Last week I was walking home from the parts store & stopped into monro to ask how much they charge to resurface rotors (something any parts store did 10 years ago, 20 years ago it cost $3 per drum/rotor), the guy at the counter gave me a "Huh? What are you talking about?"
I had to explain the process to him & he said "Oh I dunno anything about that, I started here five months ago & whatever that machine is was broken before that."
When I contacted the franchise about the issue I brought up the fact they're possibly putting people in danger/doing a half a$$ed job if the answer is just slap on new pads.
Their reply?
"We now only allow for new rotors/drums to be put on with every job."
After I explained how sleazy that is with the cost of some rotors, I just got a repeat of the former line. For example, the cheapest rotors for my truck are $180/each....not exactly affordable especially compared to cutting them down when they'll likely outlast the vehicle with how much meat is left.
I did some more calling around to what can loosely be titled "brake shops", either the person answering the phone has no idea what I'm talking about or said they don't have a lathe. To me that sounds like an exhaust shop without a welder or tire shop sans balancer.
Have formerly necessary skills been completely dropped in favor of (seemingly) mandatory shotgunning new parts at every possible chance?
I would not want to be the person who can't work on their own car right now given that it looks to be the same old story of "the mechanic is there to rip you off" but on super steroids.
If they're so concerned about overhead you'd think having any paying customer would be welcomed even if it's just something simple. Money is money.
On a sidenote, I later saw the guy at monro who didn't know what resurfacing rotors was working on cars.
Realize that is a chain repair company and a such. They just want to make a lot of money. They don't care about honesty. They don't care about helping their customer out. It's just the money making factory. But as a tiny agreement with them, The unfortunate thing is that rotors these days are so poorly made that you can't really correctly resurface them on a lathe because they're thinner than they used to be and made out of cheaper materials. So what happens if you turn them on a legs is even if you do get them flat then they will rewarp quickly. I've seen people turn modern rotors and they will warp and again as little as seven or eight thousand miles. So many people will just replace them
They've gotten so bad about this, even an AutoZone employee told an old woman in front of me that she needed to change her brake rotors and pads together every time she changes the pads. She was getting front brakes for her Kia Soul. First brake change at 60k miles. The woman behind the counter badgered her to buy the rotors and pads to the point where I butted in. Unless you drive like a scaled ape or are one of those fools that ride their brakes on the highway, you shouldn't need brakes and rotors every time. She sold her the pads.
That same person didn't know what an adjuster gear is in drum brakes, 6 months earlier. Most places work on pure profit. Nothing else.
Good on ya, Justin
It really is rediculous.
Not only do they try to up-sell unnecessary parts, the employees are such dimwits that you can still pull the brass magnet prank on them.
Oreilly's still offers rotor and drum resurfacing.
Thanks, I'll have to try there.
the cheapest rotors for my truck are $180/each
where the heck were you lookin'?
You should be able to find 'em for $40.
I wish they were that cheap, autozone was the cheapest & it only went up from there.
If I were to go by mail order & try to swap em out I'll be lucky if I'm off the road for a week...but most likely a month between shipping them back & waiting for the new ones.
shipping is a couple of days for around $30.
That's still a lot less than $180
The fronts are $40-something (I have to check the size, didn't realize there were multiple diameters) but that is alot better.
How is rock auto with exchanges on brake parts?
I had an issue with them over sending the wrong tranny cooler lines/dipstick tube then not being able to get in touch with customer service for a few weeks until paypal got involved.
no issues. They made a mistake once with wrong quantity. I emailed them and got a refund within a day.
I'm really surprised you can't find such a common part locally though. It's not like there's microchips in rotors.
They are available locally, it's just the insane price which prevents the purchase.
With such a common truck it's a shocker. You'd likely see atleast a dozen F-super duty trucks in the 99-04 year range watching by the roadside in under five minutes.
it cost $3 per drum/rotor
they take about 20 minutes to do, so this job earns him $9/hr . Would you work for that much?
Re-read that, I said it was $3 20 years ago.
Back then I was making a bit over $4/hr.
In 2002 the crappiest unskilled jobs paid around $10.
A shop would have to charge more to cover their overhead.
I worked at sears automotive then, only $4 & change, that's why I left after five years to stock shelves at shop rite. At first they got away with it by giving you more if sales picked up but that generally only happened during the snow tire rush.
The sad thing is when my mom became manager at that store (after working there for over 30 years) I was making more than her at Watkins Motor Lines driving fork lifts.
What do you expect from the local Pimple Farm working for $10/hr?
{black}:sweaty:
Generally I keep my fingers crossed that any one of the potential Mount St. Helens doesn't erupt & make me lose my lunch!
{blackemo}:anguished:
New rotors are made so cheaply their can't really be turned safely any longer. I doubt you will find many places that will still do it.
No clue how they get away with that, you'd think making inferior rotors would get the dot issuing fines to companies.
Mine might be original to the truck as crazy as that sounds given the age, but it sat for close to a decade.
it's not against the law to make car parts that don't last a long time
My '79 Catalina has rotors that also form the outside of the hub. Replacing them requires replacing or transferring the spindle bearings from the old to new rotors. Not a horrible job, but it's more involved than today's rotors. That's partly why they're a lot more hefty in the old days. With modern cars, almost anybody with wrenches and an hour can change a rotor. They sit on top of the hub and are retained by both the caliper, bracket, and wheel. My Catalina has an axle nut holding it on the car.
It may not be against the law to sell garbage but they've stepped in with fines for poor designs in the past.
Kinda surprised no class action suit against the parts industry hasn't come along with just how poorly it's all made. Heck, the icm in my olds bravada went over 20 times in just two years. It was so common that autozone went through those like toilet paper.
@Justin Shepherd
That's how my Camaro was, bearings in the rotors.
Funny thing is back when I was a kid I didn't know the race had to be pulled from the rotor & thought the one in the package was just protecting the bearing in transit.
It was never explained in trade school (the teacher just put you on a job without any basics & when you messed up a customer car THEN you got the lesson along with a flying wrench lol) & no one said anything so I just went on doing that until sometime in my mid to late 20s when I was enlightened by a shop manual.
it's not a poor design. As with everything, there is a range of quality. You can pay less and get crap, or pay more and get something better. The rotors have evolved to be disposable, like everything else. That's just reality now.
I worked at O'reilly for 7 years. We turned rotors/drums. 3 dollars though? We used to charge 15 each and even then it seemed like a lot of work for only 15 bucks.
Keep in mind that price was 20 years ago. Who knows, maybe they figured it was a easy in to sell extra parts like bearings or studs.
even factoring inflation, that's still only $4.94