Technical
Avoiding brake job comebacks Stopping customer complaints with attention to detail Don’t let this happen to you! You performed a brake job on a vehicle a month ago, and it’s back in your shop with a noise or vibration complaint. Performing a brake job in a busy shop can sometimes lead to overlooking details that can easily result in a comeback. In this article, we discuss areas of concern to avoid customer complaints, including diagnosing and checking wheel bearing condition, rotor lateral runout, stacked runout, surface preparation and more.
By Jeff Taylor
Brake noises
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Sound is created when something vibrates, and these vibrations are transmitted through the air, or another medium (the vehicle’s caliper bracket and spindle assembly, for example) and this vibration is detected by our ears. Sound is something that we want to hear, noise is something that we don’t want to hear. Either way they are both created by something vibrating. When a customer applies the brakes and the calipers clamp the pads onto the rotor, or the shoes contact the drums to slow down the vehicle, they are creating the perfect circumstances to create a lot of vibrations that shouldn’t be heard, but if it is, its unwanted NOISE! All brakes make some form of noise. It happens when the friction material is forced onto the drum or rotor. This friction creates vibrations; not just of the pads or shoes, but the entire brake system. The original equipment (OE) manufacturers and aftermarket parts manufacturers go to great lengths to keep the braking system of our cars
here is no worse feeling for a tech than to have performed a straightforward, uncomplicated brake job and see the vehicle return with a concern or a complaint. The customer can raise his concerns immediately after the repair or in the weeks or months following. Brake comebacks are common and the range of complaints is huge: dusty wheels, the brakes not working like the originals, etc. The list is long. But I find the most common complaints are brake noises and brake vibrations. There are many conditions that can cause these comeback situations, including cheap replacement parts, abuse by the customer and manufacturing issues, but several can be created by the tech performing the work. In my tenure as a tech, I have found that brake job complaints were habitually my number one comeback, but I now take a few more steps in my inspection and repair procedures to ensure that this return number is low and typically caused by a situation that I as a tech could not control.
22 | ASP August 2017
