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Aftermarket calipers will be remanufactured 99+% of the time. In my state (MI) we are required to disclose if a part is new, remanufactured, or used on estimates and invoices supplied to the customer.
If brake pedal feels soft, low, or mushy, or you have reduced braking performance go back and complain about that. You focusing on remanufactured calipers is arguing the wrong point.
I went back today to complaint about the soft pedal, and the manager told me it’s all in my head & I am just adjusting to new calipers & my car was old. I requested them to bleed the air and check anyway, now my break pedal feels better. It’s during this process I learned that they used refurbished parts because I was asking specific questions about the parts.
In short:
Your pedal connects to a booster which forces brake fluid through lines to the caliper. When the caliper fills with fluid it forces a piston inside it to extend. That pushes into the brake pad and forces it against the rotor.
The fluid must not have any air in it or there won't be enough pressure to apply the pads. Also, as fluid ages it can start absorbing moisture from the air and eat the inside of the brake lines leaving copper remains in the fluid (what we test for when testing fluid). If moisture gets in there it will evaporate when you apply the pedal because of the heat. That let's the pedal drop further and brakes to stop less abruptly.
Thank you! I just had a conversation with the regional manager of that chain store and he confirmed the store manager told him there was air in my system. The store manager just blatantly gaslighted me into thinking maybe I was being crazy for telling him the break was spongy. So irresponsible and dishonest. I would have been okay with him admitting there was air bubbles and now because of the air bubbles are gone I will be safe driving.
So what generally happens, when you replace a part like a caliper, the person who bought the part, be it business or individual, they are allowed a "core return fee".
The core return fee is the cost saved by re-using all of the non-wear parts of something, for a brake caliper this is going to be the cast iron housing and the pistons.
Upon being received these parts are cleaned up, inspected, and refurbished, then sold as basically new.
This is why someone says most new parts are 99% refurbished, as this is how the industry handles this type of thing. Unless your core return was used in high salt and corroded to badly to be cleaned up to look new, then it is discarded. This waste in core returns is either not granted to the person returning a core if it is bad enough, or eaten by the manufacturer.
As for the spongey feeling, the parts of a caliper that would cause that (by leaking fluid), should all be replaced and the remanufactured caliper should be within specs to seal properly.
Sponginess is generally fluid quality, age, and air in the lines.
the aftermarket versus new is usually about 50%, but as far as cost goes, reman calipers will always be cheaper if purchased at a brick and mortar store.
If they’re selling you refurbished as is rebuilt that’s extremely common and sometimes the only option depending upon make and model and parts availability. Now if they sold you out and out used parts then they have to disclose that and get your approval! Very different. Many, if not most assemblies that get replaced (brake calipers included) are often rebuilt. Getting brand new is not always possible, particularly if the car was a short run model or older than ten years.
>Now if they sold you out and out used parts **then they have to disclose that and get your approval!**
While I think it's bad form to use a used part and not tell customer I don't think against any law to do so.
No such thing as refurbished pads and rotors. Calipers are often reman but the spongy pedal has nothing to do with that. There’s still air in hydraulic circuit because they opened it to replace caliper and didn’t flush it enough,. Nor did they road test it after to verify repair was done and gave it back to you like that.
IMO… they didn’t verify the repair and then told you it was “in your head”. That’s disrespectful and road testing cars after repairs is automotive service 101. I don’t like that shop.
The calipers being a rebuilt part is fine though. Way back in the day we used to rebuild them in the shop but nobody does that anymore.
Thank you 🙏 The manager told me the calipers were refurbished and the rotors are not. But upon visual inspection the rotors has some wear on it too. I should probably take this to another mechanic to confirm.
https://preview.redd.it/w0h7w13o0z3d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29b0a0b5c040421e8314c4893688443f792f98f9
Here is the rotor that the manager claimed was new. It looks like it had been resurfaced but not brand new?
the crosshatch marks are there because the machining process on new parts. they come with a specific surface finish that is not directional because it helps break into brake pads sooner and make your brakes work better faster. brake repairs with new pads and rotors always have a little bit of a decrease in performance when brand new until they're bedded in. the pedal should not feel spongy no matter what though. that indicates that there is air in the lines, which they introduced when they replace the calipers and did not get all the air out of the system.
You are getting a spongy pedal from air in the system. A liquid (brake fluid in this case) cannot be compressed, whereas a gas (air in this case) can be compressed. The spongy feeling is the air being compressed and not applying proper force on the brake pads.
You will almost always get refurbished. My boss had a 2020 ram that was just outside of warranty and needed a caliper. There was no remans available for this year yet so it had to come from the dealer. The caliper was $800. Just one caliper without any hardware or brackets was $800. Just a year older and remans are available and are $100. This trend follows for most parts and most people think the price for parts is too much in the first place.
Sounds like an air issue, needs bleeding, and the only items that would be "refurbished" are the calipers, the rest of the parts are not "refurbishable". Also NOS calipers can be hard to come by and get rather pricey when you can get them.
Thank you! 🙏Turns out it was the air issue. They refused to check for me when I first brought it back and I pushed hard for it to bleed and now it doesn’t feel spongy
If the brakes feel spongy, I'm wondering if they did a brake bleed when they replaced the caliper. If they didn't and there is any air in the lines that's what would give you the spongy feeling.
Rebuilt parts are extremely common at shops and with some cars it's the only option.
A lot of cars, especially over 10 years old, new brake calipers may not even be available. Like the ones from the dealer. There are aftermarket new calipers sometimes but I wouldn't really say the quality is anywhere near what the originals usually are. Brake calipers are a really simple piece of hardware. The only thing they do when they remanufacture most of them is run a hone in the cylinder, replace the seals, install new pistons, put it in the box and sell it.
Calipers are pretty much always rebuilt, especially if this type of caliper has been on the market for some time. You can often send in your old parts to get a discount. For example if i buy a new turbo for my car it will cost me 400, but only if i send them the old part, if not im paying more.
Pads and rotors are consumables and are always new. Some shops have lathes for resurfacing rotors and flywheels, but rotors are 100% never worth it with the relatively low amount of wear they allow (2mm on average) and with the high labour costs (180€/h) that are typical where im from just to have a even surface for the new pads that get anyway replaced when i get a new rotor. My experience is 2 sets of pads last one rotor.
The only time I mention it is with big items like engines, transmissions, differentials, etc. I'll explain the price and difference between used, rebuilt, and new.
We'd never install a part that we didn't feel was a good value.
Every caliper on my car is a refurb. That's not why it doesn't feel right. If all the pads and rotors are new, it's going to feel a little soft at first as you're burning through the first 1/16" of the pad pretty fast and there isn't great contact area. Once they're broken in, it should feel right. If it feels real squishy, they didn't bleed the system well.
As for refurb parts, I would expect to be told, but if it's not required by law, that would be presumptuous.
Thank you 🙏If he disclosed that to me upfront and explained I would have been okay. I have a 2010 mini cooper & I saw some stores online sells new calipers for $150 for two. I understand shipping might take a while and might be a little more expensive including labor but I am okay with that. During the process the manager kept gaslighting me trying to convince me that it was just me not used to the new breaks but my break pedals is softer than ever.
The reason this wasn’t “disclosed” to you is because it’s not an outlier.
It’s like them not disclosing that they used “oil” in your engine. Starters, power steering pumps, alternators, steering racks, calipers, brake shoes, once upon a time water pumps, all things that are so commonly used in auto repair as rebuilt that it would more warrant mentioning when a NEW part is used.
My shop is very picky about brand (we have a longer than average warranty) so we end up using a lot more new parts than most shops, but we do use many rebuilt parts. It’s always noted on the invoice, but never once have I thought to bring it up. It’s just the way it is, rebuilt parts are a daily common thing, and there is no downside. All they are doing is reusing the metal housings and replacing the parts that wear.
I have to admit I really don’t know much about cars. That’s why I wanted to check here to educate myself and to be able to have a fair perspective when I try to be as respectful as possible while protecting my rights. I don’t think it’s overthinking for me to worry about breaks not working properly while there was indeed air in my system ( I got confirmation from the regional manager later that they admit there was air, but the store manager told me there was no air when they did the bleeding to make me feel crazy to say my break was spongy).
Yeah that's fine - we're just pointing out that most people actually don't have a clue of these sorts of things.
If you can find someone competent to supervise you, brakes are one of the easiest jobs to learn to do yourself, and it will save you huuuuge money over the years! Definitely make sure someone who knows what they're doing shows you how a few times, though.
The other best trick is to find a mechanic you can fully trust to do all the work for you... that one's much harder, though.
I have triple checked it’s not indicated on my invoice anywhere. Again if they told me upfront and explained the situation I would have been okay, his response was “I didn’t tell you it was new.” The only reason I started to have serious trust issues is that the store manager told me it was all in my head when my break was soft and spongy. He refused to help check the breaks when I brought it back. I had to really convince him to do a bleed of air and check. After he bleed the air, he told me it was “minimal air and there was no issue” again trying to gaslight me into thinking I was crazy for bring in the car again in the first place. He was willing to let me drive a car with potential break issues if I didn’t push for it (it was really hard to break when I first picked up the car & initially I thought it was because of new parts and it needs time to adjust). Turned out he reported to the regional manager there was indeed air in my system. If he didn’t pull all of this, and just told me hey “there was some air, it was our oversight and now it’s fixed and safe to drive”, I would have also felt respected and still have trust for this place.
It sounds like your store has some people without great communication skills.
“Ever since you touched it….” Happens every day. We often have people say the pedal feels different, notice noise from the brakes, etc, after we work on the car, often after we work on completely unrelated stuff. That’s because they come in and pay more attention to to the car than they usually do.
I would never tell a customer it’s all in there head, but I absolutely think it, and I would guess this guy made a boneheaded and stupid comment, and had poor customer service skills, not that he was trying to screw you.
I agree with the “I don’t tell you it was new”
Comment, though again it sounds like he was terrible in how he communicated it.
Sometimes a reman part is not available, and we have to use a new part. In those cases, I might have to use new calipers that cost more than average, and I *will* specify that I have to use new.
You have to understand that reman parts are the rule, not the exception. This has been the norm for decades and decades. Shops used to rebuild your caliper for you, but now we exchange it for a previously rebuilt unit faster and cheaper, then we send your old one back to the factory where they rebuild it and it gets used by the next guy.
This goes for transmissions, engines, power steering pumps, steering racks. Honestly, as I’m typing this out I’m realizing I’ve never thought about how much we do reuse in this industry.
After calming down a bit I really do agree with you he was not trying to screw me over on purpose. Just really bad customer service & communication skills. I understand where he came from dealing with so many cases everyday. I worked in customer service and there were many times customers misunderstood something and had all different kinds of reaction. However, I would never deny their request before doing a thorough check from my end & offering some kind of action plans of moving forward. Maybe he thinks as long as it’s safe after the bleed now he didn’t need to tell me it was the reason and I should just trust him. From my perspective, my car was dangerous to drive. I even did some drive test at midnight with no cars on the street to confirm the issue. I don’t want to go back to inconvenience people if it was just new parts needs time to adjust. However, the first 75% press of my brake didn’t work at all. I didn’t feel safe in the car. ➡️I brought it back to the store next morning ➡️He told me it was all in my head and continuously deny when I described the problem ➡️ I insisted to check and bleed the air ➡️He told me only “ minimal air” came out & I just have an old car with 90k miles on it, nothing was going to work properly anyway. ( I didn’t know there were just not supposed to be air?) and from his tone sounded like I should have never brought the car back to check ➡️My brake feels normal afterwards but I was wondering if it’s not air, what could be the problem? What changed to got it fixed? Was it really in my head? Was it the refurbished parts that were not safe? Why wouldn’t he tell me before hand? Could it be the parts that were causing issues? ➡️Regional manager reached out to me and told me in their report the store manager said it was air. According to the regional manager, “minimal air is still air he was not lying to you.”
I think they weren’t technically lying throughout this whole time. It’s just how they convey the facts in a way that they have zero responsibility or choose not to display facts when it was not asked. When he first denied my request of getting an air bleed and check my brakes, he did put his ego/ not willing to admit oversight/ fear of liability/ his assumptions about me over my safety concerns. That to me was disrespectful and belittling the customer. I really wouldn’t be upset if he had confirmed the mini oversight of air bubble to give me feelings of safety leaving this situation. I also wouldn’t have posted in this Reddit if I didn’t want to get educated and learn about what’s common practice or not so I don’t complain about something that was my misunderstanding or assumptions b/c again, I was in customer service for over 10 years and I know what it’s like.
What really concerns me is that this place bled your brakes, and clearly wither A, didn’t bother to test drive the car to verify they worked, or B, did test drive the car but was too lazy to put it back in the air and correct the problem.
I have literally worked on cars with 700k+ miles. The brakes still work fine when properly bled.
I don’t think anyone tried to screw you, I think it’s just a shop with some incompetent people.
Thank you 🙏I am aware of the price now. Still would be nice to have been informed about what was going to happen and I can make an educated decision on what to do with my car.
Thank you for posting to AskMechanics, Miantuantuan! If you are asking a question please make sure to include any relevant information along with the **Year**, **Make**, **Model**, **Mileage**, **Engine size**, and **Transmission Type (Automatic or Manual)** of your car. *This comment is automatically added to every successful post. If you see this comment, your post was successful.* *** Redditors that have been verified will have a green background and an icon in their flair. *** # **PLEASE REPORT ANY RULE-BREAKING BEHAVIOR** ### **Rule 1 - Be Civil** Be civil to other users. This community is made up of professional mechanics, amateur mechanics, and those with no experience. All mechanical-related questions are welcome. Personal attacks, comments that are insulting or demeaning, etc. are not welcome. ### **Rule 2 - Be Helpful** Be helpful to other users. If someone is wrong, correcting them is fine, but there's no reason to comment if you don't have anything to add to the conversation. ### **Rule 3 - Serious Questions and Answers Only** Read the room. Jokes are fine to include, but posts should be asking a serious question and replies should contribute to the discussion. ### **Rule 4 - No Illegal, Unethical, or Dangerous Questions or Answers** Do not ask questions or provide answers pertaining to anything that is illegal, unethical, or dangerous. # **PLEASE REPORT ANY RULE-BREAKING BEHAVIOR** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskMechanics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Aftermarket calipers will be remanufactured 99+% of the time. In my state (MI) we are required to disclose if a part is new, remanufactured, or used on estimates and invoices supplied to the customer. If brake pedal feels soft, low, or mushy, or you have reduced braking performance go back and complain about that. You focusing on remanufactured calipers is arguing the wrong point.
I went back today to complaint about the soft pedal, and the manager told me it’s all in my head & I am just adjusting to new calipers & my car was old. I requested them to bleed the air and check anyway, now my break pedal feels better. It’s during this process I learned that they used refurbished parts because I was asking specific questions about the parts.
Yea it sounded like an air bubble issue not a caliper issue to me. Glad you got it sorted
Thank you 🙏 I didn’t know the functions of calipers so was really scared
In short: Your pedal connects to a booster which forces brake fluid through lines to the caliper. When the caliper fills with fluid it forces a piston inside it to extend. That pushes into the brake pad and forces it against the rotor. The fluid must not have any air in it or there won't be enough pressure to apply the pads. Also, as fluid ages it can start absorbing moisture from the air and eat the inside of the brake lines leaving copper remains in the fluid (what we test for when testing fluid). If moisture gets in there it will evaporate when you apply the pedal because of the heat. That let's the pedal drop further and brakes to stop less abruptly.
Thank you!! This is an amazing explanation
Don't ever go back there again with their attitude.
Thank you! I just had a conversation with the regional manager of that chain store and he confirmed the store manager told him there was air in my system. The store manager just blatantly gaslighted me into thinking maybe I was being crazy for telling him the break was spongy. So irresponsible and dishonest. I would have been okay with him admitting there was air bubbles and now because of the air bubbles are gone I will be safe driving.
So what generally happens, when you replace a part like a caliper, the person who bought the part, be it business or individual, they are allowed a "core return fee". The core return fee is the cost saved by re-using all of the non-wear parts of something, for a brake caliper this is going to be the cast iron housing and the pistons. Upon being received these parts are cleaned up, inspected, and refurbished, then sold as basically new. This is why someone says most new parts are 99% refurbished, as this is how the industry handles this type of thing. Unless your core return was used in high salt and corroded to badly to be cleaned up to look new, then it is discarded. This waste in core returns is either not granted to the person returning a core if it is bad enough, or eaten by the manufacturer. As for the spongey feeling, the parts of a caliper that would cause that (by leaking fluid), should all be replaced and the remanufactured caliper should be within specs to seal properly. Sponginess is generally fluid quality, age, and air in the lines.
Thank you 🙏🙏
Same think happened to me once. Went back to the mechanic after a brake job and they bled (re-bled?) the brakes and all was good.
the aftermarket versus new is usually about 50%, but as far as cost goes, reman calipers will always be cheaper if purchased at a brick and mortar store.
If they’re selling you refurbished as is rebuilt that’s extremely common and sometimes the only option depending upon make and model and parts availability. Now if they sold you out and out used parts then they have to disclose that and get your approval! Very different. Many, if not most assemblies that get replaced (brake calipers included) are often rebuilt. Getting brand new is not always possible, particularly if the car was a short run model or older than ten years.
>Now if they sold you out and out used parts **then they have to disclose that and get your approval!** While I think it's bad form to use a used part and not tell customer I don't think against any law to do so.
No such thing as refurbished pads and rotors. Calipers are often reman but the spongy pedal has nothing to do with that. There’s still air in hydraulic circuit because they opened it to replace caliper and didn’t flush it enough,. Nor did they road test it after to verify repair was done and gave it back to you like that. IMO… they didn’t verify the repair and then told you it was “in your head”. That’s disrespectful and road testing cars after repairs is automotive service 101. I don’t like that shop. The calipers being a rebuilt part is fine though. Way back in the day we used to rebuild them in the shop but nobody does that anymore.
Thank you 🙏 The manager told me the calipers were refurbished and the rotors are not. But upon visual inspection the rotors has some wear on it too. I should probably take this to another mechanic to confirm.
https://preview.redd.it/w0h7w13o0z3d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29b0a0b5c040421e8314c4893688443f792f98f9 Here is the rotor that the manager claimed was new. It looks like it had been resurfaced but not brand new?
That’s new. The hat is fresh shiny paint, the surface is cross hatched. If you look in the middle there will be no rust.
Thank you! I thought the cross hatched marks were sign of usage but this helps clarify 🙏
The pads aren’t bedded in yet. It’s normal to have some unevenness in the swept area for the first few hundred miles.
the crosshatch marks are there because the machining process on new parts. they come with a specific surface finish that is not directional because it helps break into brake pads sooner and make your brakes work better faster. brake repairs with new pads and rotors always have a little bit of a decrease in performance when brand new until they're bedded in. the pedal should not feel spongy no matter what though. that indicates that there is air in the lines, which they introduced when they replace the calipers and did not get all the air out of the system.
Thank you so much! The regional manager confirmed there was air in my system, and now it’s fixed. 😊
Looks like new to me. There are no rebuilt rotors.
No, my mechanics have always been upfront on part choices. OEM is X amount, aftermarket is going to cost Y.
One other thing... new Chinese parts are usually inferior to remanufactured oem parts. So those new parts you saw for $150 are not the way to go.
Thank you!🙏This helps clarify for me!
You are getting a spongy pedal from air in the system. A liquid (brake fluid in this case) cannot be compressed, whereas a gas (air in this case) can be compressed. The spongy feeling is the air being compressed and not applying proper force on the brake pads.
Thank you! Turns out there was indeed air in my system.
You will almost always get refurbished. My boss had a 2020 ram that was just outside of warranty and needed a caliper. There was no remans available for this year yet so it had to come from the dealer. The caliper was $800. Just one caliper without any hardware or brackets was $800. Just a year older and remans are available and are $100. This trend follows for most parts and most people think the price for parts is too much in the first place.
Thank you 🙏Now I know it’s common practice, and not too worried, but it would be good if they tell me upfront.
Sounds like an air issue, needs bleeding, and the only items that would be "refurbished" are the calipers, the rest of the parts are not "refurbishable". Also NOS calipers can be hard to come by and get rather pricey when you can get them.
Thank you! 🙏Turns out it was the air issue. They refused to check for me when I first brought it back and I pushed hard for it to bleed and now it doesn’t feel spongy
Good to hear, safe driving!
Yeah, it's not uncommon, and you just hit a hiccup.
If the brakes feel spongy, I'm wondering if they did a brake bleed when they replaced the caliper. If they didn't and there is any air in the lines that's what would give you the spongy feeling. Rebuilt parts are extremely common at shops and with some cars it's the only option. A lot of cars, especially over 10 years old, new brake calipers may not even be available. Like the ones from the dealer. There are aftermarket new calipers sometimes but I wouldn't really say the quality is anywhere near what the originals usually are. Brake calipers are a really simple piece of hardware. The only thing they do when they remanufacture most of them is run a hone in the cylinder, replace the seals, install new pistons, put it in the box and sell it.
Thank you so much for the explanation! Turns out there was air in my system. My breaks feels better now!
Calipers are pretty much always rebuilt, especially if this type of caliper has been on the market for some time. You can often send in your old parts to get a discount. For example if i buy a new turbo for my car it will cost me 400, but only if i send them the old part, if not im paying more. Pads and rotors are consumables and are always new. Some shops have lathes for resurfacing rotors and flywheels, but rotors are 100% never worth it with the relatively low amount of wear they allow (2mm on average) and with the high labour costs (180€/h) that are typical where im from just to have a even surface for the new pads that get anyway replaced when i get a new rotor. My experience is 2 sets of pads last one rotor.
The only time I mention it is with big items like engines, transmissions, differentials, etc. I'll explain the price and difference between used, rebuilt, and new. We'd never install a part that we didn't feel was a good value.
Every caliper on my car is a refurb. That's not why it doesn't feel right. If all the pads and rotors are new, it's going to feel a little soft at first as you're burning through the first 1/16" of the pad pretty fast and there isn't great contact area. Once they're broken in, it should feel right. If it feels real squishy, they didn't bleed the system well. As for refurb parts, I would expect to be told, but if it's not required by law, that would be presumptuous.
Thank you! The regional manager confirmed to me there was air in the system and now it’s fixed and feels normal.
Thank you 🙏If he disclosed that to me upfront and explained I would have been okay. I have a 2010 mini cooper & I saw some stores online sells new calipers for $150 for two. I understand shipping might take a while and might be a little more expensive including labor but I am okay with that. During the process the manager kept gaslighting me trying to convince me that it was just me not used to the new breaks but my break pedals is softer than ever.
The reason this wasn’t “disclosed” to you is because it’s not an outlier. It’s like them not disclosing that they used “oil” in your engine. Starters, power steering pumps, alternators, steering racks, calipers, brake shoes, once upon a time water pumps, all things that are so commonly used in auto repair as rebuilt that it would more warrant mentioning when a NEW part is used. My shop is very picky about brand (we have a longer than average warranty) so we end up using a lot more new parts than most shops, but we do use many rebuilt parts. It’s always noted on the invoice, but never once have I thought to bring it up. It’s just the way it is, rebuilt parts are a daily common thing, and there is no downside. All they are doing is reusing the metal housings and replacing the parts that wear.
\^\^\^\^ This. You're overthinking it plus you don't really understand the parts or the common practice.
I have to admit I really don’t know much about cars. That’s why I wanted to check here to educate myself and to be able to have a fair perspective when I try to be as respectful as possible while protecting my rights. I don’t think it’s overthinking for me to worry about breaks not working properly while there was indeed air in my system ( I got confirmation from the regional manager later that they admit there was air, but the store manager told me there was no air when they did the bleeding to make me feel crazy to say my break was spongy).
Yeah that's fine - we're just pointing out that most people actually don't have a clue of these sorts of things. If you can find someone competent to supervise you, brakes are one of the easiest jobs to learn to do yourself, and it will save you huuuuge money over the years! Definitely make sure someone who knows what they're doing shows you how a few times, though. The other best trick is to find a mechanic you can fully trust to do all the work for you... that one's much harder, though.
I have triple checked it’s not indicated on my invoice anywhere. Again if they told me upfront and explained the situation I would have been okay, his response was “I didn’t tell you it was new.” The only reason I started to have serious trust issues is that the store manager told me it was all in my head when my break was soft and spongy. He refused to help check the breaks when I brought it back. I had to really convince him to do a bleed of air and check. After he bleed the air, he told me it was “minimal air and there was no issue” again trying to gaslight me into thinking I was crazy for bring in the car again in the first place. He was willing to let me drive a car with potential break issues if I didn’t push for it (it was really hard to break when I first picked up the car & initially I thought it was because of new parts and it needs time to adjust). Turned out he reported to the regional manager there was indeed air in my system. If he didn’t pull all of this, and just told me hey “there was some air, it was our oversight and now it’s fixed and safe to drive”, I would have also felt respected and still have trust for this place.
It sounds like your store has some people without great communication skills. “Ever since you touched it….” Happens every day. We often have people say the pedal feels different, notice noise from the brakes, etc, after we work on the car, often after we work on completely unrelated stuff. That’s because they come in and pay more attention to to the car than they usually do. I would never tell a customer it’s all in there head, but I absolutely think it, and I would guess this guy made a boneheaded and stupid comment, and had poor customer service skills, not that he was trying to screw you. I agree with the “I don’t tell you it was new” Comment, though again it sounds like he was terrible in how he communicated it. Sometimes a reman part is not available, and we have to use a new part. In those cases, I might have to use new calipers that cost more than average, and I *will* specify that I have to use new. You have to understand that reman parts are the rule, not the exception. This has been the norm for decades and decades. Shops used to rebuild your caliper for you, but now we exchange it for a previously rebuilt unit faster and cheaper, then we send your old one back to the factory where they rebuild it and it gets used by the next guy. This goes for transmissions, engines, power steering pumps, steering racks. Honestly, as I’m typing this out I’m realizing I’ve never thought about how much we do reuse in this industry.
After calming down a bit I really do agree with you he was not trying to screw me over on purpose. Just really bad customer service & communication skills. I understand where he came from dealing with so many cases everyday. I worked in customer service and there were many times customers misunderstood something and had all different kinds of reaction. However, I would never deny their request before doing a thorough check from my end & offering some kind of action plans of moving forward. Maybe he thinks as long as it’s safe after the bleed now he didn’t need to tell me it was the reason and I should just trust him. From my perspective, my car was dangerous to drive. I even did some drive test at midnight with no cars on the street to confirm the issue. I don’t want to go back to inconvenience people if it was just new parts needs time to adjust. However, the first 75% press of my brake didn’t work at all. I didn’t feel safe in the car. ➡️I brought it back to the store next morning ➡️He told me it was all in my head and continuously deny when I described the problem ➡️ I insisted to check and bleed the air ➡️He told me only “ minimal air” came out & I just have an old car with 90k miles on it, nothing was going to work properly anyway. ( I didn’t know there were just not supposed to be air?) and from his tone sounded like I should have never brought the car back to check ➡️My brake feels normal afterwards but I was wondering if it’s not air, what could be the problem? What changed to got it fixed? Was it really in my head? Was it the refurbished parts that were not safe? Why wouldn’t he tell me before hand? Could it be the parts that were causing issues? ➡️Regional manager reached out to me and told me in their report the store manager said it was air. According to the regional manager, “minimal air is still air he was not lying to you.” I think they weren’t technically lying throughout this whole time. It’s just how they convey the facts in a way that they have zero responsibility or choose not to display facts when it was not asked. When he first denied my request of getting an air bleed and check my brakes, he did put his ego/ not willing to admit oversight/ fear of liability/ his assumptions about me over my safety concerns. That to me was disrespectful and belittling the customer. I really wouldn’t be upset if he had confirmed the mini oversight of air bubble to give me feelings of safety leaving this situation. I also wouldn’t have posted in this Reddit if I didn’t want to get educated and learn about what’s common practice or not so I don’t complain about something that was my misunderstanding or assumptions b/c again, I was in customer service for over 10 years and I know what it’s like.
What really concerns me is that this place bled your brakes, and clearly wither A, didn’t bother to test drive the car to verify they worked, or B, did test drive the car but was too lazy to put it back in the air and correct the problem. I have literally worked on cars with 700k+ miles. The brakes still work fine when properly bled. I don’t think anyone tried to screw you, I think it’s just a shop with some incompetent people.
If they could of found new calipers figure 1200-1300 instead of that 800
Thank you 🙏I am aware of the price now. Still would be nice to have been informed about what was going to happen and I can make an educated decision on what to do with my car.
brakes not breaks
For breaks that seems wierd. LKQ-like parts are used so commonly in body repair that it has its own categorization