[Gerrrr]

Hi Guys,

Just a quick story to get your opinions on what I should do, if anything.....

I had my Jeep in to do a brake service because of the "pulsating peddle". It was determined that all 4 rotors were warped, and after talking to Chrysler they decided to replace all rotors and pads at their cost even though 30,000 km on the vehicle. Good news thus far!

10 days later, on vacation with the family. We rented a cottage near Dacre, ON (WTF is that??) and I had towed the boat up and put it in the water. We were driving into town to take part in the Canada Festivities and a grinding noise started suddenly which sounded like a flat. I stopped as quickly as possible, and go out and checked the tires but all ok. So I get in the jeep and try to pull ahead slowly, but the rear passenger wheel is locked up.

The top caliper mount bolt fell out somewhere on the road........... The caliper assembly had tipped forward and jammed against the rim like a ratchet.

So I call road side and they come and tow the Jeep to the nearest dealer (not where the brake work was done) which is 20 miles away from our cottage. My wife is keeping our 2 and 7 year old occupied in a field while this is going on. My father in law drives 1.5 hours to pick us up and drop the family at the cottage and take me home to get our second vehicle (Hyundai Elantra GT - Does not pull a boat well). The round trip distance for him is about 250 miles. I lose the entire day screwing around with this. I have to drive to the dealer the next day because it was a holiday when towed in. We are now 3 days later and the bolt still has not arrived. We need to leave the cottage tomorrow afternoon so I am going to have to start calling buddies and convince one to take a day off work and come and rescue me 100 miles away.

I have put a call into the dealer that did the work and am waiting to hear back from them to see what they are going to do to help out. It seems they are on the hook here since they performed the work and made an error which has caused me considerable inconvenience.

What do you guys think? Get it fixed and move on or should I pursue this further with the dealer that did the original brake work?

 

[tomk]

If we're talking about a caliper slide pin (and not an adapter mounting bolt), this seems very odd.. those have not much torque, no real forces to make them want to back out, and given the way the are installed in the caliper I'd think the bolt would still be sitting there even if it was never threaded in.

 

[Gerrrr]

Not the slide pin, you are correct the adapter mounting bolt. I should have described it more accurately.

The whole assembly just tipped forward, caliper and pads intact. I pulled the wheel and could move it back but absolutely no chance of finding the bolt to patch it up.

 

[Shutterbug57]

Sounds like the original dealer who did the work should be on the hook for the tow and repair. Dealers may work with each other on this, but I would make it abundantly clear to the original dealer what my thoughts are. Probably not worth a lawsuit as the overall costs can't be that high, but if they ever wanted to sell me another vehicle, they would be taking care of this issue.

You may argue for boat storage and gas money for the RTs, etc, but that is going to be harder to get. Glad you have an accommodating family that helped out.

 

[Dabitz]

I would sue them for all the costs you incurred in a small claims court, assuming they are less than $3K.