Auto shop sent me on vacation with worn brake pads

[Bulldawgs14]

Hi there-
I recently took my car in for an oil change and told the repair shop that the place I bought tires from said my pads were getting worn. I asked them to check my brakes along with doing my oil change. The shop charged me for an inspection and told me my brakes were fine that there were just a couple of hot spots and to come back in a few thousand (I think he said 10 thousand but cannot remember). So I left figuring that the tire place was wrong?

Three weeks later and I am on my way home from vacation- I dipped into a little spot on my way out of a gas station which caused my dust cover to get knocked off. I was in the middle of nowhere and the gas station called a mechanic out for me. The mechanic said he sees that all the time and would just charge me $85 for a trip fee. Upon the guy getting under my car, his colleague noticed shiny fluid on my wheel area. I saw it as well-- they removed my hubcaps and noted that my brake pads were dangerously low - so low that it was causing the piston to pop out past the seal which damaged the caliper.

My question is this-- should the first shop have some kind of responsibility for my caliper repair and the cost of the additional money I had to spend in labor for the caliper? I was traveling with my 14 year old son and there was no way I was driving that car further without getting those things taken care of- they did both front pads and the caliper one one side. They had to drive 25 miles one way to get the parts so you can imagine how much my repair totaled up to be.

What if I had kept driving with brake fluid leaking out? The brakes had not been squealing nor had they felt any different to me. I brought the pads back with me show the repair center.

[shorod]

I think you would have a very weak case against the shop that said the brakes were fine. For starters, that was 3 weeks prior. If the issue happened 2 blocks from the shop, then maybe. But you could have driven around for 3 weeks with 1 foot on the brakes continuously. Did your vacation involve any mountain driving? Next, you admittedly drove your car in to an area that caused damage to nearby components. What dust shield was damaged, the one that is under most of your engine, or one for a brake rotor?

Probably most damaging to your case is that there's virtually no way the brake pads could be so worn as to allow the brake caliper piston to over-extend out of the caliper. About the only way that could happen is if the rotor was worn through. Your pads also would have had to have been completely worn through the friction material which would have damaged the brake rotor beyond repair. Yet you make no mention of a new rotor being installed. Additionally, if the pads were that worn you should have heard a terrible noise when applying the brakes. If that were the case, and you didn't have that checked, you have some negligence here as well.

Did you actually witness the piston seal being stretched beyond it's limit from just the hubcap being removed? Is there a chance this shop, who knew you were in a bind, and who knew they'd probably never see you again, may have exaggerated the situation, and maybe even gone as far as applying some fluid to help, umm, "highlight" the issue? Was the fluid clean or did it have some dust trapped in it like one would expect if it had been this way for a few miles of driving?

An finally, if the piston were extended this far, the red "Brake" light should have illuminated on the instrument cluster since fluid from the master cylinder would have needed to fill the space behind the hyper extended piston, thus lowering the fluid level in the master cylinder reservoir which should have triggered the low fluid level switch and illuminated the light.

-Rod

[Bulldawgs14]

Hi-
Thanks very much for the reply--
No, my drive did not involve mountain driving. I drove from Georgia to Florida. The cover that was knocked loose was the engine cover-- and the little dip was on the right side of the car, opposite of the side that had the caliper issue.

This was a repair done in a gas parking lot and not at a shop-- it is very likely that I totally got ripped off being a woman who has never studied up on cars and the mechanics that go along with it. Definitely my problem. I did not see the mechanic pour fluid on my wheel. I do not know what healthy fluid should look like- what I saw seemed dark. I didn't mention a new rotor as they did not bring it up. Regarding the bad noises I should have heard, I did not hear any when my brakes were applied. Even if I did I might not have done anything about it since the shop that performed my oil change told me not to worry about the noises. The noises would be from the 'hot spots' (which I am not sure what that means)

No warning lights were on - perhaps another indication that I got ripped off.

Thanks for your help and for all of the questions you raised-

I still personally feel that the shop let me down with the brake pads--

[shorod]

Well it certainly won't hurt to take the pads by the shop that you had check the car over before vacation and ask them to confirm they fit your car and explain the issue to them to see what they say. The worst that could happen is they will not take on jobs from you in the future, but most likely that won't be the case. They'll likely listen to you (assuming you don't start off by accusing them of not actually checking your car over) and help you understand what may have happened. They might, if they agree they overlooked something, reimburse you for some or all of your prior bill with them.

-Rod