Hello New Member here.

I just allowed Pepboys to put Street Heat cross drilled rotors and ceramic pads on my 2002 Dakota. We all know the OEM are garbage. On my way home they felt like they were dragging a bit but I put it off to the new tires they installed also. After 10 miles or so I knew it was the brakes as the dragging was getting worse. I was just getting on the highway and I hoped that might cool them enough to get home. No luck. By the next exit I was in 4th gear at 45 mph with enough burning smell to sour the day.
I pulled off the highway and they were smoking and spitting ceramic. Let them cool about twenty minutes and headed home through the back roads ignoring quite a few stop signs along the way.

I own a few shade trees but I'm no mechanic. I also do not consider myself an idiot. My original plan had been to install them myself but when I saw the tires that Goodyear did not have at Pepboys I handed them the brakes also. I've got the brakes working now and they didn't even warp. Try that with OEM. I went back to Peps to see what they're going to do for me. I would like new rotors and pads seeing as I burnt 20,000 miles off them limping home. The manager told me you cant put cross drilled or slotted rotors or ceramic pads on a Dakota.

Hence I came here to see if there was any truth to that. Ive done some searching and found most of you have done just that. You have to do something when a new brake job from Dodge starts vibrating 15 minutes from the Dealership. Pepboys wants me to let them reinstall new pads and rotors. What a joke.

I'm guessing no one agrees with the manager that performance brakes always burn up on Dakotas. Do they?

Thanks for this forum. I need to vent.

 

How stupid that he tried to put the blame on daks.
any moron knows that any part of any vehicle can be upgraded, especially brakes.
If he didn't think you could put them on why did he let it happen in the first place,
if 7,000 HP nitro funny cars, and superpowered le mans racers can use them, what keeps our Daks from being able to?
Never trust a company that calls themselves "boys" you should find a real mechanic, not oil changers. but tell them you will take the rotors and pads.
________
Sahron cam

 

Well I replaced the pads and rotors on my 02 with some ceramics from NAPA and I think I made an error in compressing the pistons because both of my calipers seized up and nearly caught my brakes on fire. I've since replaced the calipers and they're working fine now, but it ate 10% of the pads and who knows what it did to the rotors. They don't seem to have warped but it wasn't good for them. These pads dust more than any pad I've ever seen before, it's amazing how bad they are.

PS If you overheat your brakes, you shouldn't straight up park them. The hot caliper/pads cause the rotor to cool unevenly which is one of the biggest causes for warped rotors.


And I wouldn't get drilled rotors for anything short of a weekend dragster. They have a bad habit of cracking.

 

This won't earn you a favored customer ranking, but here is what I recommend from years of experience:

1 - Do some research with Pep Boys headquarters. Find out who the district or regional manager is. Even better is to get someone not in the field but in HQ itself at vice president level or higher and is willing to speak with you. Take note of names who you talk to - including the administrative assistants who try to screen your calls - you will use these later. You might have to be creative and persistent at this phase...

2 - Go back to the store - at a busy time of day with other customers lined up at the service desk. Ask to speak to BOTH the service manager and store manager. Try to add in those behind the counter you have previously spoken with both buying the parts and in later conversations to clear up the problem.

3 - Re-explain the situation - how you bought the best and thought having Pep Boys install the brakes would be far better than doing it yourself or taking it down the street to (insert name of local competitor or dealer). Instead, you ended up with a brake job that risked damaging the car and put your life at risk (AND DON"T EVER LIMP HOME WITH BAD BRAKES!!!)

4 - Make sure everyone nearby hears you - but remain calm and logical at ALL times.

5 - Explain what it will take make you a happy customer.

6 - If the explaination about how Dakotas cannot be upgraded is brought up again, ask them to 1) put that in writing and 2) ask why they would risk a customer's vehicle without warning by doing so to yours.

7 - Work into the conversation that you would like to take this matter into their "office" and get (insert name) the District/Regional Manager on the phone to discuss this further and get their opinion of how this misinstallation of risky Dakota upgrades should be handled. Mention you brought the phone number but the last you spoke with (insert name of admin assistant), his schedule today was not certain so you might have to schedule another time to discuss.

Again, the keys here are preparation, keeping a professional temper and doing this in front of other customers. Pep Boys or not, most companies have some sort of customer satisfaction training and program. It may not be practiced very often, but your challange is to find the trigger with these guys that makes them fall back to that training and allow them to get back to their normal day...