I'd just like to get some feedback from some people with more experience...

Not too long ago, I had my girlfriend take her car, 00 Hyundai Elantra, in to get serviced (90K), including a brake inspection, before a road trip we had planned. Everything checked out, except they noted that her brake pads were low, probably about 10 percent. Since that's an easy fix, we decided to go on with our short trip (San Diego to Flagstaff, AZ) and I was going to replace the pads when we got back. We left literally the next morning, about 12 hours later, for our trip.

Right before Yuma, on the border between AZ and CA, we here a nasty rattle coming from the front right wheel. She pulls over, and I check it out. The tire's fine and inflated, and to the best of our knowledge the brakes work fine...they stopped us. Since we were half way, we decided to get to Flagstaff, and get it checked out there.

We get to a Sears, and right away when they inspect the wheel, they notice a missing caliper bolt, from right where we heard the noise. Ugh. The rotor's warped, so I pony up the cash for a brake job.

Now, we had never touched the car since she had it, and she had driven it since January with no issues. But, the day after our service, a bolt backs out on the freeway. Hmm.

So when we get back, we go to the shop we had it serviced at, and the manager denies that it could have been their fault, as the inspection was just visual. According to him, the bolt must have been in the process of backing out, which wouldn't have been noticeable visually if it was "hand tight."

So what would you do? I called BS on the manager, because it seems very unlikely that it would just finish backing out the day after service, 4-5 months into owning the car. I talked to one mechanic, who said that he knows some guys, even during visual inspections, open the caliper to check the pad surface for cracks, since that's more cash right there in their repairs.

Any feedback would help. Thanks!

 

it's not what you want to hear but you're SOL.

You have no proof they did anything to the car...in all likelyhood though the tech probably got anxious and started taking bolts lose before the job was sold. I see this daily.

sorry for your luck.

 

We've been trying to get someone to work on my car for a long time now but noone wants to work on them. I found my manual and started to read troubleshoot on my car Back firing sputering and not idleing. It said i needed to get a TPS SENSOR for my 1988 model rx7. I have no idea how to install this and noone in my area knows how to. If you know what tools will i need a picture of some sort of the engine bay, or any help will surely help me out.