| Re: Monday Chat 07.23.12 |
Subject: Re: Monday Chat 07.23.12 by teebee on 2012/7/23 20:44:30 It's been a busy morning for me. Before we left the other day daughter #3 (who lives up here), calls and says they took their car (04 Olds Alero) in for an oil change and they told her that she needed new front brakes/rotors and that the rear drum brakes were really dirty and needed cleaning ($100) and they needed new front hubs. All this to the tune of $1000-1200. Well several items on that list sent up red flags with me. First off just a year ago I changed the driver side hub and cleaning the rear drums because they are dirty? Well they had new brake pads and rotors done ($350), but told them my dad would look at the other things. So today, hubby brought the car over to daughter #1's house (she has a garage) and I unload the tools that I brought along (more on this later) and jack the car up and pull the rear tires and check the "dirty brakes". Sure enough there is brake dust in the drum.....just like you would expect but not to the effect of a problem. 106k on the car, original brake shoes still has about a 1/4" thickness on the shoes. So I take a can of Brakleen and spray on the shoes and other parts and clean them up a bit (explaining to my SIL all the parts and how they worked in the process). Then we move to the front wheels where we jack up the car and check the drivers side bearing (the one I replaced a year ago), no play or signs of wear at all. Then over to the passenger side and crap, there is about a 1/4" of play when you grab the top and bottom of the wheel and shake. So I decide that we have to replace the hub. This is where I say, I wasn't expecting to replace the hub and didn't bring all the required tools (Torque wrench, 36mm socket, long breaker bar). Well, we go up to the local NAPA and pick up the hub and a socket. I go to the local Northern Tool to see if they had a 1/2" torque wrench that would go up to 180ft. lbs. They didn't, but he suggested the Advance Auto Parts across the street. They do have one, 25-250 capacity $90....ouch. I go ahead and buy it. Then we make the trip to HF, they have a 3/4" torque wrench for $78 and an adapter for $5. I tell my SIL that I already bought the other one, we'll use it. But I do buy a 25" 1/2" breaker bar. My SIL says why don't we just return it after we are done. I tell him that it just isn't right to do that. "But you already have one, and don't really need another" I tell him you're right, but that just isn't honest. I'll just keep it and leave it up here. We go back and tear into the hub and get it torn down without much problem. I get the new hub reinstalled and go to torque the hub nut down and the freaking, $100 brand spanking new torque wrench doesn't ratchet. so I fight the dang thing and finally get it torqued down. Well we took the car for a drive and now it is fixed, no more rumbling or grinding, it drives nice and smooth. I take the dang torque wrench back to Advance Auto Parts and tell them I want my money back because the ratcheting mechanism is screwed up. They give me my money back (refund my CC). I don't feel the least bit guilty or bad about it. I would have kept it, had it worked properly, but since it didn't, I don't feel bad about returning it. Kind of makes me wonder if the torque is right, but I'm pretty sure that it's close. |
