Unfamiliar Job

[Edwin]

Have you ever done something that you did not understand very well, and you were nervous about doing it, wondering how it would turn out. About 5 years ago I replaced all the front wheel brakes on a car, because we lived where there were no mechanics, and it cost too much to send a car out on the barge to have it worked on, unless it was a major job, and there was no other way. The caliper on one side got so it would not release, and that heated up the rotor, and basically acted like the brakes were dragging all the time which they were. I changed all the brake parts on both front wheels there, and it turned out fine.

I since had the brakes fail on another car, the one I am presently driving. One of the brake pads wore down until metal was scraping on metal. I wasn't sure what was wrong so I had a mechanic that I trusted work on it for me. I could have and should have done the work myself as it turned out to be very expensive to have this mechanic do the work. I was so horrified at how much it cost that I geared down on all the hills after that instead of using the brakes! I think he used the cheaper brake pads because his brake pads did not last very long. A place where I get my tires rotated told me that my brake pads were almost completely worn out! They told me it would cost me almost $500.00 to have the brakes fixed. I decided to check parts' prices, and I discovered that the parts for that job would cost $235.00, so I bought the parts and did it myself. I took the parts off and put them one a couple of times each to make sure I had them one right, which I did. I had trouble bleeding the air out the brake lines. I have helped my Dad do that job many times, and it was easily successful. I had not trouble with that job when I did brakes before. After I thought I had the air bled out the the brake lines the brakes would not work at all! I called the parts shop, and they told me that I must still have trapped air, so I worked some more to try to bled the air out, and that time the brakes worked. The brakes still felt like they had air in them, but they worked. I think the air is working out of the lines as I drive, because it is feeling better all the time. I think the difference is that this car has power brakes that only work when the motor is running, and I bled them without starting the engine.So I think next time I will try running the engine while I am bleeding the brakes. The brakes are working okay, and they feel like more of the air is bleeding out, so I may not have to do more brake line bleeding. When this job needs to be done anagin I think I will do the work myself to save a little money! I did the work in a few hours, and then bleeding the air out of the brake lines took longer than it should have, but then I have a better idea about how to go about doing that job the next time!

[Edwin]

Now that I have been successful with the front disk brakes, I have another challenge. My tire place tells me that the struts need to be changed as they came with the car and they are leaking. They want a lot of money to do that job, and I know I can do it, and I have more time than I do money, so I think I will tackle the job. My son-in-law gave me a helpful hint. He told me not to release the new struts by cutting the tie until I have it on and bolted all the way, or he told me that I would not be able to compress it to put it on if I do that, so that is one thing I will definately pay attention to! When I was a kid we used to do almost all of our own tire work, but in later years I have just had the tire company do it. They will do the work for the price of the tire sale, so it doesn't make sense to do your own tire work!