I had dropped my car off at Mazda for a plethora of things to get done to it (including the free lock reinforcement which will supposedly hinder any attempt to break into it AGAIN) and unfortunately I received a phone call during the day telling me that my rear brakes were shot and the front ones had a few months left in them.
Fortunately, I have never owned a car long enough to need the brakes changed. Unfortunately, I found out that it would cost upwards of $800 – $900 to change both sets and I coughed into the phone. I said that my Dad and I would do it ourselves so he would stop asking me if they could do it for us.
Alas, this is the life of being a car-owner and I will have to suck it up and change the brakes. The good news out of all of this is that I was talking to Eric and he reminded me that he helped Simon change his brakes a few weeks ago and he thought that Simon wouldn’t mind helping out on the task at hand so I am very appreciative that Eric will give Simon a ring and ask him about it. I’m sure it will save me a few bucks on labour costs.
Speaking about labour costs, (WARNING – RANT!), I brought the car in for the 96,000 KM Service check. Please note that the car is not under warranty anymore. So in the end, after giving the car an oil change and giving it the once over, it ended up costing me $260 due to 2.5 hours of labour costs.
I really don’t understand this too much and maybe someone can help me out. This is the first time I’ve brought the car in for a service appointment after the warranty has expired. Is this a proactive move on my part? Should I now become reactive and just wait until something breaks? They did point out the need for new brakes and they also pointed out that I need my transmission flushed out (another $200). But here I’m thinking that I could have saved myself $200 if I just didn’t bring it in for the service appointment, and really, what real use is the service appointment anymore if I am not under warranty? I think I shall leave it to the commenters of this website to let me know what I should be doing now. I am going to assume that I should stop wasting my money in bringing it in for a service appointment and just be reactive. Although there are slight proactive things I can do like look into how long it takes for a transmission to need flushing and mark it on the calendar and just get it done, instead of having someone look at it for $200 and then say “Oh yeah, you should get this done.”
Anyhow, so there you have it. I need new brakes and I await hearing back from Eric/Simon. I’m quite excited to change the brakes as I feel that if another person can do it, I’m sure I can also (if I have the right tools of course). I would like to thank my friend Pierre for giving me the idea of doing it myself after he told me of a time he changed the brakes on his Dodge Neon himself by following some instructions he found on the Internet.
God bless the Internet.
Day Two of my Freedom was fine other than that as I got to take a ride on the O-Train (which I love. I love trains.) to pick up the car and then I headed home where we all had steak and veggies for dinner and I watched an old Spidey episode with Vero and she loved it.
2 replies on “Freedom – Day Two (or How I Avoided The Man)”
Breaks are easy, but you do need the right tools.
Make sure you have a
– Jack (hydraulic jack is much easier)
– Jack stand(s), the Jack is designed to raise your car, not hold it in place, so use a jack stand.
– A board to put under the jack stand so that it does not sink into the concrete and leave marks on your driveway
– A “C” clamp, you will need to push the hydraulic plunger back in to accommodate new brake pads that have more rubber than your old pads, any vice or clamp should work, I have always found the “C” clamp works well and is easier to get into place than my little vice.
– Beers for your friends helping, cause helping a friend do his brakes is thirsty work.
– Other standard tools,
(socket set, maybe a torque wrench, long flat head screwdriver to use to pry, the more tools you have the more options you have if you have any problems)
Breaks and beer, can’t go wrong…..but usually it goes like this:
I have beer, i break something.
This should make for a nice change of pace.
Vehicle maintenance is always a good thing to do. Too many mechanical parts to fail. Bet there are quite a few things you can do to help yourself out.
#1, you don’t need to go to a dealership for an oil change. You can always do it yourself (even if you’ve never done it, you can probably finish it in an hour – with the right tools)
#2 Your car comes with a maintenance plan. It tells you when to change transmission fluid and so on. Unless you’re having car problems, it’s not worth paying someone to look at the fluid.
#3 If you are not bringing the car up for regular maintenance check, you should look at regular tune-ups.
Best option ever: get a friend who is a licensed mechanic and will do work for beer.