to keep the speeds down on the descents. What’s your driving style and environment?
It’s entirely possible that neither is ripping you off. It’s entirely possibel that they each looked at a different pad, made a different percentage estimate, and your driving environment or style really did cook the discs. It’s also possible that the dealer looked at one side, one where a disc was dragging, and saw much more wear and overheating. Again, looking at all the brakes would detect this.