Topic: What did you do to your car today?

[tpl]

Went to my friendly Audi dealer for an oil change before winter. ( I change the oil every 8000 or half way between annual major services as I do many very short trips)
Told that my brakes pads were just about done especially at the back...this after 43,000 kms.
Refused their instant offer to do the brakes right then and repaired to our local Indy  Audi specialist.
Brakes will be done Friday.

I have always thought the Q5 was a bit under braked. Probably because I am not used to such a heavy car and an automatic transmission.
So It will be drilled rotors and different pads.   We will see.

And the local guy is only 2/3 the price...which did not surprise me.

[Railton]

Went to my friendly Audi dealer for an oil change before winter. ( I change the oil every 8000 or half way between annual major services as I do many very short trips)
Told that my brakes pads were just about done especially at the back...this after 43,000 kms.

FWIW, I read somewhere recently in an article that slotted was better than drilled.
Rotors need changing out at 43,000?
Railton

[Firm]

^ Rotors are probably fine, but it's best practice just to change them. They've already been mated with the old pads, and therefore have friction material from the old pads on them, plus whatever wear-in they're experienced. Maybe they'll be fine with the new pads, maybe not, why risk doing the job twice....

Plus, very few shops turn rotors anymore anyway, not that I would want them too.

[Railton]

Plus, very few shops turn rotors anymore anyway, not that I would want them too.

Why is it that shops don't turn rotors anymore - material already too  thin from factory? Insurance issues? Equipment costs?
If there's no pulse on the brakes then I don't change out the rotors or turn them.
Railton

[blur911]

Went to my friendly Audi dealer for an oil change before winter. ( I change the oil every 8000 or half way between annual major services as I do many very short trips)
Told that my brakes pads were just about done especially at the back...this after 43,000 kms.
Refused their instant offer to do the brakes right then and repaired to our local Indy  Audi specialist.
Brakes will be done Friday.

I have always thought the Q5 was a bit under braked. Probably because I am not used to such a heavy car and an automatic transmission.
So It will be drilled rotors and different pads.   We will see.

And the local guy is only 2/3 the price...which did not surprise me.

I got slotted vented and drilled rotors for the back of my Cayenne last spring.  So far quite happy with them.  Dunno if they make a kit for your Audi, but I don't think everything they have is on the website.
The Cayenne definitely does not feel underbraked, guess you should have upped for the Q7 

[blur911]

Plus, very few shops turn rotors anymore anyway, not that I would want them too.

Why is it that shops don't turn rotors anymore - material already too  thin from factory? Insurance issues? Equipment costs?
If there's no pulse on the brakes then I don't change out the rotors or turn them.

The front of my Cayenne was nice and smooth so I just replaced the pads, the rear was uneven and had some rust, so replaced. 
Shops replace all around now because rotors are much cheaper than they used to be and turning sometimes doesn't work, so the labour is the expensive bit, don't do that twice.

[tpl]

^ Rotors are probably fine, but it's best practice just to change them. They've already been mated with the old pads, and therefore have friction material from the old pads on them, plus whatever wear-in they're experienced. Maybe they'll be fine with the new pads, maybe not, why risk doing the job twice....

Plus, very few shops turn rotors anymore anyway, not that I would want them too.

Exactly. The dealer will only do rotors and pads together.   The Indy guy the same.

I got slotted vented and drilled rotors for the back of my Cayenne last spring.  So far quite happy with them.  Dunno if they make a kit for your Audi, but I don't think everything they have is on the website.
The Cayenne definitely does not feel underbraked, guess you should have upped for the Q7 

I suspect that the SQ5 is not underbraked either but the basic 2.0T Q is.   The Q7 is a whole size larger and for all I know has bigger/better brakes.

FWIW, I read somewhere recently in an article that slotted was better than drilled.
Rotors need changing out at 43,000?
Railton

They probably could be skimmed but why?     

[Railton]

^ Rotors are probably fine, but it's best practice just to change them. They've already been mated with the old pads, and therefore have friction material from the old pads on them, plus whatever wear-in they're experienced. Maybe they'll be fine with the new pads, maybe not, why risk doing the job twice....

Plus, very few shops turn rotors anymore anyway, not that I would want them too.

Exactly. The dealer will only do rotors and pads together.   The Indy guy the same.

I got slotted vented and drilled rotors for the back of my Cayenne last spring.  So far quite happy with them.  Dunno if they make a kit for your Audi, but I don't think everything they have is on the website.
The Cayenne definitely does not feel underbraked, guess you should have upped for the Q7 

I suspect that the SQ5 is not underbraked either but the basic 2.0T Q is.   The Q7 is a whole size larger and for all I know has bigger/better brakes.

FWIW, I read somewhere recently in an article that slotted was better than drilled.
Rotors need changing out at 43,000?
Railton

They probably could be skimmed but why?   

Must be a liability issue that most shops won't turn rotors anymore.
The rotors themselves are likely at the min numbers from the factory - to keep the weight down.
Aftermarket rotors (blanks from the far East and turned down in the USA (hence, Made in the USA stamped)) are inexpensive and likely the $ equivalent of the labour $ to turn them down.
Railton

[carcrazed]

I am not sure why so many Hondas I have that (clear coat patches eaten away).  Some of them not even that old.

This was the first gen of Civic where they started using new water-based, eco friendly paint.  Or something like that.  The paint on these cars were crap.  I'm hoping they sorted it by later generations.

See it on several Accords as well.  Haven't seen this issue on other Hondas, like SUVs, and vans.

Yeah.. they extended the warranty on the paint to 7 years. I think the previous owner didn't get it repainted.
My GO train got messed up this morning so I didn't go to work and get the clearcoat spray. If this doesn't work, I'll just get the roof plasti dipped in matte black or something.

I probably wouldn't worry about it too much.  I mean, if it just looks like crap, but corrosion hasn't started, then it's not really a problem.  After all, $3500 car, amiright?

Right, but it does bother me every time I see it. So I'll do what I can without spending hundreds of $$.

[ktm525]

Most shops don't turn rotors because they are for the most part cheap. Unfortunately most of the rotors out there are made in China garbage (you can get good ones but the consistency is bad). I went through two sets of Raybestos Advanced Technology rotors before they admitted that they were garbage and gave me my money back. The Rover warped them (yeah yeah I know rotors don't warp) in mere weeks. I believe the problem was inconsistent metallurgy and the material would wear unevenly. If you like throwaway rotors made out of ground up washing machines etc then buy some white box specials...

Anyhow life was too short for that so I sprung for proper made in Germany rotors ( Zimmerman) and voila all the brake problems disappear, no problems what so ever. Just say no to cheap rotors (they better say made in USA, Japan, UK, Germany)

[Gurgie]

Most shops don't turn rotors because they are for the most part cheap. Unfortunately most of the rotors out there are made in China garbage (you can get good ones but the consistency is bad). I went through two sets of Raybestos Advanced Technology rotors before they admitted that they were garbage and gave me my money back. The Rover warped them (yeah yeah I know rotors don't warp) in mere weeks. I believe the problem was inconsistent metallurgy and the material would wear unevenly. If you like throwaway rotors made out of ground up washing machines etc then buy some white box specials...

Anyhow life was too short for that so I sprung for proper made in Germany rotors ( Zimmerman) and voila all the brake problems disappear, no problems what so ever. Just say no to cheap rotors (they better say made in USA, Japan, UK, Germany)

I put Zimmerman's on my V70 when I had it & they were great, put them on the Mini this past summer as well... and that's what's on all 4 corners of the Porsche currently... never an issue!! And with the Porsche it does track duty with those rotors!!

[ktm525]

Awesome. I spent time on the phone with some Raybestos "expert" who explained to me  that rotors don't warp blah blah blah"  My response was that all I know is that yours cause vibrations and these ones from Germany don't.  Weird thing was I could dial the runout to almost 0.001 and the cheap ones were OK for a month and then: Whammo! vibration!   Moving along...

[Arthur Dent]

Helped a friend change turn signal bulbs on a 2007 Cadillac DTS. Wow - what a pain. Had to take the front tires off, inner wheel well, loosen and drop bumper. Loosen the grill. For fricking turn signals!!!

[ktm525]

Yikes. Considering how often those turn signals need changing (Grandma leaving it blinking the entire time on her errand  to pick up some yarn) that is a PITA.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

I know a guy with a Lexus ES350, and he says it's a similar procedure to change the headlight bulbs when they go.  The entire front end has to be disassembled.

[Arthur Dent]

We didn't even get to the headlights. The whole bumper and grill has to come off for those. Who designed that thing? No reasonable for that nonsense in a big car.

[Weels]

We didn't even get to the headlights. The whole bumper and grill has to come off for those. Who designed that thing? No reasonable for that nonsense in a big car.

Someone must have left a door open and a few Germans infiltrated the design phase.

[BWII]

So the Germans do something right  - I remember my brothers Jetta, it had little doors in the trunk so you could simply open them and change the bulbs.  Not sure about the front, but I bet it didn't take a 3rd year engineering student to figure it out.  So far I haven't had to replace a bulb in anything in recent memory...hopefully it stays that way...or maybe it's time to sell and buy something new (not).


Also, where does one find these Zimmerman rotors?  Would they make them for a Ford?  My car's not bat, so long as I'm the only one in it.  But as soon as there are 4 people on the car you can feel the pulse pulse pulse of the (not?) warped rotors.  Super annoying, but it's done that for years now.  Problem is my pads are still well over 75%, but I'd replace those too...but then with what? Ford or one of those colourful aftermarket types? Yellow? Red? Green? (forget the make)  OTOH, I hate spending money...just don't take anybody with me I guess. 

[Fobroader]

My truck has the best headlights ever. Pull two pins, change headlight bulbs, turn signals, DRL and running lights. Takes a few minutes, no tools required. This should be the only way it should be. The Montero you can pull them out in place but its tight....the Jeep, pull grille off.

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[johngenx]

Just brought the car for an oil change.  Can't believe how expensive things have gotten at the dealership.

Yup - which is one reason I do my own.  Even on regular cars like the Corolla the dealers pad the hell out of the bill with inspections and we-didn't-actually-do-anything crap.  It's not hard to see a $200 bill for an oil change now.

I also find even dealers do sloppy work with respect to oil changes.  When I do it myself I know exactly what oil went in, and it's always filled to the correct level.

Just today I did oil changes on the Forester and Highlander, took about an hour for both.  I was going to insist the kid do the Forester herself, but then I let her off the hook as she's crazy busy packing.