ThingFish

My 92 LT1 needs basic brake work; pads & rotors. I would also like an alignment. I can't decide who I should hire to do the work. There are corvette specific shops but they are all the way across town and I would much perfer someone close. I see three choices close by.

1) Midas, etc. A brake/alignment shop
2) ProCare, Firestone etc. More general purpose auto shop
3) Dealer

There's a Midas across the street from where I work so that would be super convenient, but I can't say I would trust them. Still, they should be able to do brake work/alignment. The ProCare might be a bit better, but probably not much. We all know why I wouldn't mind avoiding the dealer.

Wadda ya think?

John

65Z01

No one but me touches my brakes and I took her to a local dealer for the 4-wheel alignment after lowering the rear a little.

If someone else must do the job, try to find a local shop recommended by someone you trust. Any of the shops you mentioned could have good techs or not.

scorp508

Myself.

Jeffvette

Me
Myself
& I

Cherry6speed

All of the folks you mentioned will forget to install the anti-rattle clips. Do it yourself before you fall prey to the :_dupe: and wonder why your brakes squeel and rattle. :cheers:

Trog

:iagree:

Buy a Helms service manual & either learn how to do it or let the shop who does it use it.

This is why I'm tinkering with opening a vette only service shop in my area. A level of service that our cars deserve.

vetteseniorcit

I took my 93 to Midas and they did a fine job. They turned the rotors and installed the new pads correctly. Now I had an episode quite a few years back when I was in an accident and my insurance refused to pay off because I had done the brake work myself. The Police said my brakes were "defective", although how they could determine that without pulling the wheels, etc. is beyond me. The officer stretched his leg into the car, slapped at the pedal with his toe and wrote me up. So that appeared in the accident report, the fine print in my policy, etc., etc, and I was stuck with the bill. Once burned, twice shy, I've always left it to a brake shop since. I've heard the stories of incompetence at places like Midas and I don't doubt for a minute that there have been occassions that bad things happened. But you have recourse and if you are any kind of a man, you won't let shoddy workmanship pass. I've been using Midas since and the only time I have ever had a problem was with my daughter's Mustang when the pads wore out pretty quickly. I took it back, they replaced the pads with a better pad without cost or a whimper and we never had a problem as long as we owned the car. I get what I pay for because I'm not afraid to raise hell till someone makes things right. A couple of Chevrolet service departments around here don't like to see me coming. But I guaruntee you that I don't have any more complaints!

Wayne88

My $.02.

If you own an older Vette [as we all do], the Vette needs TLC.
You should learn all about the mechanics of the Vette, & trust it to only those who handle it with TLC [if you can't do the repair yourself].

Given your options, I would take it to the Corvette specific shop, even if its across town. If they are conscientious, they will treat your car right, & you will need them in the future, because other things will go wrong that a Corvette specialist will only know how to fix.

In other words, an older Corvette & its mechanic is like an older person & his doctor--you need a good one & you should establish an ongoing relationship.
:cheers:

McShagger

I guess I would go with midas. I think they have a life time warranty on the brake pads. That said, the first time I had my mechanic do them. Hes a good guy and I really think I should give him some business sometime because the last three times I asked for his advice and did the jobs myself. This time around, I did them because I had the time and am hurting for money and I wanted to try out the PFC brakes pads with the life time warranty.

ThingFish

Thanks all for taking the time to reply. Multiple opinions and perspectives help greatly.

John

Fuzzy Dice

I'm not going to tell you I do my own or for you to do your own...you asked where you should take the car to have them done...it has been my experience to hunt down the best Corvette mechanic in your area and use him....it doesn't matter to me how far I have to go to get it done properly the first time...check here on the Forum for someone specific in your area and check with your local car clubs...usually one name keeps popping up...he's the one... good luck


[Modified by Fuzzy Dice, 12:24 PM 5/11/2004]

metropolis

My father in law. This advice is only applicable to you if you have your own father in law, you can't use mine.
:D

If you have some chain store do it, at least go pick up the parts at the dealer. Always go with OEMs.

:thumbs:

jimmyd

Al places are different, ask around, talk to people that has had work done where ever you take it.
I had a lady bring a Buick by my garage the other day, she wanted me to drive her car and listen to the brakes, She had just paid Midas 513.$ to put new pads, roters, brake lines, & wheel bearings on her car. She wanted it in good shape because she was going on vacation.
They didn't even clean the dirt off the old parts, The car didn't really need a brake job. it was in good shape, SO....They put the wheels back on and charged her (she was in her 70's) 513.$ ....didn't even spray brake clean on the parts. Midas, on Nolinsville rd. in Nashville Tennessee. (I took pictures of car, brakes, & paper work.)
ASK AROUND, get your old parts.

ThingFish

This is a good point. How many of you folks stick to OEM brake parts? This is a "daily driver" from a brake POV. :-)

John

88vettelover

Try to stay away from chain stores, they are bad news. Even though I work at one, Meineke, but at our shop we rely on return business and being fair. I can't say the same for other Meineke's, and I definitely can attest to Midas ripping people. Seen it a million times.

I would look for an independent shop, or ask some friends who they've had good experiences with. We get a lot of business by word of mouth because we are honest.

As far as OEM parts, I don't use them on my own personal vehicle. I use Bendix, sold at Advance, they're expensive, but we use them on all cars at my shop and since we switched to Bendix from Raybestos, we have had exactly 1 person in 2 years come back and have a squeak. Defective pad, cracked slightly. That's a lot of sets of pads and a lot of brake jobs.

Bendix makes a ceramic pad too, they work good as well. So, if you can't do it yourself, which I know you can, anyone can do disc brakes with basic hand tools. Best of luck! :cheers: