just brakes

oy. how i do hate auto repair issues.

last night, ren, myself, jeremy, john, and john's friend justin had a matrix marathon at our house.
john and justin only stayed for the first movie but ren, jerms, and i lasted through the second. it got us pumped for the finale.

so today we got up and left the house around 9am. we picked ren and justin up and headed to Just Brakes. We needed to drop off john's car to get his brakes fixed. the way my dad put it, it seemed we would just drop the damn thing off and come back a few hours later and it would be fixed. no such luck. when we first got there, i hopped out to talk to the mechanic about what was wrong with john's car. the rest of the guy's waited in jeremy's car.

i told the guy what was wrong. when you push the brake pedal down, the car does not stop. and also there is a weird air hissing sound coming front he pedal. they guy said, yup i bet it's a power booster problem. when john arrived with his car, they took it for a test drive. the guy came back and said that the car was driving fine. that should have been the first indication that things were going to be bad.

they said they were going to do a full bleed on the brakes and then tell us what was wrong. the inspection cost 27.00. it also took 30 minutes. by that time, most of the people waiting were getting impatient. i didn't hear them complain cuz i was inside but i know i would have been. finally, a service counter guy began talking to us. he told us that he thinks our master cylinder that we had replaced recently was refurbished and not new. he said that refurbished cylinders have all kinds of problems and never ever last. we asked him how sure he was that it was a refurbished one and he said that he couldn't make any guarantees but that he was 80% sure. he went on to explain that the container at the top looked old and used and that if it was a new cylinder then it would have a new top as well.

anyhow, we ended up having the shoes and caliper or whatever replaced along with most of the other periphery brake parts. they had a 99 dollar special for it. they said they'd do a further inspection on it while that was being done.

so we went to go see the matrix while they did their business. frustration was building.
we got to the theater around 10:10 or so and got tickets for the 10:20 showing. we got to see a lot of good previews. LOTRs III of course is a must see. I'd like to see The Alamo looked pretty cool but of course we all know they all die. Last Samurai is a must see because we love all things Japanese EVEN though it has Tom Cruise in it.

the matrix met my expectations. i thought it was a great ending to a great epic. i only wished the new star wars trilogy was half that good. the battle scene was phenomenal. the mech warriors rocked my world and the final matrix battle was extremely impressive. fun with water. yeah. that's all i'll say for now. a truly great finale for a truly awesome 6 hour movie as i am calling it. that's how i read the matrix trilogy, as one long great movie. i think that's how a lot of people go wrong with this series. they expected to see three separate distinct movies. it's all part of one long stream of consciousness. the first part was the awakening, the second was the discovery, and the third was the resolve.

it all fits just grand in my book. critics be damned.

so. after the movie, we went back to Just Brakes to find out about the car. once again, we left our friends and jerm's to wait in his car. after taking off the tires and inspecting it and told us that the problem was with the rear wheel cylinders. that they were leaking and needed to be replaced. so yeah, you guessed it, more money ($500 bucks). we asked them if they thought that these repairs would fix the problem, and the counter guy said yeah. he kept pushing us to replace the master cylinder. but we wouldn't budge yet. we told him to fix the rear cylinder and other associated parts and we'd test it after that.

so we came back around 4pm to pick up the car. the guy was ready to ring us up when john asked to test drive it before we paid. the guy was like "yeah sure, but you're paying either way."
what the hell? how you gonna go and charge someone for a service when you can't guarantee quality or even if the damn thing works? the counter guy said that it was tested and that everything was fine. damn lazy ass mechanics. they'll do the least amount of work possible.

so john went for a test drive and i stayed and talked with the guy. i thought everything was going to be okay. oy. nope. john came back and was like, "man, i don't know what brakes should do but i don't think they should be like this. it's the same as it was before."

so the guy said he'd take it for a drive and check it out himself. we went with him. i didn't take him but one brake try to see that something was wrong. plus he was like, "hmm, there's this air hissing sound. i know what that means. it means that there is something wrong with the power booster." i was like, "uh, i told the mechanic that when i first got here!"

he was like, "well, i'm sorry but i wish i had known that." so we went back to the shop and he priced a power booster for us. another $400 dollars. by this time, john was getting very pissed off. then he went off to talk to my dad about all of this which of course was only going to get him more angry. i stayed and talked with the guy. i was like "how come you're the only one who noticed that there was a problem? even your mechanics said there's nothing wrong." he was like "well i've been doing this and fixing brakes for many years." and i was like "yeah, but come one. it doesn't take a mechanical genius to figure out there's something wrong with those brakes." then i asked him some questions about the parts. i wanted to know if there was any real evidence that the master cylinders were refurbished.

while he was explaining his evidence to me (which to me didn't add up) john came back pretty peeved. he was like "look, if we get this stuff done and replaced the master cylinder, is this thing going to work? i do not want to have spent all of this money and it not work. if something needs to be fixed, you need to tell me up front. i don't want to have to keep finding out something else needs to be replaced..." he goes on and on bitching the guy out about how he want to make SURE that it's going to work. that they shouldn't be giving us back the car when the brakes don't work. etc. of course after that, the guy comes down on the price of the master cylinder. another 60 bucks.

however, in the end, we're gonna get screwed out of 1000 bucks. i was like "look Will (the guy's name), right there the sheet. Air sound at front pedal. i told the guy up front." he just kinda sighed and was like "yeah, i'm sorry, wish i had known."

now i'm totally suspicious about everything. i bet there was nothing wrong with the rear wheel cylinder. i bet it was the power booster all along. and i bet there is absolutely nothing wrong with the master cylinder. so anyhow, john's basically getting a completely new brake system for his car.

we told the guy though, when we come back to get the car, it better work.

i'm going to write them later to let them know what happened. i mean, how can you give someone back a car that doesn't work. their mission statement says: Our mission is to assure a safe braking system in every customer�s vehicle by consistently performing high quality, dependable brake repair and service.

well if that's true, they failed.

so blah blah blah. foo foo foo. i hate auto repair messes. we need to learn how to fix cars ourselves. you just can't trust mechanics... nor should you ever.