so i drove up to Cambridge, MA a few about 2 months ago and on my way up there i backed into a big flower pot (don't ask) which caused my brake line to rupture. The leak didn't start or at least wasn't noticable until i got there. When i went to leave i noticed a big puddle of brake fluid and needless to say i wasn't going anywhere. I called AAA and got towed to a AAA certified garage called Broadway Gas (mind you this is a Sunday). So i called my dad whos been a mechanic his whole life and he said the job to replace the brake line should cost no more than $200 (just line no pads or anything). But i had to leave my truck there overnight and stayed at a firends in the area. The next day i picked the truck up it was $292, when i asked if he gave me AAA discount he said yes, but it says it nowhere on the bill. I pay the bill since i need to get back to college and now i come home 2 months later, and my brakes over the course of a day start losing their power finally to the point where its unsafe to drive. So today my dad and I throw my truck on his lift and look at the line and i found out 1. they replaced about 3 ft of steel tubing and charged me $70 in materials for it. 2. on the one end they put a compression fitting on, not flare, a regular compression fitting you would use on houshold plumbing and they overtightened the nut on it so it cracked and was leaking. This tells me this garage should not be doing repairs i mean come on a compression fitting. So what should i do now? (i'm already replacing the lines and rear brakes to fix it) But should i call AAA or the garage, this is unacceptable had they done their job correctly there would not be a problem, and they ripped me off. Should i send them the bill for my fathers labor. This makes is a very unsettling matter.

 

I would call AAA and explain the problem with them. You'll probably have better luck going through AAA than the shop itself.

Are you sure the shop didn't charge you an over night storage fee? I know some place's will do that.

As for your father's labor, good luck getting re payed for that. Unless he has a shop, and documents the work done at his shop, you have no proof that he ever touched it. He may be your father, but unless it's done at a shop with a receipt, then they aren't going to do anything.

Call AAA and tell them about the problem with the shop, and take pictures of the work they did.

 

100% right .. Just be lucky it didnt happen whileon the road and ended up killing some one.. live and learn.. if it is not fix yet take pics and price quote on the parts ..

 

Go ahead and report it to the better business beurau too, (however you spell it). If you called the guys that did the work, they may have been willing to replace the line. But me, once someone does **** work, I won't be back. I'm assuming it was the line that runs behind the tank down the frame rail is what split. When I did mine, I used two new sections and had the connection under the door so I could get to it in the future if needed. Good thing you were not on the road.

 

Compression fitting are NOT supposed to be used on brake line repair....
at all!

 

Well I'm definetly going to call AAA this week and the BBB. This garage definetly should not be doing auto repairs.

 

i had a shop that stripped 7 of my lug studs.

here in CA we have the "bureu of automotive repair"

they use mediators to talk between you and the shop.

i kept all my receipts for the new studs and nuts that needed to be replaced and i eventually got all my money back, plus some.


i would def. look into something like that in your state.

 

Compression fittings are fine to use on brake lines, they sell them straight off the shelf at autozone specifically made for it... Its just not my first choice when doing lines. Second of all, how in the hell do you break a line on a flower pot?

 

Give him a chance to come clean. Threaten with a legal suit, and for heavens sake, put his name up on this forum, he could kill someone!