So I went to pepboys tonight because I can't seem to figure out what in my suspension is making noise. Figuring they love to take customers for everything they can I expected a thorough inspection and a list of imperative repairs.

Instead I get a kid with headphones in telling me he didn't hear anything and all the bushings look good. I reference the fact he had headphones in and he insisted they were so low... etc, Anyways.. I tell him to take it around again cause I'd like to know what I need...he says nothing, and he would align it as is... Nonetheless he takes it for another lap around the block.

He comes back and doesn't exit the truck, I walk out and over and he says "yeah I hear It, it sounds like change but I dont know what it is" he flags over the service advisor/manager and he gets in with him. They leave, and come back a few moments later to park with the truck running infront of the store. They have no idea what the noise is and the advisor tells me to check out a speciality shop, not to worry about the $23 - I made a comment about how smooth the engine was, they said yeah it runs well for an old truck, and I proceeded to leave....

I get in the truck, ABS and Parking Brake lights are on. I go to put it in Drive and my foot hits the floor. There is NO brakes once so ever. I get out and go over to ask them what could have broken in 5 minutes and they are like "ohh I dunno, I mean I saw the light come on" but he couldnt remmeber when it came on, if it was the first trip around or second, and yeah the brakes were a little loose, but the caught "eventually" meanwhile I have no brakes at all.. may as well stick my feet out. They said check the brake fluid as I left - Which I did once I got home, completely empty.

So I leave, and phone up their 1800 number cause I'm not wasting any time getting this crap fixed by them. I go to roll up my window and kick on the AC...window doesnt come out of the door (i can hear the motor) and the AC isn't blowing out the vents, only up by the defroster.

Something has me thinking a brake line got busted during the test, either going onto the ramps/lift or something and with the master cylinder being empty there is no vacuum for the AC - as for the window... I have no ****ing idea.

I made a complaint with the corporate offic.. beyond their lack of effort in finding what was wrong, they let me leave like this,.. from experience I know with a busted tie rod they wouldnt cause of the liability invovled, I had to fix it, so its crazy to think that they didn't see an issue with this. I imagine they didn't charge me so that they could just junk the salesslip and there would be no proof I was even there (beyond security footage)

What the hell happened and what shoudl I do?!

 

impossible to say what happened ... little mister headphones-while-listening-for-suspension-noise may have gone nuts after being asked to take a second lap, but thats pure conjecture and impossible to prove.

as for what you can do ... send a written complaint about the brats attitude and never go to pepboys again.

 

My hunch is that you had some pretty rusty brake lines and while they were working on your suspension they probably hit them enough that a leak was formed. This wouldn't be something they would be responsible typically, if the lines break from a tech moving them then they were a pretty bad liability, and it's probably lucky they broke there rather than when you slammed them on during the next panic stop. If you refill the system and have someone pump the brakes you should be able to find a leak if there is one.

Not advising you that the light came on while they had control of the vehicle was pretty poor customer service, and not offering a second glance seems irresponsible. I doubt the ramps and lift had anything to do with the brake lines though. And the master cyl and the brake boost vacuum lines shoudn't be linked, though vacuum issues are a likely culprit for the vent controls. I'd look for a vac leak, something they accidentally disconnected while inspecting the vehicle. Seems about par for your avg cheap third party chain auto store. Sorry for your experience.

 

Upon further investigation it looks like a brake line above my rear end ruptured... but how would he have pulled this one off?

You can see the spray up under the bed of the truck

 

Probably did a hard stop during suspension test. Again, you're lucky it failed in/near a shop rather then when you were going 65 and slammed on the brakes to not hit a deer. Still poor customer service, but not something they did.

 

Tis true, but nonetheless the fact he realized it went out while driving it and not only didnt bother to tell me, once confronted tried to play it off like it was fine knowing well enough that the truck didn't have brakes when he parked it. Perhaps its because it was an hour before closing, who knows... but I'm still not ok with this and I am a completely reasonable guy,

 

Unfortunately you don't have proof of the truck ever being in that condition BEFORE you arrived at the shop. Now if you hadn't left with your truck in that condition, and since the guy already admitted that he saw the brake light come on, then MAYBE you could have persuaded him to at least replace the busted brake line/hose/whatever, but unless you can prove that it was caused by him/them driving your truck, you can't expect them to do much of anything since whatever broke could have just as easily happened with you driving it.

So... ask around and find a good local non-franchise/corporate/chain shop. Find out who does the best work there, and only let that person work on your truck from now on.

Or better yet... do all your own work!

 

Oh yeah, they did a poor job with handling it, and actions like that help give service a bad name. In the auto industry we aren't responsible for most of the complaints that come in, but boy do we screw up big when there was something small we could have done better.

 

I try to do what I can on my own, but this noise was driving me nuts and as far as I could tell by looking all was fine (they confirmed the same, no rotted bushings or anything).

I'll see what their team says when someone calls me tomorrow.. I think its pretty obvious it happened there as he would have driven right off the lift in the condition these brake were in... thats if he didnt hit a tree on the laps around the block.

 

Just saw your pics.

Yeah that line was fixin' to blow soon anyway. Just chalk it up to "sh** happens" and get it taken care of. Like Frantz said, there could have been a worse time for it to blow... like when you're towing or trying to avoid smashing into some non-driving SOB.

Doing your own work has the added benefit of being under/in/around all the parts of your truck fairly often, if only for maintenance, so you would have spotted that rusty weakened line before it even had a chance to blow.

As for the windows and a/c... no idea there. I mean, I can tell you that the a/c is on defrost because you lost vacuum to the selector valve... but I doubt PB caused that. The window... well I suppose they MIGHT have slammed your door a bit hard and caused that, but who knows.

 

Yeah, I hear you and Frantz - and provided the kid said "hey, u have no brakes, lets see whats up with that" or ateast "Ohh u dont have brakes? lets check that out" I would concur.. but now although this may not have been their negligence, they were negligent in handling it.

I jsut got the truck so I hadn't seen it from every angle just yet. Been working my away around the front end and engine bay. On the plus side, no problems there

I'll track down the Vac leak myself in the AM.. as for the window, you are probably right... Still blaming him for that one tho!

 

Yes, but given the condition that line is in, they can also say it was already damaged/deteriorating when the truck came in.

PB is a pretty big chain, I'm fairly certain if you complain enough they'll eat the cost of a brake line. But remember who's probably gonna be putting it in for you.

Back in the dark ages when I worked for an evil corporate tire store, I walked in to the office and heard a customer raisin' hell about a scratch on one of his factory aluminum wheels. The sales manager pulled out the master catalog of aftermarket wheels and told the guy to pick a new set at no charge.

 

You are right - the only reason I even go on what these guys say is the liability they assume if wrong. I think in this case, I wont make too much noise cause yeah, its an old truck and I am grateful I didn't do me any damage... but considering that they just sent me away, most likely knowing somethign wasn't right, even if he was the one who found it... by trying to escape blame he put me in even bigger risk. I should be more comfortable driving home from a place like this, not full of false assurance that everything is A-OK meanwhile I'm fred flintstoning it at every red light

 

I agree with that. They should have at least offered to see what happened.

 

They just hit me with that lost look, shoulder shrug "i dunno" kinda thing..

Considering they didn't know what the noise was, nor did they know how or why I had lost brakes.. makes me want to ask the DM who is likely to call what it is that they do know minus how to sell me tires and service?

Isn't Jiffy Lube under investigation for this sort of thing. Driving cars down the street and unplugging hoses so the customer returns for repairs?