Our daughter now lives in Richmond, VA and drives a 2002 Ford Ranger with 148,000 miles on it.

She told me there was a grinding sound, the car shook when braking, and she lost her brakes when finding a parking spot by her apartment.

The front brake pads were replaced as was the rear brake shoes/drums/hardware/adjuster cable at 117,684 miles on the odometer.

Since I am in St. Louis I can't tear it down to figure out what is wrong, so short of sending her to the local Firestone, do any of you know of a trusted local mechanic in Richmond. She lives near the Fan District if that helps.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: h2oys,

Let me check with my daughter and I'll get back to you.

I lived in the Richmond area from 2001 to 2017.
Well the first year I lived in Mechanicsville.

For about 10 years or more I took my car to the Firestone at Regency mall and never had a problem and I would say 96% of the time I was satisfied with their work.

I was in Richmond last week getting the car I got from my parents inspected. For the last two years I have been taking my car to the AAA Center located at Broad and Glenside. I have had really good luck with them and the costs are reasonable.

The other two places I used for years closed due to the owners retiring.

Firestone at Regency isn’t a bad option.

That said, I’d recommend Dyke Tire and Auto.

I'd like to know what was found wrong.

I used Allen Tire in Midlothian, (in the town of Midlothian) but that may be a bit far for her if she is near the Fan,


my brother has used a AAA place on Hull Street,


I have heard a lot of good things about Mincz Tire and Auto,

but have not used them, (not on my normal beaten path)

Mincz

Address: 1724 Altamont Ave, Richmond, VA 23230
Hours:
Open ⋅ Closes 5PM



Phone: (804) 353-1618

May I suggest Gary's Automotive in Dinwiddie. The owner is a good friend's father. I hope this helps. God Bless

(804) 733-8644
23220 Airport Street
North Dinwiddie, VA 23803

http://www.garysautomotiveagain.com/

We have had good luck with Greendale Auto Service over off of Staples Mill road near Glenside and Hillard.

3110 Old Hilliard Rd, Richmond, VA 23228
(804) 266-3489

Well AAA showed up very early this AM and so she had it towed to the Firestone closest to her at:

Firestone
4910 West Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23230-3123

I just talked to them and here is what he said was wrong:

"Brake lines in the rear blew out. Would need to replace brake line at the Union that starts in the middle of the truck. Would require a new center brake hose and 2 new fabricated brake lines that go to both rear wheel cylinders and the rear wheel cylinders would require replaced due to how rusty everything is. Vehicle also requires new front calipers, brake pads, and rotors that include the hubs. Rotors look like they are too small for truck and pads were hanging off the rotors causing irregular wear. Caliper piston also slammed against the rotor on the front right."


Short story is $2k.

I doubt the truck is worth that amount of money, plus, she does not have that kind of money to spend on the truck.

MY QUESTION:

Do any of you know someone who does brake work on the side? I could do the job myself but I am 12 hours away.

Update:

We ended up going to a local autozone, talked to the manager, and he recommended a mechanic.

"Speedy" treated us right and was utterly shocked at the crappy job Calverts Express had done on the brakes a mere 30k miles ago.

Tell me, what looks wrong...









Well first off the rotors were tiny. In fact if you take a good look at the 2nd pic, the brake pads were being cut in half because the pad overlaps the outer edge of the rotor.

For the rear drums, Calverts used the wrong hardware kit. As you can see the adjuster is not even close.

In essence my daughter was driving a truck with only 50% braking ability on the front and 0% on the rear as the rears were never properly adjusted on either side.

I've never gone to small claims or sued, but, would you do so if someone "set up" your solo child for what could have been a horrible situation?

I would start here:https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/automobile-repair-facilities-act/

The state is going to have more power over the shop than a small claims court. And if you do "win" in small claims getting them to pay up is another matter, civil cases usually have a low priority. But if the state is involved there may be more force behind the hammer.

You did keep the old parts?

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
I would start here:https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/automobile-repair-facilities-act/

The state is going to have more power over the shop than a small claims court. And if you do "win" in small claims getting them to pay up is another matter, civil cases usually have a low priority. But if the state is involved there may be more force behind the hammer.

You did keep the old parts?

The shop that did the prior front/rear brake job was located back home in St. Louis MO. My daughter has the truck now in Richmond VA and she had a catastrophic brake failure and lost all brakes in VA.

The shop in Richmod that did the repair told me he put all the old parts in the truck bed.

https://ago.mo.gov/docs/defaul...utautos.pdf?sfvrsn=4

See page 13.

It does not appear that Missouri has a licensing requirement for auto repair shops. I suppose an inquiry to the AG's office would be a start.

Thanks.

From your original description of the work done 30,000 miles ago, I don't see any mention of the front rotors being replaced by them.
Something doesn't look right the way the pads are wearing and the rear adjuster isn't right either but I don't see catastrophic brake failure there except for the brake line.
The rear shoes have worn very evenly so it doesn't look like the adjuster caused a problem in spite of the issue there.
The car appears to have been operated in an environment where the salt has made everything corrode. You didn't mention how long ago they did the earlier work but a brake line failure in that old of a vehicle in that condition isn't that unusual.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:

a brake line failure in that old of a vehicle in that condition isn't that unusual.

Yup. We rolled into a parking lot in Titusville, in my 2001 GMC 3500 delivery truck. Good thing we were really slow, as the brake pedal went right to the floor and we were pissing brake fluid all over the parking lot.

Got a ride to a repair shop on a flatbed, one of the brake lines had cracked.

I think you know this, the brake line had nothing to do with the poor work performed earlier.

That was tearbile work done 30K ago. Wrong rotors installed. And rear adjuster was installed backwards, that's why the hardware didn't engage the wheel. I would say the pictures are worth a thousand words. I would contact the shop manager. This is a shop that pays minimum wage? I would bet my money on that. You usually get what you pay for, that wasn't even a good part's replace monkey, much less a mechanic. Sound like you found a good mechanic to fix it, although I worry that you underpaid him.

This seems like it should be criminally negligent. This is outright dangerous not just bad work. I dunno, if a reasonable non-mechanic could determine that this is not right, a mechanic hired to do the job should be considered criminally negligent.

quote:

For the rear drums, Calverts used the wrong hardware kit. As you can see the adjuster is not even close.

It looks like the right part, but is in backwards. The threaded part - not visible behind the lever - should be facing the front. If it were turned around, the teeth on the wheel appear to be facing the right direction to be engaged by the lever. (It is possible to switch sides, which would result in the brakes continually un-adjusting themselves.) Regardless, the result - a non-functioning self adjuster, and very probably a grossly out of adjustment brake - is the same.

If there is no legal recourse, try them in the court of Social Media like Yelp.

Their shops (I found 9 on Yelp in STL) seem to have a pretty poor rep on Yelp already though.

JB

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
Update:

We ended up going to a local autozone, talked to the manager, and he recommended a mechanic.

"Speedy" treated us right and was utterly shocked at the crappy job Calverts Express had done on the brakes a mere 30k miles ago.

Tell me, what looks wrong...









Well first off the rotors were tiny. In fact if you take a good look at the 2nd pic, the brake pads were being cut in half because the pad overlaps the outer edge of the rotor.

For the rear drums, Calverts used the wrong hardware kit. As you can see the adjuster is not even close.

In essence my daughter was driving a truck with only 50% braking ability on the front and 0% on the rear as the rears were never properly adjusted on either side.

I've never gone to small claims or sued, but, would you do so if someone "set up" your solo child for what could have been a horrible situation?