I recently had a light come on my dash and thought it was the check brake light. I pulled into a Canadian Tire service centre and the service manager told me for $19.99 I could get a brake inspection. I thought this would be a good idea, so I signed the contract and the mechanic drove my mini-van in for the inspection. The brakes were fine when he did this and they were fine during the 5 years or so I had the vehicle. The vehicle was brought in, I watched as he removed the tires and rims, and he did his inspection. About 10 minutes later I was taken to see the so-called problem. On the floor was a puddle of brake fluid and I was told I had a bad brakeline.
This so-called rusty brakeline was snapped off at the tip of the line where it joins the bracket to hold the flexable hoses. I have replaced a few brakelines in my day as I am a licensed automotive repair tech in automotive body repair. I am inclined and have the knowlege to fix my own vehicles provided it does not need a scanner or is computor related. I do know that this line did not break the moment he stopped the vehicle to put it on the hoist. It also did not break from pumping the brakes up because he did not get into the vehicle to do this after he raised it. The line, in my opinion was snapped with the help of a prybar or screwdiver in order to disable my vehicle. Also rusty lines don't break the way mine was broke off so close to a bracket. The line was rusty but in no way ready to break by itself.
Needless to say they thought they had me, afterall I now had no breaks at all, my vehicle was disabled on the hoist right were they wanted it. For $471.20 or a possible $1603.37 if it needed parts that could not be salvaged, example siezed bleeder screws, I could have it fixed. There labor rate was $89.00 per hour so I had the vehicle towed to an independant shop whose labor rate was only $79.00 and had the brakes which they purposely screwed up fixed properly for much less than they're $1603.37 estimate. The savings with the lower labor rate paid to have my disabled vehicle towed to the honest mechanics garage and in the end I saved about $1000.00 because I had the guts to say no to these thieves at Canadian Tire. That's my story and hopefully a warning to those of you who are offered a $19.99 brake inspection.
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