The car was in park with the hand brake on. He showed me that he had trouble turning the front right wheel. He said that was because the brakes had seized because I hadn't driven it and it needed new brake pads and rotors, and possibly caliper's (not sure of the spelling). He quoted on replacing the pads and rotors and said he would clean the calipers 'for free' (I am dubious about that because the labor cost seems low). He didn't take the wheel off to look at the brakes. He didn't drive the car.
Is the wheel not turning when the hand brake was on a sign that the brakes need replacing?
Should he have tried the left wheel as well?
Can you tell the brakes need replacing without even looking at them?
Could the brakes sticking have caused the slow/poor response I noticed when I last drove it? I did brake to turn a corner before going up the incline and stopped before trying to merge into the traffic on the road.
If I drove the car, would that unstick the brakes if they are in fact stuck?
If the rotors have rusted through lack of use, would cleaning them be enough?
What if he buys the parts, and when he looks at the brakes they don't actually need replacing?
Would it have been reasonable to expect him to remove the tires to look at the brakes during the service?
He said there is a crack in one of the coils (he tried to show me where it is, but I couldn't see it). He said that is what is making the car idle rough and if it totally cracks that will be bad. He said the coils and leads seem to be the original ones which means they should be changed. He has quoted $1000 for two ignition coils and a set of ignition leads.
He said the small crack would be enough to make the spark plugs not perform and that is why the car struggled on the two occasions I mentioned above. He didn't look at the spark plugs. I would have thought that was part of the service. Does it sound like he has investigated this enough?
If I was fixing up the car to be in prime condition, I would just go ahead with it but I just want to get it going, and if it isn't strictly necessary and if it didn't cause the performance issue, then I could leave it for now.
He said there was just water in the radiator, no coolant which surprised me. He said it needed a coolant flush. When he sent the 'quote' he didn't include that. I asked about it, but he hasn't responded, probably because I said I needed a few days to think about the whole thing.
Finally, do you think it would be OK to drive the car towing the trailer a short distance? Would it be OK to drive it to a garage for a second opinion?
He also 'serviced' my car at the same time. The only thing he did that I couldn't do was change the oil and spin the front left tire (without the hand brake on) to show me that is what the other car's wheel should do. It all seemed very superficial to me which is why I am hesitating with going ahead with the quote despite the low labor cost.
I know this is more than one question.
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Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024 AT 6:17 AM