Need imput please.....

[Mustang83]

I just had my rear brakes done on my 83 Mustang today. After I picked it up from the Mechanic, I noticed a loud rattle coming from the rear of the car that got worse and worse as I drove it home. I got on the horn to the guy and explained to him the problem....He told me to bring it back down, so I did. He took off the wheel covers and checked the torque on the Lugs which were fine. He then begin to tell me that the problem was the rear axel....He said the guy who put the last set of brake shoes in, had put them in backwards. And by installing the new shoes and drums that it has screwed up my axel. But he then told me that the noise I was hearing was completley normal for "Mustangs" and that they are a crap car....He said I should just ignore the sound and that If I wanted to drive to vegas and back it would be completley safe.....So on the way home the rattle got even worse and then I heard something snap or come lose as I was just pulling into my driveway.....What can the problem be? I would appreciate all your imput...thanks

[mustangman]

Do you have another mechanic you can go to for a second opinion? I think that's what I would be doing. It's kinda hard to say what could of happened, but I don't think it should be making noises like that if he did the brake job properly. Are your brakes still working despite all that happened since then, and I'm asuming it wasn't making any of these noises before the brake job. At the very least, I would not take any long trips till you figure out what is going on, if I was you.

[Mustang83]

Hi, and thanks for responding.......The brakes are working fine, and that rattling and clanking I heard was not doing that this morning when I took it in. This guys responce was...."The noise was always there, you just never noticed it with the old brakes". And then like I said, on the way home the second time, something snapped, broke, came loose or something...I got underneath the car and did not notice anything broken "like the Axel".

[mustangman]

Well there is some internal components to an axle that you would not see just looking under your car, that could be making noises, but I seriously doubt that this is your problem. And I'm not to sure if brake shoes can even be installed backwards, sounds more like he screwed something up himself, and knows he did, so now he's making up excuses to cover his ass. If you know anything about this stuff, you could always pull the tires and brake drums off yourself and see whats going on, but if you can't, then your pretty much reduced to finding another mechanic to check it out for you. Either way I would get it looked at as soon as possible, before anything else goes snap.

On another thought, is this like, a regular garage that you went to, do you have reciepts for the work that was done and what not. You might want to consider trying to get your money back, or something if he did mess your car up. I don't think I would let him do any more work though.

What ever you decide to do, good luck with this problem, (sounds like you've already had more than enough bad luck), and welcome to the forums.

P.S. Keep checking back here, there are alot of good and knowledgeable people here that might be able to offer more information and advice than I can offer.

[Mustang83]

Thanks for your advice MustangMan..... I am in my third week of an Auto Mechanic Apprenticeship. So I am just learning how to work on cars. Last week I installed my own front brakes which wasn't too difficult...I haven't learned how to do rear brakes yet, thats why I took it to this Mechanic. My father-In law refered me to him so I felt comfortable taking the car there. Until of course, 3:30pm today.

I wonder if the bearings could have been making this sound. But would they snap the way they did? Bottom line, they weren't doing that this morning when I dropped the car off. And the way I see it, this guy should make the repair free of charge. I can already tell, this one is going to get ugly.

But to tell me that all Mustangs are crap and have problems with the rear axel's is the lamest thing I have ever heard.

Again, thanks for your advice. I will for sure be taking the car back down tomorrow to complain.
I look forward to hearing more words of wisdom from other people on this forum. Thanks

[351wStang]

Originally Posted by Mustang83

I wonder if the bearings could have been making this sound. But would they snap the way they did? Bottom line, they weren't doing that this morning when I dropped the car off. And the way I see it, this guy should make the repair free of charge. I can already tell, this one is going to get ugly.

No its not your bearings, I can just about garantee that. When bearings start going out they growl. If you like and have a digital camera you can pull your rear tires and drums off and take a picture of the brake assembly and post it here. I can take a look at the picture and probably tell you if something is messed up. After this problem is resolved I wouldnt be taking my car back there.
Not offense, but why didnt you get someone you are working as an apprentice with to help you do your own rear brakes? Seems to me that would have been the perfect learning oportunity. The more you learn to do yourself the more money you save.
But to get back on topic if you can post a pic of your rear brake assembly that would probably help diagnose your problem. Just hope nothing falls out when you take the drum off. I've seen seld adjusters hung between the dust plate and the rear shoe ground down by the drum, springs snapped or fallen out of place when the shoe gets loose for some reason, just to name a couple things. People try to rush a job or dont know how things go back together and re-assemble them wrong and they last no time. The mechanic should have test driven the car before you where ever there to pick it up. I work in a shop so I know how it gets when you have complaining customers return. But if you stay on his case then he will probably get tired of you and fix it right. He may have done something as simple as hook a spring in the wrong hole and a shoe got loose, or he may have tried to leave the "E" brake out. Have you checked to see if that works? If he left it out then your rear brakes are not put together right and will not stay together very well if at all. Without the E brake bar in there the bottom half of your brakes will not go together properly and you will have a cable hanging loose in there which could have been causeing the noise you heard. That is unless he took the cable itself out too. Best of luck to you and I hope this helps.

[Mustang83]

Thanks for the responce 351Stang....The reason I didn't take my car to my shop was because we are backed up with work and there is only two of us making the repairs, which takes longer since my mechanic is teaching me. I talked to him this morning and he gave me shit for taking the car to this other guy. Well, deserved :-)

That sure makes sense what you said about the springs though. Obviously, if they were not put in the right hole, the shoe would come off and begin to grind and clank, which is the sound the car is making. Anyway's, im going down to the dude in a bit with my father in law who's also going to talk to this guy. If the man still denys that he screwed up the install I'm going to take it over to my shop....

I'll keep ya posted on what the problem was. Thanks for your advice, man.

[Mustang83]

Originally Posted by 351wStang

No its not your bearings, I can just about garantee that. When bearings start going out they growl. If you like and have a digital camera you can pull your rear tires and drums off and take a picture of the brake assembly and post it here. I can take a look at the picture and probably tell you if something is messed up. After this problem is resolved I wouldnt be taking my car back there.
Not offense, but why didnt you get someone you are working as an apprentice with to help you do your own rear brakes? Seems to me that would have been the perfect learning oportunity. The more you learn to do yourself the more money you save.
But to get back on topic if you can post a pic of your rear brake assembly that would probably help diagnose your problem. Just hope nothing falls out when you take the drum off. I've seen seld adjusters hung between the dust plate and the rear shoe ground down by the drum, springs snapped or fallen out of place when the shoe gets loose for some reason, just to name a couple things. People try to rush a job or dont know how things go back together and re-assemble them wrong and they last no time. The mechanic should have test driven the car before you where ever there to pick it up. I work in a shop so I know how it gets when you have complaining customers return. But if you stay on his case then he will probably get tired of you and fix it right. He may have done something as simple as hook a spring in the wrong hole and a shoe got loose, or he may have tried to leave the "E" brake out. Have you checked to see if that works? If he left it out then your rear brakes are not put together right and will not stay together very well if at all. Without the E brake bar in there the bottom half of your brakes will not go together properly and you will have a cable hanging loose in there which could have been causeing the noise you heard. That is unless he took the cable itself out too. Best of luck to you and I hope this helps.

Took the car over to my shop today and removed the brake drum. You pin pointed the problem. The E-Brake bracket was not put back on correctly. When I took the drum off I found the bracket stuck between one of the shoes. The bracket was bent in the shape of a U when I removed it. The dude also tried to force one of the retaining pins into the wrong hole which bent the hell out of the spring with the clip.

[mustangman]

Well it sounds like you got it fixed before it did too much damage at least. I know if it was me, I would probably just write off the cost of the repair, consider it a lesson learned, and not give him anymore business, so I'm not really "one to talk" but I hope you go and get your money back from that S.O.B., or sue him, or something. It would be nice to see someone like that get whats coming to them. And the worst thing is, he's probably pullled this kind of garbage on alot of people. From what you put in your first post, it seems like he was trying to soak you for a whole new axle, and to tell you that all Mustangs are crap is very lame indeed. Not at all the kind of talk you expect to hear from a professional.

Anyways, at least your car is working again, and it sounds like you know a little more about rear brakes now. Good luck with your car in the future and hope to see you back here with a happier post the next time.
(For instance, how you sued the pants off him and now you got a 2004 Cobra)

[stang_racer20]

Originally Posted by mustangman

Well there is some internal components to an axle that you would not see just looking under your car, that could be making noises, but I seriously doubt that this is your problem. And I'm not to sure if brake shoes can even be installed backwards, sounds more like he screwed something up himself, and knows he did, so now he's making up excuses to cover his ass. If you know anything about this stuff, you could always pull the tires and brake drums off yourself and see whats going on, but if you can't, then your pretty much reduced to finding another mechanic to check it out for you. Either way I would get it looked at as soon as possible, before anything else goes snap.

I couldnt agree more. He's trying to screw you over! Take it back to him and tell him to look at it and fix it. If he pulls another excuse I'd call your lawyer, show him your receipts and ask him what you can do! Thats why I do my own work these days no matter what. Being a Mechanic helps me a lot, but you get my point. I just had enough of repair shops! Dealerships are good, but expensive. I'd definitely guess something happend in your drum assembly. A pic would definitely help if you could get the drums off by yourself. Either way, good luck!

[Mustang83]

The guy I'm doing my apprentice with, is writting a report on what we found when we took off the drum. We took a picture of the e-bracket and the pin w/spring. I called the owner of the garage I took the car to. He was not too impressed with what his mechanic had done to my stang. He offfered us store credit of 250$. My father-inlaw takes all his cars to this guy, so I think the owner was worried about loosing him as a customer. As for me, I will never take my Stang back to this guy. But a positive came out all of this, I learned how to do rear brakes :-)

But your right, this guy was trying to sell me a whole new axel. These guys are worse than Lawyers!