Brake Repair Job..Melaque

85 bucks for a brake job! Wow!!
Back home you can't even buy the parts wholesale for that little.
Nice score!

Glad to hear they are still doing good business, they repaired our Tracker's front suspension, did brakes and did oil changes on our motorhome, over at least three seasons. His oldest son was a whizz at it and his Dad, who had worked in California, looked after the parts needed, and younger brothers were always waiting in the wings for opportunity. Really miss being in that area, many fine people.

By the same token, at the taller mechanico at the junction of the street into Melaque and Mex 200 (to the north it has large open bays specializing in front end and brakes)

I asked SPECIFICALLY to have a camber adjusted on a 2WD GMC one ton. I brought the shims. I returned after 8 hours, the mechanic declared the job done, I looked at the A frame bolts covered in a quarter inch of grime and they had not been touched.

I challenged the mechanic.

"I do careful work" he responded.

No tickee no washee. They threatened to call the cops. I threatened to call PROFECO and the Ministerio Publico. They fell silent.

But an EXTREMELY high thumbs-up for the taller mechanico and refaccionaria frente a gasolinera Mex 80. Same as the OP's experience.

The mechanic at the taller de alinacion in Puerto Escondido quipped after he heard my story "I would have shot him" He patted the .22 rifle sitting behind his counter. He did a good job and found cracked brake caliper hoses and replaced them. BTW this mechanic found one wheel 4 percent positive camber the other 3 percent. Toe in was a 1/4" off.

I lost 8-shims in Melaque.

You can arrive at your own conclusions. Year, was 2010.

There is a good reason why shops NOB do not turn rotors. It is usually illegal as the discs are too thin. There are precise measurements for the thickness of a specific rotor. If you remove more material the disc could crack! Besides they have come down in price.

Moisheh

Moishe, nothing is as sad as installing new rotors out of a box and feeling a pulsing brake pedal. Back off they come and go to a taller de torno...

Chuck them up in a brake lathe and take the first cut...

scrape....................scrape...................scrape..............scrape

Obeying rules for minimum acceptable rotor thickness is essential. If I had to guess I would say 80+% of the brake rotors used in the USA are manufactured in Monterrey Nuevo Leon.

I have also purchased remanufactured calipers that spec'd out as superior to new OEM. Stainless steel sleeves and teflon seals. This stuff was for one ton and larger USA vehicles. Try $65 US for a Ford F-450 front brake rotor and hub.

There are just as many bad mechanics in Mexico as there are in the USA.

Thank you moisheh !

The Mechanic and the Machine Shop were fully aware of the thickness issue and would not reinstall them unless the Discs were within tolerance!

This was a part of Our discussion during the initial inspection. Neither disc was badly scored although the right front one certainly wasn't smooth .

In Canada the Rotors would have been tossed into the scrap bin,along with the Pads and anything else that the mechanic could find fault with.

The days of repairing things is over NOB ! Now it is replace everything with a new or re manufactured part ,charge an extra 15% for Shop supplies that may include some Brake Clean Spray and a clean Shop Rag and turn the Fancy Work Order or Printout over to the Billing Department.

Oh and keep that Customer out of the Shop!

Here I was able to watch the entire process ! I didn't though because the Breakfast at Roosters was too good to pass up!

Ditto for me Rob. I had front brake pads done last week too. He does great work and is very reasonable. he does not do complicated electrical stuff he send me to Pancho just opposite the Japanese rest on Mex 200.

Rob: Glad you had a great experience. Too bad our $125 an hour shops can't do something similar!

Moisheh