Well, this sucks....

andrew.savage

Member
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2006 Mazda 3 5-Door
I'm currently at Liberty Mazda in CT and I have 60K pn my '06 hatch. I came in for a tire rotation, balance and an oil change. MY gf and I sit down a go to the new computers that have here and the woman comes over and goes, "Well there is come bad news. Your pads are worn down so much that it has compromised the rotor itself and there is not enough width to be up to DMV standards. This means that I have to replace the rotors TODAY."

So....I came in for routine half and hour oil change and now am spending over 650 buck because I also need a transmission fluish for the MT and something that has to do with the throttle body and fuel injectors.

I had to vent. Sorry guys. I wish I woul dhave known that about rotors being worn down.
 
They can make you do that? You should have a choice as to when you can replace and if you want to do it yourself. Can't you sign a waiver and beat it out of there? That does suck. Sorry man!
 
ouch sorry to hear that... oem rotors from the dealer are insane $$ when you can get a good a/m set for hundreds cheaper... 650 for all that from a dealer really doesn't sound horrible imo.
 
as far as i know in CT only the DMV can determine a car unfit for the road. garages can advise you that a car is unfit and that you will fail an inspection but they have no authority to actually do anything about it. i go to liberty as well and know that lady. i don't trust and the first time she tells me anything like that i'm going to tell her to go eff herself because any major maintenance required i'm doing myself. i'm also going to ask her to show me anything like that. my guess is more that they didn't actually look at them but they looked at your mileage and repair history and said "he should need brakes"

that said, if they really were that bad he should have them done anyways. he didn't have to have them done right there right then but they still needed to be done
 
If your pads were worn down that much wouldn't you have notice it while driving and braking??! I'm not an expert on brakes but when the pads are low don't they make a scratching sound when its rubs against the rotors?!
 
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i gotta tell you, seems like they used a scare tactic to force you to agree to work you might not have needed them to do.
 
I had that happen at Pepboys right after I graduated high school. I went in for a set of tires they had on sale for my Cavalier Z24, and they called me later that day to say that my alignment and suspension was shot, and legally they couldn't let me drive off the property with the car. I told them fine, go ahead, and it added another 4-500 dollars to the bill. Looking back I should have said fine, and called a tow truck to take the car to my normal mechanic. I hate that scare tactic of "its broke, so since its here and we found it, we're required to fix it".
 
Yeah, I would have thought that I would have heard the squealer as well. But I am insane about going easy on my car and if anything like that happened, I woul dhave gottent eh pads replaced. She said that once the pads get to a certain depth, they can start to wear on rotos themselves. I must stress, that the brakes sounded fine and there was no metal on metal. She just said that the pad itself can start to wear ont he rotor, whihc I have never hear of.
 
yeah, sounds like a load for several reasons:

1.) the whole wear by itself -- you would have felt a constant drag from the "locked" wheel
2.) scarring the rotor is not an easy job -- you hear spine-shivering metal grinding that will give you chills

either way, not much else you can do. work is done, parts were replaced, you go back and they will just tell you they were looking out for your safety and blah, blah, blah.

sucks it happened. learn from it and move on.

(going back in time is not possible: i would have loved to have the dealership call the police and have them visit to explain to you the LAW of why you can't drive your car away)
 
In california there are laws that say the car cant be legallly on the road if it fails certain inspections. I guess in his state the dealership cannot legally release the car.

However, you should really ask to see the pads and rotors. If it is how they say, there will be deep gouges in your rotors. the pads will be

I actually just had my rears done. my pads were so low they gouged teh rotor. Luckily i had enough thickness to have them machined. So yes, they make a loud obnoxious noticeable grinding sound. I would go back and s*** a brick id you honestly say you didnt hear anything.
 
^^ but wouldn't that open for a lot of abuse. if a dealership deems that your car can't leave till they fix it would be a gold mine.

i'd love to believe all dealerships are caring(and some are really great w/ customers) there are other that really make it obvious they are after your $ more than your word of mouth/trust.
 
In california there are laws that say the car cant be legallly on the road if it fails certain inspections. I guess in his state the dealership cannot legally release the car.
i live in his state. my brother works at a garage. we have the same laws that say a car cannot be on the road if it fails inspection. however the only people who can actually perform these inspections are the DMV. even a policeman cannot. all they can do is issue a ticket saying that you have to get an inspection at the DMV. all a garage can do is advise that you would fail inspection. they cannot deem a car not roadworthy and revoke or suspend a registration
 
Yeah sounds like you should make a complaint to the BBB or something like that because that is total bulls***.
 
Like someone else previously said if your rotors were really that jacked up, you would hear metal on metal grinding. If you can go back and ask to see the pads and rotors they claim were shot. Don't let them get away with that bull. Situations like this is why people don't trust the stealerships.
 
It might be worth a try just asking depending on how long ago they did the work. (dunno)
 
It might be worth a try just asking depending on how long ago they did the work. (dunno)

That's funny because when I came home my friend came over and he goes, "So you kept the rotors so we can measure the difference between the old and new ones right?"

I was like no, should I have?

He said that anytime there is stuff like this , keep the old parts.

Live and learn I guess.
 

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