Honda Car Forum

I am pretty novice about car stuff. I own a Honda CIVIC 93, DX. It has
106 K mileage on it. Last time I took to CAR-X for oil change, they
told me that I needed to change front wheel rotor and pads as soon as
possible. CAR-X told me that front wheel rotor had only 15% left. It
was a couple month back. They gave me an estimate about $ 360 for
that.

I also can feel that I need to do brake work. Couple of weeks back I
was experiencing "chi.. chi.." sound from my front wheel once in a
while not always.

I really can not afford that $ 360 now for repairing this car. I wish
I could do it by myself by buying new rotor or pads from auto parts
store.

Could anyone of you describe me sequentially what should I do, if I
want to change by myself. If you know any web site/thread that
describe this, please direct me.

I would really appreciate your help.. Looking forward to your
answer...

Thanks in advance.

Fluffy,
Thank you for your valuable thoughts. I agree with you 100%. I will
soon email you and get the information. CAR-X checked my brake as the
way they have deal to inspect brake for free with OIL
change.Regarding, condition of rotor, they mentioned my rotor has 15%
left in term of thinkness. They asked me to change pad and rotor for
both front wheel. They also told, you could drive one more month if I
dont go outside the city. Its been 3 months already, I am driving
since then. Brake is not that tight, but it is still working just
fine.. However, I just want to make sure that everyhting is ok. I am
scared if rotor brake down in the middle of the road. How I could
verify the condition??

I carry a very bad impression about auto mechanic. People in mechanics
business might get angry with me, but here is the true story with my
old car

1) My previous car Honda Accord '88 was not taking start once in a
while. However, it never died on the road. I mean, sometimes, it was
not taking start when I came to work in the morning

2) I took to mechanic close to my house which is a gas CITGO station.
They also run a mechanic shop. The told me you need to change
alternator. They gave me estimate $400. I did not beleive the guy, and
I asked his manager to explain me. He took some voltmeter and checked
something, told me the same thing... I paid $20 for check up, but I
did not fix it.

2)I took to Firestone couple weeks later as the problem of my car
continued, that guy asked me to change both battery and alternator,
estimate $ 575. Firestone also explained me whats the problem which
did not make sense to me. I left the store. No charge. Free
inspection.

3) I took to 98 auto store. This is local chain shop in MN, I guess.
They told me that your car has security alarm system which might be
causing problem. I told them that if you were sure that this was the
problem then just discard the alarm system. They bypassed the alarm
system. The time I went to pick up car, my car had the same problem.
They took hour and told me that you needed to change both battery and
alternator. Your alternator was providing DC current instead of AC
current that spoiled my battery as well. What a stupid talk? They gave
me estimate $650. I decided not to fix the car at all. They told me to
pay for discarding the alarm system $70. I asked them that you should
have done that job if only if alarm system was causing the problem.
But it is not...
Anyway they charged me $70.. What to do??

4) I got so frustrated and also ended up paying $100 for nothing..
Later once, my co worker told me that try changing you rusty battery
clamp after looking them. I bought them by 1 dollar and my co worker
changed it for me. The problem went away completely. I never had
problem with that car....


Now think how terrible the mechanics are.I went to 4 different store.
All of them lied to me. This is not the case that they assumed battery
and alternator could be the problem, they knew very well that those
are darn good. They just lied. It is very easy to check wheather
alternator/battery good or bad...




"Fluffy" <no-spamming-bsavanh@mchsi.com> wrote in message news:<c6mTa.120699$ye4.87150@sccrnsc01>...
> It's really not that hard to change brake rotors and pads. Did you ask them
> to check your brakes for you? If not, why did they even check the brakes
> for you? They're dirty rotten scoundrels! If I had an oil change business
> and tell every single customer that they needed new brake rotors and brake
> pads, I'm willing to bet that I could convince a big chuck of them to get
> their brakes done, regardless if they need it or not.
>
> When they tell you that the rotors have 15% left, you should've ask them for
> the EXACT measurement! Tell them that you want the exact measurement so you
> can compare it to your service manual you have at home, also tell them
> thanks for the information and that you will verify the numbers with your
> "micrometer" at home.
>
> What does 15% really mean anyway? Are they saying that you have 15% more
> rotors than the minimum thickness stamped on the rotor or are they saying
> that you have 15% thickness left in relation to the original thickness? If
> the latter is true, how the heck do they know how thick it was before? If
> the former is true, why be alarmed? Let's say that you are on the original
> set of rotors and it took you 106,000 miles to wear out 85% of the rotors...
> then you have about 15,000 more miles before it reach minimum thickness
> based on the rate of wear. That could mean another year for some people.
>
> Just because it reaches minimum thickness, it does not mean that you won't
> be able to stop your car. It's just means that you need to change the
> rotors soon because it probably won't be able to dissipate the heat as well
> as when it was thicker and it probably will be more susceptible to warping.
>
> As you can see - I'm a little skeptical of oil change business telling
> people they need brake jobs. In fact, I'm skeptical of most auto service
> shops telling people they need brake jobs. Brake jobs are one of the
> biggest auto maintenance scam.
>
> If you really want to attempt this job... EMAIL me and I'll send you a .PDF
> file of exact procedures on how to change the pads and rotors. Two new
> rotors will cost you about $44-$60 and a set of pads will cost you about $20
> at Autozone. You can double check at autozon.com I've done many rotors
> jobs and they're really easy. Besides some standard wrench and sockets, the
> only tool that I recommend having is an "impact screwdriver".
>
> "chi..chi" sound ... haha... I think they tainted your mind so you're
> looking for even the very minute idiosyncrasies, which may have occurred all
> along but you just never noticed it. If they had told you that your
> alignment is "off" and that you may experience pulls during driving. I'm
> willing to bet that all of a sudden you'll start noticing pulls...and you'll
> attribute it to what they told you.
>
>
> "Sahin" <halakah_reminder@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1df4fbc4.0307220927.76f22675@posting.google.c om...
> > I am pretty novice about car stuff. I own a Honda CIVIC 93, DX. It has
> > 106 K mileage on it. Last time I took to CAR-X for oil change, they
> > told me that I needed to change front wheel rotor and pads as soon as
> > possible. CAR-X told me that front wheel rotor had only 15% left. It
> > was a couple month back. They gave me an estimate about $ 360 for
> > that.
> >
> > I also can feel that I need to do brake work. Couple of weeks back I
> > was experiencing "chi.. chi.." sound from my front wheel once in a
> > while not always.
> >
> > I really can not afford that $ 360 now for repairing this car. I wish
> > I could do it by myself by buying new rotor or pads from auto parts
> > store.
> >
> > Could anyone of you describe me sequentially what should I do, if I
> > want to change by myself. If you know any web site/thread that
> > describe this, please direct me.
> >
> > I would really appreciate your help.. Looking forward to your
> > answer...
> >
> > Thanks in advance.