On Fri, 4 Apr 2008 20:31:50 -0500, "Neil" <nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>Letterman made the point here:
>
>> Brakes are one of the easier things to fix on a car. Go spend the $20
>> to buy an auto repair manual, spend another $50 to $100 on brake shoes
>> and cylinders, and fix it yourself.
>
>The car repair shop wanted $110 to make the repair. If the above is the
>approximate cost of the parts, and if they charge something like $70/hr
for
>labor, then that tells me that there's no way they were planning on
>replacing the shoes, but only the cylinders. Which raises one of two
>possibilities:
>
>Either: 1) This shop doesn't know what they're doing, since they weren't
>going to replace the shoes.
>
>Or: 2) The amount leaking on the shoes is so minimal that they didn't
feel
>the shoes needed to be replaced (which, if that were the case, raises the
>question of whether their assertion that the emergency brake wasn't
working
>because of fluid leaking onto the brakes was correct in the first place).
>
>Either way, very curious that the total cost was only $110.
>
OK, I wont get on your case anymore since this just happened, but
please get it fixed. I am basing the price on the cost to replace
parts in a full sized car. Maybe VW parts are cheaper. Brake shoes
for my 89 full size Chevy were around $30 (for both wheels), cylinders
around $15 each. That's $60, plus a can of brake cleaner to clean the
drums ($5) and some brake fluid ($3). Total $68 to do the job myself,
and about 2 hours labor.
The shoes CAN be cleaned with brake cleaner, but if they are
saturated, it's better to replace them. For $110 I'd ask them what
they plan to replace, and if you're not a mechanic and dont have the
tools, let them do the job. That sounds reasonable and fair. If they
can do it in one hour at $70, (which is a reasonable amount of time
for a well equipped garage), then the parts are $40. Like I said, I
dont know what parts cost for a VW. ASK THEM what they plan to do.
Mechanics have machines that will disolve grease that us backyard
mechanics can not do with spray cans at home.
One other thing. Us backyard mechanics often end up replacing the
brake lines because they break when getting them off the cylinders.
The mechanics have special wrenches and torches to loosen them.
Spend the $110 and be done with it. That sounds like a fair price to
me. For that price, I'd likely take it to the shop myself since it's
only $40 more than what I paid for parts.
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