Rant time.

I don't understand these guys who ferret out and start doing repairs without calling the customer. It just blows my mind, had to tear some poor kid a new one because his father committed him to 3 hours of pointless work on my car.

So the back story, I have an 86 VW diesel. Since I was busy with some other projects and work, I figured, hey, ill farm out the timing belt on this car and have it done by a nearby shop that specializes in VW and MB.

Now, in relation to the story, the car is currently a rolling restoration project, and not a daily driver, has no interior, is missing everything but the dash as im doing lots and lots to it over time. The fact is that it was blatantly obvious its not a DD, and of course I made this clear shooting the ***** with the vw guy there.

Call the place, kid on the phone says "we're just buttoning up the brakes now" What?
owner of the shop authorized without calling me hundreds of dollars of rear drum brake service on the car, and doubly ridiculous as I am upgrading it all to calipers and rotors anyway.

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Most places that is the shop's loss if they perform unauthorized work.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Do you know why he did the brakes when all you wanted was a timing belt? That's a helluva miscommunication! Yeah, I was gonna say pay him at cost for the brake job just to be a nice guy, but if you were going to upgrade, then I wouldn't pay him anything. Best thing you can do, is try to work out something with him rather than go yelling and screaming. Piss him off too much, and he might not easily give you your car back.

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

oh I didn't pay for it, don't worry.

I feel kinda bad for the kid, because he was the victim of my wholly understandable rage.

They did the timing belt, and did a valve adjustment for me, then the owner of the shop went hunting for work, had his guys take off all the tires and look over everything, found a dragging rear brake shoe because of a broken pin. (i know because I saw it beforehand myself, im totally aware of all the issues with the vehicle)

Then he proclaimed it a safety issue, and told his guys to fix it adding something like 300 dollars to the bill for 3 hours of labor and parts taking apart the rear drums and adjusting.

Then he left for the day.

EDIT- what really drove me nuts is I heard the whole gambit of excuses from the kid, up to and including "your life shouldnt be worth 300 bucks" My response being "bull****, save that crap for someone else, no tires were about to fall off, and I don't want to hear about it. "

the thing has new wheel bearings on all corners, and they were all correctly adjusted immediately prior.

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Not that I dissagree with you here but then there's the other side of this:

Guy brings a 190SL to my shop for some repairs. I ask him where he wants me to start and he says to make it driveable. The car hadn't run in years which means doing all of the brakes. The carbs were worn out and the fuel tank had a mountain of crud in it. The worse thing about this car was that it had old bias ply tires on it that had been flat for 20 years. He inflated them and drove it to me like that, a trip of at least an hour or more!
Once the new fuel started to soften all of the crap in the fuel tank it plugged everything in the fuel system. He wouldn't accept that as a viable reason for me to have the tank cleaned because he drove the car to me and it was just fine when he droped it off. The car had one working brake, no working signal lights, no brake lights and 30 year old bald tires when he drove in with it.

I fixed everything to the point where it would run and drive to a safe level using a set of tires and rims I keep mounted for situations like this. He refused to let me install new tires on it and insisted upon driving it back to Detroit the same way he brought it to me. So I insisted that he sign a waiver before he left stating that I would not be responsible for anything that happened to him or the car, due to the dangerious condition of the tires. He signed it and left.
A day or two later he clalled me complaining about the car and said he was going to bring it back to me. That was at least 10 years ago. Never saw him or his car again.

Not the same thing of course but I fix what needs to be fixed on old cars. Newer stuff is a bit different but we only work on older cars so inspecting brakes is part of the program. I never go further than brake pads if the car needs them and sometimes brake hoses. I would let the guy know if it needed rotors or brake drums.

It was an interesting story but not the same at all.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Yesterday I sold off the engine from my 82 300CD. We pulled it out and I separated the tranny off to keep.

First I found a bolt missing on the tranny. When I got to the flywheel I found that all twelve bolts were only slightly more than finger tight.

This is from when my Indie did the transmission transplant about five years ago.

I am goiing to have to have a talk with the shop owner.

The buyer is going to put it into a jeep. He showed up with a Dodge ram like mine but his has 4WD, a gigantic lift, a package on the engine and a 4 or 5" straight pipe.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

The difference is that you were in contact with the customer, and he authoized the work you recommended.
Goodness knows that in a 30 year old vw there is work and to spare tht you can find to do. My rage was based on the owner just deciding to do whatever work he found on an obvious project without calling me, at which point he would have discovered everything was being swapped anyway, and the work was both unnecesarry and pointless.

On top of that, being aware of all the cars shortcoming personally, since I've put it together and sent them this job since I didn't have time to do it myself, they set me off by spinning a tale about safety and me endangering my life, ect. After being caught padding the bill.

It was sort of squalid, the kid knew that I knew he was making up a lie about the rear wheel bearings being loose, but still went through with it. Yet they didn't decide to do some real safety repairs as the front struts are blown out, and the strut bearings are so worn out they are rattling around. What clarly happened is they picked a repair to not tell me about that was just a few hundred more that added to the bill, but didn't double it.

Irritates me because these guys know their stuff and do a great job, seems stupid to me to add sme unethical businss practices padding the bills without contack as a regular policy. It was clear that the son of the owner was caught between his father's action, and trying to explain himself without demonstrating that he knew perfectly well it was a bs move. End of the story is that if the kid had his own shop, id take stuff to him, but I can't trust the owner to deal openly with customers, so they lost my business

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Oh for sure. He knew what I was doing but wouldn't let me do it.

Nineteen eighty five was the last year for adjustable valves. You needed a special tool and shims to do it if I remember right. Nineteen eighty six where the first year of hydralic lifters. In my opinion you may have an earlier engine in that car. Or it is before the 86 model year. Or they cheated you by claiming a valve adjustment.

Man, this is the main reason why I ran from the auto service business as soon as I could. I used to be a service writer for Pep Boys (yes, I know ).

In every location I worked or had association with there were writeups and repairs for things that never had to be touched.


The very worst I saw was seeing another service writer scheduling an oil change, four tires and an alignment on A CAR WHICH WE HAD JUST SERVICED FOUR MONTHS PRIOR. I had it in for an oil change and alignment prior to this service and recognized the car on the ticket.

The service writer who convinced the owner (the wife this time, the husband brought it in before) decides to upgrade the oil change to synthetic, do a brake inspection, replace the wipers, do a battery service and charge an hour diagnosing a "tick" he apparently heard the engine making.

Now it's my job to have her pay for the work and pick up the car (next shift). She's trying to figure out why the bill was so high, and I explained what was done. She shrugs her shoulders, pays and leaves.

I get the husband back in the shop right before we close. Thankfully the previous service writer had stepped back in because he'd forgotten something. After getting the service manager involved we found out that the service writer had never looked at the car before it was pulled into the bay. Old tires had PLENTY of tread, oil was just changed by the owner the week prior, brakes had plenty of meat and no noise, and alignment was just done four months ago (the tech said nothing needed to be adjusted anyway).

It got even better when we found out that there was NO OIL IN THE ENGINE, which turned out to be the "tick" that the service writer tried to have diagnosed.

We ended up refunding everything but the cost of the tires and hoped he didn't decide to sue us. Even gave him back his old tires. I never saw that car in the shop again.

And the service writer got a slap on the wrist.

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Onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat

I recondition w123/w126/w124/w140/r107/r129/ steering boxes!


1984 300D "Elsa" odo reset 6/2011 147k
1983 300TD "Mitzi" ~268k OM603 powered
1995 E300 "Adelheid" 262k [Sold]

I guess this sort of stuff happens but we really aren't doing this type of work that a full service store front would be doing. We do full restorations and maintanence work.
Cars that come to see us every season rarely have problems. Those that come after they have problems from lack of service, usually end up having a whole lot of work done.
I tell them they have a legal requirement to have a safe vehical on the road. Hey, if you don't have brakes, you're dangerous to everyone.

The guy with the paper thin rotors sounds interesting, no?

I have some really decent customers and sure won't complain.

It takes a long time to learn how to run a business you start from scratch with no prior expirience. By the time you do have most of it figured out, it's time to retire............

It has an 85 engine out of my earlier jetta. I moved it into the 86 shell earlier this year mating it to the 86 gearbox with a new clutch and other new parts. On that upgrade, I was called by the shop owners son who figured since the thing had original shims in it, that it would be worth doing while he was in there.
That was something I had planned to do later myself, but since I had already farmed out the timing belt because I was too busy and just wanted it done, I figured what the heck. It does run much much better, which is a pleasure.

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I agree with him it is a safety issue. I don't see a problem with him hunting for work. HOWEVER, he needs to understand that if you didn't authorize that, you are not responsible for it. Should he make you sign a waiver that says you were informed of the possible safety issue, I would go along with it. That is about as far as it goes for his "fishing expedition". This is why I won't let my wife deal with mechanics. All she is allowed to do is get the keys and drive it off. No talking to the people. Don't even look them in the eye. Car work is NOT her forte so she doesn't get to deal with it. Some things are not my forte so I simply nod my head and go along with whatever she wants.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Let me explain what was "wrong" in greater depth, as under normal reasoning, brake issues are indeed about safety, when in fact they exist. I took the tire off and the drum at home, and not only can I not find new parts or evidence of recent adjustment apart from removing the drum, but everything in there looks the same as it was, brake dust over all. Im wondering if they made up the dragging brake shoe and broken pin they told me. Earlier I had assumed that the pin must have broken since I knew it was almost rusted through, but its still there.

Good move on protecting your wife, Martureo's story is exactly the same stuff I also experiences while working at pep boys as a mechanic for a short period.


On this car, I had replaced the rear wheel bearings about 4-5 months ago, and set them with just a hair of movement for heat expansion. (this came after I went off the road in this car in the snow into a field, so they needed to be done, the wheel bearings had quite a severe wrench from sliding into a field)

While I was in there, I noticed that while all the brake shoes (at least 80%) and hardware were technically good, it could really use some new brake shoe hardware since one of the pins was rusty on the passenger side.

However, since the car is a project, and sitting most of the time recently about a mile from these guys, and since I have a rear brakes rotor and caliper upgrade to install, I wasnt interested in putting in new hardware at the time, so I put it back together with the existing pins, and it was complete with no issues.

Also the car has new front brakes and wheel cylinders, and stops on a dime. Essentially, There were no visible, audible, or felt issues with any of the brakes on this car, at the time I dropped it off.

From my perspective, my new theory is they used the premise of the slight play I set in the wheel bearing (verified just a few weeks ago when I was screwing with some fuel line stuff) to take apart the rear brakes and run up a couple hundred dollars in labor. At a minimum, there should have been an attempted parts charge for at least brake shoe hardware, or wheel bearing parts, but since none of the components were bad, I had a 4 hour labor charge for taking everything apart and putting it back together again.

Something I have done on the side of the road in well under an hour for both sides, another thing I found preposterous. You really can't get much simpler than one of these cars, for an experienced VW technician to take 4 hours to disassemble and reassemble a Mk2 rear drum brake assembly WITHOUT touching lines or wheel cylinders, just removing the drums on a lift simple defies belief.

The car is now back in my possession safety. They made a threat about a waiver, but again, nothing was apparently wrong, so no waiver was produced as the car was perfectly safe. Certainly ruined my friday afternoon, Ill say.

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