A couple months ago I took my truck into a local Ford dealership to get my brakes worked on. I knew it was going to cost some money but I figured I would get some better service there instead of taking it to a local brake shop. They gave me their suggestions and I did what they told me and replaced my front pads and a rear cylinder on my drum brakes on the back. They also had to do some work to my caliper brackets. I asked about my rotors at the time and they said they were just fine. I told the guy that if something looks like it needs to be replaced in the near future I rather do it now rather than a couple months down the road. Fast forward to yesterday. I take my truck in so they can look at it because the brakes were starting to regress back to the way they were feeling before I got them worked on and the abs light came on. They tell me I need new rotors and I asked why didn't they tell me that when I got my brakes checked out. The manager said they don't check the rotors when they check the brakes.

Is this normal for a dealership not check the rotors and tell me they are fine when I ask about them? Also they said a speed sensor went bad on my brakes and that is the reason why the abs light came on. Has anyone had experiance with this?

 

Brakes = caliper, rotor, pad

If they don't check the rotor, what the heck do they check?

That's like saying "we don't check the tread when we check the tires"

time to find another place for service IMHO.

 

You got hosed. I have the ford maintenance CD for my truck and there is a specific list of things to check when inspecting the brakes. These include the thickness of the rotor (wear) and the runout of the rotor (warpage). Any shop that does not at least check the thickness is crap. I usually don't check the runout unless I get some shuddering while stopping. There is some debate on whether you should turn the rotors when you replace the pads (I have mine turned each time) and measuring the thickness will let you know if they can be turned or need to be replaced. Even if you do not turn them, they do wear. If they get too thin they can overheat and start to fade and damage the pads and/or warp. Fading brakes are not fun when you stand on the brakes before diving into your favorite hairpin turn and you end up in the bushes!

 

Don't worry, My truck will not be seeing that shop anymore. I just got it 6 months ago and I was told that was one of the better places in the area. I have not owned a Ford before and deal mostly with Honda cars so I took their word for it. My truck has 125,000 miles on it and I know that it will need to have some work done to it from time to time. I just want a place that will tell me staight up "X" needs to be replaced because of "Y" reason. I don't want to be back in the shop 2 months later for the same problem that I thought was totaly fixed.

They didn't charge me for checking out the truck and finding the rotors needed to be replaced (Thanks a lot I guess since I paid them to do it before). They did charge me for running the diagnostics on the ABS.

I still don't see how they don't check the rotors when they check my brakes!