Brakes and Bad Mechanics

Can you tell what the condition of the rear brakes is without removing the wheels?
Here is the whole story:
I go for a coolant change to my repair shop. The owner is a very reasonable man, but his right hand man is an asshole.
So I drop the car and tell the asshole to check the rear brakes while changing the coolant. Came back from work and find myself holding a bill for $100 and there is no sign that the wheels had been off ( I would know that...). No charge for the brakes check... but as a side note on the receipt, I see that I would be needing rear brake job soon...here is the list of items he wants changed:
Wheel Cylinders
Shoes
Hardware
Drums
I am going to go and tell the owner that I got charged a year and two months back just $58 for the same service at the same place. I am also going to tell him that I don't believe that I need all this brake work.
Now, my second question to you is how do I check myself if I need all this items? How do I elliminate the ones that are still good, so I know exactly what needs replacing?
Thanks in advance
Boris
P.S. I wander what hardware means...when I paid the bill he was not there to ask him. I guess its another way of sucking blood.

if he is doing the drums, wheel cyl, hardware...basically all the wax...$100.00 aint bad.

you should be able to turn the drums, leave the wheel cyl alone, unless its leaking, but it is a good idea to change the springs, and mounting hardware when you do it.

How he checked it all without removing the wheel is something only Carnac could tell you.

The $100 was for the coolant change...

grab yourself a chiltons or haynes manual they are great for that sort of thing and they have them at almost any pepboys autozon or napa type place anywhere.

to answer some of your questions the wheel cylinders should not need to be replaced unless they are leaking and if they do need to be replaced they are under $15.

as for the hardware that is the springs clips and other misc stuff that works with the pads and wheel cylinders to activate/deactivate the brakes in the drum.

shoes are for drum brakes and pads are for disk brakes. there is no way to check condition of rear brakes without removing the drum

most cases teh drum is still in good condition after the brakes are worn but in some cases if you let the shoes wear too far the rivits that hold the material onto the shoe start to dig into the drum and cause groves in which case it needs to be replaced or reground depending on how much material is on the drum.

i'm in RI too what shop are ya talking about? if time allows maby we can meet up and i'll give ya a hand doing you brakes if you really do need new brakes.

i'm in RI too what shop are ya talking about? if time allows maby we can meet up and i'll give ya a hand doing you brakes if you really do need new brakes.[/QUOTE]

Valley View Auto Service & Motors on West Main Rd/114 in Portsmouth...you live on the island too?
BTW Thanks for the generous offer, everything depends on how much of inconvenience is for you.

nope just over the bridges in NK

if you want to check yourself.
http://jeepin.com/features/drums/index.asp
there's a pretty good guide. If your haven't worn a ridge into the drums they should just slide off, you might have to use the star adjuster on the back if they don't. Or just hit it with a big hammer.

Just curious as to how you know your wheels were not removed? When I do a "brake check" I can pop the wheels off and back on while keeping everything the way it was when it came in. (ie, wheel went back on exactly the way it came off).

imma honky said:

Just curious as to how you know your wheels were not removed? When I do a "brake check" I can pop the wheels off and back on while keeping everything the way it was when it came in. (ie, wheel went back on exactly the way it came off).

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None of the usual fingerprints they leave...:laugh3:

imma honky said:

Just curious as to how you know your wheels were not removed? When I do a "brake check" I can pop the wheels off and back on while keeping everything the way it was when it came in. (ie, wheel went back on exactly the way it came off).

Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe Boris dusted for fingerprints when he got home.

Anyway Boris, I feel your pain. I bought an 00 XJ to replace my 88 XJ in hopes that I wouldn't have to spend as much time in the garage as I used to. I'm so busy these days that I was even having someone else change my oil. Turns out, almost everything I had done to my new jeep by someone else became a situation where I had to go back and have them correct something they did wrong. One guy put a quart too much in the tranny, another guy left off some emissions plug after a recall fix, another guy botched up a boot on a ball joint he replaced (he said it would be okay until I made a couple of other trips to other shops that said he should fix it right).

I came to the point where I'm just gonna hafta do everything myself, even if I gotta get special tools or kill an afternoon or two in my garage. As much time as I spent taking my car in, making extra trips to the shops because of their mistakes, finding a ride, and not to mention the money I've tossed away at mechanics, I figure I'm doing myself a favor by doing it myself. Plus if you manage to fix something on your car without breaking anything or yourself, it feels pretty darn rewarding.

How can you tell by looking at the wheel that it was never removed? Thats the ONLY part that puzzles me.

MyJeepXJ said:

How can you tell by looking at the wheel that it was never removed? Thats the ONLY part that puzzles me.

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it's got untouched dirt on the nuts

MyJeepXJ said:

How can you tell by looking at the wheel that it was never removed? Thats the ONLY part that puzzles me.

Click to expand...

Look at the part of the axle that protrudes through the center of the drum. If there are no telltale marks of the drum being pulled off (scrape marks), then the drum was never removed.

Of course, if it's like my 92 XJ, and it takes a hammer to get the drum to seperate from the end of the axle, the drum's been on there a while