Ha ha ha! Toyota Dealer Dumbassery!

[Thumper]

Man-o-man! Such a deal. I'm gonna rush right on down to my dealer! ;)

I was just perusing my local Toyota dealer's website and they have a coupon posted for a tire rotation special. WOW! The deal of the century!



http://s3.amazonaws.com/fzautomotive/dealers/566f11a2a2b93.jpg

FREE Tire Rotation With Purchase of A New Set of Tires

[airbud7]

Maybe on your 2nd vehicle? ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

Since I take mine in for regular service now, this will be the first time my tires have ever been rotated religiously. I'm curious to see what it does to the tire wear.

Yeah, I know. I'm a dumbass.

BKB

[Thumper]

I'm thinking they offer free life-time rotations when you buy a set of tires from them ... it's just that it kinda tickled me the way it's worded. ;)

[Thumper]

That's one thing I've always been religious about P-hole ... oil/filter changes and tire rotations. But, believe it or not ... I've never had a front-end alignment done in my life ... ever! Go figure. (never needed one actually)

As for service, both our cars are new and they do free tire rotations and oil changes for the first 20,000 miles anyway.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Wheel alignments are kind of like replacing your rotors when you do a brake job. I've only rarely had to replace a rotor and it was really grooved up when I did.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

Interesting you should mention rotors. Just this past week I had my wife's Mazda in for a recall where they're replacing the upper and lower control arms because water is getting into the ball joints and they're corroding. They also mentioned that I was going to need new brake pads come summer and that the rotors would need to be replaced at that time as they were rusted - not grooved because the pads had gotten too warn. I pushed them on it as I'd never heard of replacing, or even resurfacing the rotors, unless the pads ad gotten too worn. I was also a little dubious as they were already working on a recall in the front end due to corrosion. They stuck to their guns. But, I'm thinking I'll have definitely have my local guy take a look as the car will be at the 5 year mark this summer and that's usually when I stop taking it to the dealer. Does that sound like BS to you car guys?

[BarryBobPosthole]

This is just my opinion, understand, but Its a judgement call. If the surface of the rotor is pretty smooth I wouldn't worry about changing them. There's no automatic answer. Unless they're really bad, and you'll be able to tell, there's no serious consequences.

BKB

[airbud7]

They also mentioned that I was going to need new brake pads come summer and that the rotors would need to be replaced at that time as they were rusted - not grooved because the pads had gotten too warn. Does that sound like BS to you car guys?

Yea CD...Thats BS, all rotors have rust...There made of steel.

6637

[Thumper]

All rotors rust where the pads don't make contact with it. Now granted, you live in snow country and I don't know how aggressive they get with salt up there, but still ... I'm not so sure you'd have enough rust to ruin a rotor. Back in the day, you'd turn the rotors whenever you did a brake job, especially if they were worn (grooved). I've changed a bazillion brake pads without turning the rotors, but that can sometimes set you up for squealing brakes when applied. If the rotors are warped (pulsating or shudder when brakes are applied), again, they need to be turned (resurfaced).

That said, many of today's cars have thinner rotors than the "old days" and won't take much resurfacing to get them shaved down under specs. The main thing to look into nowadays, is the price for new rotors. On many cars (and I'd highly suspect this applies to the Mazda), it's as cheap or cheaper to go ahead and replace the rotors as the cost to resurface them can be about as much as replacing them. (many rotors only run about $25-$30 these days)

Another question ... will this be the FIRST brake job you've done on this car? If not, there may not be enough "meat on the bone" to do another resurface. A rotor replacement may not be a bad suggestion ... I'm just not so sure about the reason given (rust).

[Chicken Dinner]

Thanks guys. His implication was that it was due to road salt. However, it doesn't snow that much around here and I'm pretty diligent about getting the under carriage and wheels washed pretty soon after it snows. This is the first brake job on the car. It's 5 years old and has less than 45k miles on it. They're taking about $500+ for the job. So, not that cheap either. Most of their clientele is probably the "okay, sounds good to me" type when they recommend repairs. I've got a local shop that does real good work and are straight shooters. So, I'll probably take it there for the brake work and see what they say.

[Thumper]

Oh, a side note, the dealership will want to either resurface or replace the rotors with a brake job to cover their ass. If they perform all the labor and do not turn/replace the rotors ... and your brakes are noisy or pulsating afterwards, you'll be taking it back to them and having them eat the repair to make it right. If you're doing the job in your driveway, I'd say slap a set of pads on it and roll with it.

[Thumper]

$500 ... ouch! That's a fairly easy driveway job ... well, maybe not for Bucky. ;)

[Chicken Dinner]

I know my limitations as well. I've done it before when I had more time than money. Now that equation has flipped and I generally choose to do the jobs that require unskilled labor.

[jb]

When I bought my new Expedition I also purchased tire and wheel insurance. I usually never did this, but I got the truck for such a good deal, I thought I'd spring for it.
$250 would cover the replacement or fix any flat tire including road service, and replace the damaged rim if needed. It also covered tire rotation every oil change.
I live in pot hole heaven up here, and it's all to common to bend a rim or shred a tire in some of these monsters.
Had 25K on the truck when I put a nail through the sidewall on a construction site, slow leak, so during an oil change I told them I had a slow leak and for them to check it while they rotated the tires. Found the nail and because it was in the side wall it could not be patched, needed to be replaced. Bill for the new tire was $240, 0 for me.
Now I tow a 16,000 lb. camper with this vehicle and before my 36K warranty was up I took it in and said when I press a light brake pedal I get the pulsation like it has a warped rotor. They check it over and I come out with 4 new rotors. Service guy says they are an upgrade from the originals and are a little thicker and will work better for my towing, again no charge.
They also replaced all the rotors on my wifes Equinox that became warped before there warranty was up.
.

[BarryBobPosthole]

My Tundra has huge calipers. You know what they say about the size of a man's calipers.

BKB

[Captain]

I've put just over 68,000 miles on my truck and still have the original tires from the factory. I rotate them every oil change. I will easily got 70,000 to 73,000 out of them.

[Thumper]

It's been a while since I gave much thought to tires, because I don't run the high milage like I used to. Before, whenever I bought a new truck, I'd have Michelins installed and I'd trade my trucks at around 100,000 miles with the original tires still mounted. Lynn's first BMW had Michelins and we traded it with 118,000 miles with the original tires. (Mostly Los Angeles freeway miles) Well, sort of. She hit a piece of metal on the freeway and cut the sidewall on one, so I bought one new tire and put the (new) spare on the same "axel", then put the older one in the trunk as a spare. So actually, only two were on the ground the whole time. Nowadays, I just don't run up the miles like I used to and can't remember the last time I bought a set of tires.

I rotate every 5000 miles.

Oops! Edit: I put a new set of tires on Lynns car (two cars ago) before I traded it. It had Bridgestones and only had about 35,000 miles on them. I could have squeezed a few thousand more miles out of them, but they were pretty worn.

[jb]

With the 5 months of winter driving up here once the tires get around 50K even thought they had some decent tread left on them they suck as far as driving on ice & snow.
Use to have "SNowTires", but now a days most are bought as 4 season tires.
Both the wife and mine are 2012 and both have around 44K on them, I"m sure I'll only get one more summer out of them before I need to buy two sets. :(

[DeputyDog]

I hear ya JB. My police truck has 42k on the tires and I can definitely tell the difference on this snow we have.