Barry Nichols inquires whether $500-$700 is too much for brake and bearing work at the VW dealer. I feel this is a religious question. Some people will want the confidence that comes from having the dealer do the work, especially when brakes are involved. On the other hand, none of the work specified is unique on the Vanagon, so any competent garage could do it. On the gripping hand, rear brakes are a reasonable driveway project; not right for your first experience of a wrench, but a good one for a savvy neighbor or VW buddy to come over and supervise. The only item that raised my eyebrows was the idea of machining the rotors without replacing the pads. Either you need new pads, or your rotors are ok, too, says I. It sounds to me as though the dealership read your instructions as implying you wanted to go first class, spare no effort, excess of safety is no vice, and responded in that vein. The fact that you wanted to rotate the tires at all, much less that you wanted the dealership to do it, was their first hint. I don't disrespect that at all, and in fact I act that way often about the Japanese cars that need to be commute-ready no matter what else is planned for the weekend. And that approach is expensive. B.
|
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.